The performers lip-synced instead of performing live in order to prevent any unpredictable behavior or spontaneity during the performance. There would be no shenanigans like Elvis’s electrified hips on The Milton Berle Show or Jerry Lee Lewis throwing his piano bench on The Steve Allen Show. For many of the performers on the show, lip-syncing was also preferable to a live performance because the majority of these performers were not strong singers. Instead, they were chosen for their good looks and wholesome appeal and then turned into pop stars by major record labels. This point will be elaborated later in this lesson.

Clark’s business savvy transformed a local telecast into a national phenomenon. To get sponsors for the show, he traveled the advertising agency circuit on Madison Avenue and eventually acquired the lucrative Beechnut Spearmint Gum account. In no time at all, Clark became famous and very wealthy. He was one of the most influential disc jockeys in the nation. Clark was never accused of taking payola, but his business connections were scrutinized. He had controlling interest in six publishing companies, held over 160 copyrights, and owned four record labels (Swan, Chancellor, Cameo-Parkway, and Jamie Records). He also owned a record pressing plant, the Chip Record Distribution Corporation, an artist management firm, the touring Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, and a concert format of the live broadcast that was called The Dick Clark Show—33 corporations, in all. Clark was a shrewd businessman. For example, he had no financial interest in the Luther Dixon’s song "Sixteen Candles ♫" as recorded by The Crests, and he therefore played the song only four times in ten weeks on American Bandstand. After he purchased the company that published "Sixteen Candles ♫," though, he played it 27 times in thirteen weeks. Shortly before the payola hearings, he divested himself of 31 of his 33 companies, and then he re-purchased those same companies later when the hearings were done.