by R.E. “Buzz” Brindle
Free Radio Alliance’s Peggy Binzel warns that the next few days are critical to hold off the record label’s push for radio to pay exorbitant fees to performers for the right to provide free advertising to those performers and their labels. Kurt Hanson, Internet radio operator and publisher of the Internet radio e-letter RAIN, says that the performance royalty for broadcasters being sought by the labels could amount to as much as 30% of a station’s revenues if the deal turns out to be similar to what the Copyright Royalty Board gets from Internet radio. That’s on top of the BMI, ASCAP and SESAC fees that stations are already paying.
Let’s remember that the radio industry decided to move in the director of music-intensive programming back in the mid-1950s as a result of TV usurping the programming which used to be on radio (“The Green Hornet”, “The Lone Ranger”, “The Jack Benny Show”, etc.). Music programming was a cost effective means of attracting and holding the attention of listeners. If 30% royalties are imposed on radio and it costs American broadcasters up to $ 7 billion to air music programming that paradigm could change. Do you think the guys at corporate might start thinking “talk radio”?
Now that Elliot Spitzer’s distracted with his duties as governor of New York and with scandals in his own administration, Hanson makes an intriguing observation. He suggests that similarly formatted stations around the nation agree to choose six artists and stop playing new music by those artists for six months. Just for the case of speculation, examples of artists for various formats could be:
Country: Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Montgomery Gentry and Dierks Bentley.
AC: Michael Buble, Maroon 5, Faith Hill, John Mayer,Rascal Flatts and Bon Jovi.
CHR: Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne, Daughtry, Pink, Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson.
Alternative: Linkin Park, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Incubus and Seether.
During that same 180 day period, six other artists would be selected and their exposure on those same stations would be doubled. At the end of that six month period, sales results would be reviewed to learn if the RIAA’s claim that radio airplay does not favorably benefit music sales is true. It wouldn’t be collusion. It would be collaborative research.
It’s a thought-provoking idea and Halloween will be here before you know it. The NAB supports the Free Radio Alliance and membership in the organization is FREE. (All together, you radio guys: “If it’s free, it’s for me.”). Check out their website at www.FreeRadioAlliance.org.
R.E. “Buzz” Brindle is a senior consultant for Brindle Media. The views expressed are his own.
