Promoter in Payola Case Avoids Prison Term : Justice: The judge is persuaded that he has turned his life around. He’s sentenced to 60 days in a substance abuse treatment program.

A San Mateo record promoter was sentenced Monday to 60 days at a substance abuse treatment center but no prison term after he persuaded a federal judge that he had turned around his life since pleading guilty last May to payola-related charges.

Ralph Tashjian, 41, had admitted paying radio station programmers in exchange for airplay. He became the first record promoter to plead guilty under a 1960 payola statute that forbids undisclosed payment in exchange for radio station favors. It is the failure to disclose payola, not the paying of it, that is a violation of federal law.

Tashjian, who owns the record promotion company Modern Music, was indicted in February, 1988, along with record promoter William Craig, on charges stemming from a three-year investigation by the U.S attorney’s office in Los Angeles into corruption in the music industry.

That same investigation led to an indictment last month against record promoter Joseph Isgro, a former business associate of both Tashjian and Craig. Craig also has pleaded guilty in the case.

Isgro, once one of the nation’s leading independent record promoters, earlier this month pleaded not guilty to a 51-count indictment of payola-related charges filed by the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force.

During a court hearing, Tashjian also admitted to sending a Federal Express package of cocaine to a Fresno radio station employee in an attempt to get more play for the records that Modern Music was promoting. The artists whose work he has circulated include Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Laura Branigan.

U.S. District Judge Ann Rymer said Monday that she was prepared initially to impose a jail sentence on Tashjian. But, Rymer said, she changed her mind after hearing a sobbing Tashjian claim contrition. Rymer added that her decision also took into account that Justice Department attorney Drew Pitt declined to recommend a jail sentence.

Since his indictment last year, Tashjian had “showed a real commitment to change,” Rymer said. “He has made a concerted and significant effort to turn his life around. I think it is undisputed that (the change) has been meaningful . . . and that one of the major objectives of any sentencing has already been accomplished.”

Tashjian--who said he has had bouts with alcoholism and is a former cocaine user--was ordered to stay at a rehabilitation center for 60 days beginning Jan. 2 and then complete 500 hours of public service. Tashjian was also fined $100,000 and ordered to pay any outstanding income taxes.

Prosecutors in the case declined to comment on whether they gave Tashjian a favorable sentencing recommendation in exchange for cooperation in their case against Isgro.

“The terms of Mr. Tashjian’s cooperation in any future cases was outlined, but it was all done in a very general sense,” said Tashjian’s lawyer, Anthony Brooklier. “If and when Mr. Tashjian is called to testify, he is going to tell the truth, whether it hurts or helps Joseph Isgro.”