More Money from Radio

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Created on Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:56

Written by Alek Wolfe

VERMONT - For those in the world of radio it is known that stations have to pay royalties to play music on the air. ASCAP, BMI, and other licenses help to prevent copyright infringements. However, there may be another fee coming soon.

It was recently announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been looking at having all radio stations pay a higher fee for playing music.

"Radio does play a big role in making and breaking songs to the public. Anything that inhibits that is not good for the artists and it's not good for the radio stations either," Vermont Association Of Broadcasters President and Magic 97.7 Manager Bruce James said.

A musician himself, James agrees with artists getting payed royalties. However when it comes to broadcasts, James says that this new payment would work for bigger stations but not smaller stations such as Magic 97.7 FM.

"When I see the bills come in from these licensing organizations whitch come up to 100 thousand dollars or more a year. We're in a small rural economy. It just doesn't seem right or fair but I will say that artists deserve royalties," James said.

Global rights is the new payment that if passed by congress, the record label would give more money to these artists who are signed with the label. James says it's a odd thing, he asks, who are your artists for Global Rights? If this should pass, James says we don't have a choice, stations will have to pay more fees.

"We're a small state. We're a small broadcast organization. The organization is comprised of small broadcasters. But honestly I think we're just lost in the shuffle here in the rural areas. We don't have a million people to sell products," James said.

Advertisements is the key to making money for radio stations. James says that if we keep our expenses low then we can continue to advertise local businesses whitch will become harder should this go into effect.

"We know that advertising does work and we have a method for that. When somebody says how many adds should I buy? We know the answer to that." 

James added, "No-one likes to see prices go up, when things are added out of the blue it makes it even more frustrating to deal with.