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Payola's Poster Boy?
February 17, 2006 at 7:31 AM (PT)
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As a follow-up to last night's (2/16) ABC NEWS PRIMETIME feature on payola, an article entitled "Poster Boy For Radio Station Payola: Fired Station Employee Says Pay for Play Just Good Business" appeared on the ABC NEWS website this morning containing additional quotes from CKEY/BUFFALO (and former WKSE/BUFFALO) PD DAVE UNIVERSAL, who was interviewed by ABC NEWS reporter BRIAN ROSS.
"If I worked for a company who said 'Don't bring in any money,' I wouldn't have brought in any money. If I worked for a company who said don't go on any trips, I wouldn't have went on any trips. I did what I was doing for my company," said UNIVERSAL, who claimed that he was actually rewarded for his success and the hundreds of thousands of dollars he brought in from record companies.
"I was doing my job for ENTERCOM, and I did it well," said UNIVERSAL. "I was a good negotiator. You know maybe sometimes the labels were a little upset that I was asking for money every single time. But hey, the money's out there. My job's to bring in as much money as I could and it would make me look good."
UNIVERSAL stressed that he only collected money after the decision had been made to add a song, saying that he never took the money or gifts in exchange for putting a song on the radio he didn't think would be a hit. "Honestly I never once in my life ever, ever added a song based on money," said UNIVERSAL, adding, "payola doesn't exist in radio. The $1,500 they're spending to get us to play that record is money that's really going to go right back in their pocket. They're just investing in their product. What's wrong with that?"

