The National Association of Broadcasters Radio Board of Directors has approved an on-air campaign to educate listeners on The American Music Fairness Act. The campaign goal is to educate listeners to the significant harm of the legislation that would impose another fee on free radio.
“We’ve been clear that we welcome the opportunity to sit at the table with the recording industry to work on meaningful solutions to this issue,” said Curtis LeGeyt, NAB President/CEO. “However, the record labels seem singularly focused on pushing Congress to act on a performance royalty bill that would radically upend one of their greatest promotional tools. Radio cannot sit idly by while the record labels seek to undermine our business at the expense of artists and listeners.”
“Imposing a performance royalty on local radio – on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties it already pays – would not only mean less music for listeners, but would also kill jobs, punish up-and-coming artists, hurt small business advertisers and jeopardize the public service radio stations provide their communities every day,” said David Santrella, NAB Joint Board Chairman and CEO of Salem Media Group. “We want to educate our audiences about the damage performance fee legislation would have on radio and our ability to serve tens of millions of Americans every day.”
Congressional opposition to the performance fee is strong. More than 235 members of Congress are cosponsoring the Local Radio Freedom Act, a congressional resolution opposing “any new performance fee, tax, royalty or other charge” on local broadcast radio stations.
Stations can download the spots, which are available in English and Spanish, along with additional tools at www.nab.org/performancetaxresources/. Scripts are also available for stations that wish to customize the spots.
