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Performance Rights Act Targeted For Markup - May 12, 2009

From FMQB today
May 12, 2009

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will reportedly muster his committee on Wednesday to markup the Performance Rights Act - the legislation that calls for radio to pay royalties for playing music. According to multiple reports, Conyers is expected to offer an amendment to the bill that would lower the annual royalty payment for small radio stations to $500 per year. However, minority broadcast groups still say the rate is too much and will endanger their businesses. Moreover, some civil rights groups and minority broadcasters are angry with Conyers for scheduling the markup after they believed he would hold another hearing on the bill in order to gather research about its full impact.

"If this passed, probably at least a third of all minority owned [broadcasting] companies would go bankrupt," David Honig, Executive Director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC), told RBR.com. Honig explained that it wouldn't matter if Conyers reduced the fee for small broadcasters to even $5, because the impact would still be the same. The only way a start-up company can get financing is to have a business plan for the company to grow, so there is no way for a new minority-owned broadcasting company to become profitable under the proposed fees, he said. There is very little financing for broadcast acquisitions as it is, and it would dry up completely if the bill is passed. "It's coming at the worst possible time," Honig noted.

Last week, The Leadership Conference On Civil Rights, Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law all urged the House Judiciary Committee to delay any action on the Performance Rights Act until the committee holds a hearing to weigh its impact on minority-owned radio stations. And in a separate letter to Conyers, the Leadership Conference On Civil Rights urged the Committee to "delay any immediate action" on the Performance Rights Act "until the impact of the bill on women and minority broadcasters has been fully explored. We are concerned that the Performance Rights Act as it stands may actually limit media diversity. We urge you therefore to delay any immediate action on H.R. 848 and to conduct an additional hearing to fully air the issues that we and others have raised."

In other news, nine additional lawmakers have just signed the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution that opposes the Performance Rights Act. This brings the total to 192 signatures, with the latest being House Judiciary Committee Member Elton Gallegly (CA) and Reps. Ruben Hinojosa (TX), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Timothy Walz (MN), Tom Perriello (VA), Brad Miller (NC), Russ Carnahan (MO), Ken Calvert (CA) and Earl Pomeroy (ND).