Support for the Local Radio Freedom Act

My broadcasting friends who run and own radio stations in this country are struggling right now. It's all about legislation called the Performance Rights Act (HR 4789).

This bill would levy yet another tax, this time on local radio. The government wants to tax local radio for the music stations play for free on the public airwaves. Then they want to take the revenue generated from that tax and send it to the record companies.

This is an outrageous idea if you consider for a moment how consumers learn about the music they buy. They learn about it on the radio! And the record companies know it. If you ever visit a radio station in America you will see awards in the form of gold and platinum records to thank the station for helping the stars become famous.

Nearly 80 years ago the federal government made an agreement with the business community. The government allowed business to operate radio stations on the public airwaves in return for high-quality entertainment and information, along with access by the local community and charitable organizations -- all absolutely free of charge to the public.

Radio sustains itself in only one way: by selling advertising mostly to local businesses who are trying to reach their customers. Radio asks for and receives absolutely no subsidy from the government. The music industry has taken advantage of free over-the-air radio by convincing stations to play their music. Record companies employ legions of representatives whose sole job is to call radio station program directors to get them to play their music. It is a wonderful symbiotic relationship that has worked for decades. We all grew up listening to radio developing new music stars. The artists get their music played and promoted on radio for free and, in turn, become rich and famous.

Now, because of digital sharing and theft, the record companies are in trouble. They want to bite the hand that feeds them and have radio stations pay a royalty for music. They say, "Others pay, why not radio?" The answer is simple: No other music platform has in its charter with the government an obligation to serve the local community. No other platform raises money for the United Way, the March of Dimes and hundreds of other local charitable events. Missouri radio stations generate more than $141 million each year for the not-for-profit community through a combination of airtime and money raised for charity and disaster relief.

In addition to providing access to local charitable organizations, radio provides emergency information, national defense information, emergency weather information, Amber alerts and news along with entertainment available to nearly 100 percent of the public free of charge. No other platform performs this level of service. If you are listening to satellite or Internet radio and a disaster occurs near you, you may be the last to know.

While local radio employs nearly 3,500 people in Missouri, the greedy record companies want to take up to 7 percent of the stations' revenue and send it to the owners who are mostly overseas. The owners of these record companies are in Paris, London, Tokyo and Hollywood. This makes absolutely no sense.

Local, free, over-the-air radio is critical to every city. This lost money, including those stations right here in the Heartland, will directly cut important local radio services and cut jobs.

We need to call our U. S. senators and representatives and ask them to stop the insanity of the Performance Rights Act and vote in favor of the Local Radio Freedom Act. In the House of Representatives ask them to vote for House Concurrent Resolution 49. In the Senate ask them to vote in favor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 14.

Mike Smythe is vice president and general manager of KFVS12 in Cape Girardeau.