[6][3] A veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Asher received degrees from Tufts University and Cornell Law School before beginning his working life as a corporate lawyer.
[9] Asher identified a significant increase in payments to independent promotion agents as a major cost for CBS Records, estimating annual expenditures at around $10 million.
In late 1979, Asher decided to test the power of The Network by deliberately not paying their agents to promote the new Pink Floyd single "Another Brick in the Wall" to radio stations in Los Angeles.
He realised that "The Network" was, in effect, an industry-wide extortion racket whose real power lay in its ability to prevent records from getting to radio, and he also suspected that its leaders may have had links to organized crime.
Asher knew that there were instances of apparent fraud, in which the Network agents were charging large sums for the placement of records that in fact were never even played on radio, and that the use of "indies" could be construed as bribery.
He feared this could lead to a major industry scandal with severe consequences for Columbia Records and its parent company, CBS Inc., including potential legal repercussions from the Federal Communications Commission.
[9][11] Asher then spent almost a year "in the wilderness", during which time he found it almost impossible to find work, and was shunned by former colleagues, but in 1984, in a surprise move, he was brought in to act as a senior consultant on the proposed merger between the Warner and Polygram music groups.