Radio Stations Accused of Banning Artists Who Support the Performance Rights Act

WASHINGTON (AP) — Which top-selling artist purportedly had his new single yanked from some radio station playlists in retaliation for supporting royalties for musicians?

No one involved will name the recording artist, but his no-play treatment by several radio stations is alleged in a complaint filed with the Federal Communications Commission. It claims recording artists are being threatened and intimidated.

In the filing, the musicFIRST Coalition says the top-selling artist — there are hints it could be U2 frontman Bono — recently released a new album and spoke during April in support of an effort to require radio stations to pay musicians royalties similar to those paid to songwriters.

Soon after, it said, "several stations within a major radio broadcast group notified the artist's label that they would no longer play his single on the air."

more here:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-radio-royalties-no-play,0,3303772.story

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Most broadcast stations play crap anyway. If they can't afford to pay the people who made the music maybe they deserve to fail.

I'm all for anything that puts a crimp in that wanabe monopoly Clear Channel's profits.

Something leads me to believe that broadcast radio isn't maintaining enough profit margins to afford to pay. I guess they all deserve to fail.

...had a dismal year last year just like everyone else and lost money.

But, that was mostly due to the performance of their investments and merger costs. Their radio stations generated $1.16 billion operating income in 2008.

Clear Channel and the other giants are crying poverty when it comes to their AM/FM stations having to compete on a level playing field with cable, internet, and satellite broadcasters.
It's just an excuse not to pay the musicians.