May 19, 1960: DJ Alan Freed Charged in Payola Scandal

Hulton Archive

DJ Alan Freed and eight others were charged in the "payola scandal" -- disc jockeys secretly taking bribes to play certain songs on the radio -- by a federal grand jury for commercial bribery. Freed ended up being the fall guy because he refuses to testify. On the bright side, there is nothing wrong whatsoever about the state of modern commerical radio.