Ask a Korean! News: TV & Radio Producers Arrested for Taking Bribes from Singers

Say it ain't so! Translation below:

The police arrested 29 people, including the head of a cable television and a local radio producer who received bribes from emerging pop singers for doctoring the pop song chart, arranging for TV appearances and introducing other producers. On the 21st, Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency arrested four TV producers, including the head of a cable television station who received $150,000 [TK: assuming $1 = KRW 1,000] from one hundred new artists between April and May of last year, on the charge of bribery.

The police also arrested 12 producers of a radio station who received $50,000 from 20 new singers in exchange for playing their songs more than once a week and up to four times a day. Also arrested were six officials from another radio station, who falsified the "Songs Played" chart to include songs that were never played.

The police also arrested the manager of the website that displays the rankings of the number of times a song was played in the national radio stations for receiving $400,000, as well as six singers and managers who offered the money. According to the police investigation, the manager of the website received bribes from seven emerging pop artists since 2007 in exchange for managing the chart rankings and advertisement, which includes have a new artist to stay within the top 10 of the chart for six months in exchange for $38,000. In order to raise the ranks, the manager collected data from local radio stations instead of the radio stations designated by the Korean Music Copyright Association. This way, a song that was never played in a national radio station was shown on the chart to have been played up to eight times a day.

Captain Kim Min-Ho of Second Investigations Team at IMPA said: "The rumors among the emerging artists that they had to pay the producers to have their songs played on air have largely turned out to be true," and added, "we plan to continue our investigation on the corruption surrounding the entertainment industry."

PD가 돈 받고 가요차트 순위 조작 [Dong-A Ilbo]

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