I’ve been reading all the hoopla about the Performance Tax. As an owner, I’m doing all I can to motivate our US Representatives and US Senators to vote against any form of a Performance Tax on FREE broadcast radio. These legislators have no idea that FREE over the air broadcast radio has a slew of regulations and fees we must pay already, plus provide Emergency Notifications to the public, plus provide Public Affairs programming, PSA’s and more, all for FREE. I can keep rambling on with a hundred reasons we are different than Satellite radio and those who can just pass any cost onto their subscribers.
This brings me to a great solution to beat the record labels at their own game. How about all the major radio groups and /or investors band together and form our own record labels. Yes, I’m saying lets compete right against them and make our labels Royalty FREE to broadcast radio only. Can you imagine we can actually bring good product back to the airwaves, instead of the garbage that has been released for the past decade or so. Think of all the possibilities, we can have “OUR” performers do any song, even as a cover version, since we already pay BMI, ASCAP and Sesac. We can create our own superstars, we can create our own money making model of a music industry. If the traditional labels want to get their songs played on our broadcast stations, then they have to provide the product royalty free or pay to buy airtime.
My suggestion is plain and simple, create open competition for the record labels. In the long run, it will cost us all collectively less to develop our own record labels, that can actually turn a profit, if run properly for the investors. It’s well worth exploring than just taking our lumps with the present set up. Broadcast radio is NOT the same as Satellite radio, internet radio, i-pods or anything else that comes along to compete for our listeners. Broadcast radio needs to band together while we still have plenty of life in us. We need to show politicians and anyone who wants to dump on us that no one else can reach the general public as good as local broadcast radio. So let’s stop crying in our soup and move forward with a plan broadcast radio can depend on, a plan that we are in control of that helps us survive and prosper.
Thank You,
Al Sergi – GM / owner
Summit Media Broadcasting
Summit Media Inc
1-304-765-7373
[email protected]
