NAB Chief Says ‘There Is No More Money’ For Performance Rights…

Wednesday, November, 18, 2009 by Mel Phillips.

Washington rounded up the ‘usual suspects’ on both sides of the Performance Rights Act issue and got about the same results as Captain Renault got when Major Strasser was shot in Casablanca. Of course, Claude Raines aka Captain Renault wasn’t looking for results when the Nazi major was shot. This latest PRA round was called for by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and House Judiciary Chair John Conyers (D-MI) and representatives from pro-royalties lobbying group MusicFirst Coalition were in attendance. The other side was represented by the NAB, Commonwealth Broadcasting, CBC Broadcast Holdings, NABOB, the Spanish Broadcasters Association, as well as Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), an original co-sponsor of the anti-royalties resolution known as the Local Radio Freedom Act. NAB Exec. VP Dennis Wharton said his side was meeting “out of deference to key members of Congress” which pretty much set the tone for the meeting but new NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith, who wasn’t even at the meeting, stated radio’s case better than anyone at the PRA meeting…

Smith addressed the Media Institute while the PRA meeting was being conducted and said “That (PRA) isn’t in the interest of radio and it certainly isn’t in the interest of performers and ultimately we have to reshuffle this deck to allow both to live, but there isn’t more money. And if you want proof of that, you can buy radio stations now, all over the country, a dime a dozen if you want to. The economics are simply not there anymore. And that’s just the truth”. Smith also mentioned the danger of music stations changing their format to talk or as he put it, “All Rush, all the time” should the PRA be enacted…

Although it would appear that all sides are being represented at these Performance Royalty Act meetings, there are new groups being invited with each session. Maybe Washington, really is channeling Captain Renault who said “Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects.” Only he was saying it tongue-in-cheek…

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1928] Mickey debuts: The 1st successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiers in New York City. It’s Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” starring Mickey Mouse…
2. 1959] Also Premiering on this date: William Wyler’s “Ben Hur” at a Loew’s Theater in Times Square…2005] “Walk The Line“, the story of Johnny Cash opens…
3. 1969] ‘Happy Trails’: Kennedy patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy dies in Hyannis Port (MA) at 81. Kennedy had suffered a massive stroke 8 years earlier. 1994] Cab Calloway dies in a Delaware nursing home of a stroke at 86…
4. 1978] The horror of Jonestown: People’s Temple leader Jim Jones forces his followers to commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit-flavored concoction. Only about a dozen escape. The final death toll: 913, including 276 children. Jones is fatally shot in the head…
5. 1987] Pink slips are on the way: CBS Inc. agrees to sell its record division to SONY Corporation for about $2 billion…
6. 1990] Wedding Bells: Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall tie the knot in Bali. They will have 2 children during their 9 year marriage which breaks up after allegations that Mick fathered a child with Brazilian model Luciana Morad. 2006] Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are married in Italy. That’s amore…
7. 1991] Free at last: Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and educator Thomas Sutherland…
8. 1999] Guilty as charged: A jury in Jasper (TX) convicts Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spare him the death penalty…
9. 2002] A new call for arms inspection: U.N. arms inspectors return to Iraq after a four-year hiatus. They call on Saddam Hussein’s government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction. You know the rest of this story…
10. 2003] Right to marry: The Massachusetts Supreme Court Judicial Court rules 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry…

Music Memories:

• 1956] On the ‘Ed Sullivan Show’: Fats Domino sings “Blueberry Hill“…
• 1963] Number One on this date: “I’m Leaving It Up To You” - Dale and Grace…1973] “Photograph” - Ringo Starr…1987] “Mony, Mony” - Billy Idol (13 years after Tommy James’ version topped the charts…
  1964] On “Shindig“: The Supremes and Righteous Brothers, who were regulars on the show with Darlene Love & The Blossoms and Bobby Sherman…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:

David Ortiz(Big Papi) (34), Owen Wilson (41), Kevin Nealon (56), Linda Evans (67), Brenda Vaccaro (70) and Ted (R-Alaska) Stevens (86)…

Timeline Countdown: 8 days until Thanksgiving, 23 days until Hanukah, 34 days until winter and 37 days until Christmas…

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