payola

[pey-oh-luh] /peɪˈoʊ lə/
noun, Informal.
1.
a secret or private payment in return for the promotion of a product, service, etc., through the abuse of one's position, influence, or facilities.
Origin
1935-40, Americanism; pay1 + -ola
Examples from the web for payola
  • They say that they don't influence sales, that there's no payola, that there's no influence on content.
  • Maybe this deserves a closer look for payola than it got back then.
  • Oh, yes there were periodic payola hearings which were quite lame efforts at reforming the medium.
British Dictionary definitions for payola

payola

/peɪˈəʊlə/
noun (informal, mainly US)
1.
a bribe given to secure special treatment, esp to a disc jockey to promote a commercial product
2.
the practice of paying or receiving such bribes
Word Origin
C20: from pay1 + -ola, as in Pianola
Word Origin and History for payola
n.

"graft" (especially to disc jockeys from record companies to play their music), 1938 (in a "Variety" headline), from pay off "bribery" (underworld slang from 1930) + ending from Victrola, etc. (see pianola). Cf. also plugola (1959), from plug (n.) in the advertising sense.

Slang definitions & phrases for payola

payola

noun

Graft; extortion money; bribery, esp that paid by recording companies to disc jockeys for playing their records on the radio

[1938+; coined probably fr payoff and the ending of Pianola, trademark of an automatic piano-playing device, or Victrola, trademark of a gramophone]