The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched an investigation into iHeartMedia over whether the radio giant may be offering airplay as leverage to book artists — a practice that may violate “payola” laws — to play at its events.
In a letter to iHeartMedia CEO Robert Pittman, FCC chairman Brendan Carr alleged that “certain owners of federally licensed radio stations are effectively compelling musicians to perform at radio station events or festivals for free (or for reduced compensation) in exchange for more favorable airplay.”
Indeed, US law stipulates that any payments made to a radio station to influence airplay must be disclosed as sponsored content. If artists are trading appearances for airtime without such disclosure, the arrangement could be deemed illegal.
Related Video
One of the events in question is the upcoming 2025 iteration of iHeartMedia’s iHeartCountry Festival, which will go down on May 3rd in Austin, Texas with headliners Brooks & Dunn, Thomas Rhett, and Rascal Flatts.
“As iHeart finalizes its approach to this particular music festival, I want to ensure that it does so in a way that complies with federal payola requirements,” Carr wrote.
In his letter, Carr asked eight questions of Pittman, ranging from requests for information about the upcoming iHeartCountry Festival to inquiries as to whether or not artists were manipulated into accepting reduced fees for their appearances.
The letter — dated Monday, February 24th — gave iHeartMedia 10 days to respond. In a public statement, though, the company denied any wrongdoing.
“[Performing] at the iHeartCountry Festival — or declining to do so — has no bearing on our stations’ airplay, and we do not make any overt or covert agreements about airplay with artists performing at our events,” the statement read (per The Hollywood Reporter). “The iHeartCountry Festival provides the same kind of promotion that that we see with artists on talk shows, late night television, the Super Bowl and in digital music performances and events: the promotional value to the artists is the event itself, and, in our case, is unrelated to our radio airplay.”
Since being appointed chairman of the FCC by Donald Trump, Carr has also investigations into CBS, NPR, and PBS.
