by Fred Persinger
Congress recently stood up for economic growth and the future of West Virginia’s local radio stations by introducing the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution that states Congress should not add new and costly fees for playing music on radio airplay. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that all the state’s representatives are cosponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act, and its two senators, Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin, have supported it in years past. Protecting local broadcasters from new and costly levies is far from controversial; it’s necessary.
Local broadcasters turbocharge local economies. Nationally, they help create over 1 million jobs and contribute $487 billion to the GDP. Here in West Virginia, they are responsible for helping power over 5,000 jobs and have a total economic impact of $2.4 billion.
In this post-lockdown recovery time, the American people are relying on every generator of economic growth to get the economy up and running again. Adding new, unnecessary fees on one of the country’s biggest growth agents at this time and under these conditions would be far from productive.
COVID hit the radio industry hard. Imposing new overhead costs on local broadcasters could decimate their operations and harm the thousands of businesses that use the radio to reach their customers. Thousands of jobs and millions of dollars’ worth of GDP growth could be at risk.
Big music executives ignore these concerns and, seemingly to protect their personal financial interests, they claim Congress should charge radio for playing songs to “help artists.” This argument is illogical and dishonest. The Mountain State’s musicians, who just got over the most significant economic challenge of their careers, know just how devastating new fees on radio airplay would be for their public exposure.
In a recent interview with WOWK, West Virginia musician Anne Melton suggested the most significant challenge facing the state’s artists today is one of access. In advance of her first gig in over a year, which came shortly after Gov. Jim Justice lifted the COVID ban on live music performances in May, she said, “It’s been absolutely insane … it’s really hard to get our stuff out there when you can’t do what I get to do tonight.”
Should a new radio performance fee go into effect, artists like her would have to convince broadcasters to play industry up-and-comers instead of already established acts at the same price point. At best, it will put newer artists in a precarious position. At worst, it can muscle them out of the industry altogether.
The bipartisan Local Radio Freedom Act resolution has broad bipartisan support in Washington. West Virginia’s local broadcasters and those who rely on local radio as a free source of entertainment, news, weather and emergency information, as well as the businesses that use radio to promote their products, appreciate their representatives and senators in Washington supporting this resolution.
Fred Persinger is the radio sports announcer for the MetroNews Network. He also serves as the host of GAMENIGHT and many other statewide shows.
