Payolas Still Happening

For 40 years, federal law has prohibited broadcasters from accepting money or anything of value in exchange for playing songs on the radio without disclosing the practice to listeners. But internal documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times indicate that several independent promoters keep detailed logs--called banks--listing the date a station airs a song followed by a dollar amount collected from the artists label. The stations that add the most songs over the course of a year build the biggest banks and consequently earn the largest fees.
http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20010529/t000044865.html