Herald: Music fee hikes could scuttle WJIB

[Bob Nelson]

That was interesting about WVCA and Geller's airing of classical music.

> Even if Bob sold the station to a syndicate of boston-radio-interest
> participants, how would this get around the original hang up, namely
> the ASCAP & BMI fee problems?

Possibly airing prog. talk; I think the article about Bob's
predicament said that the new music licensing arrangement gave
a little more leeway to talk stations (which use pop songs
for bumper music) but bumped up fees for stations with
over 5,000 listeners. They'd have to pay BMI and ASCAP
but not nearly as much.

I'm reading a book about radio called "Something in The Air".
It mentioned that the NAB "created BMI in 1939" to break
ASCAP's monopoly. When ASCAP raised their fees, radio
station owners decided to create their own music
licenser...and the next thing you knew, you had
artists who weren't on ASCAP (C&W, "race music"
aka R&B) getting airplay. The book also mentions a radio
boycott of ASCAP in 1941, since they asked for
a huge rate increase, and the fact that radio
stations began to work with small record labels,
record promoters, etc. as a result.

So that kind of ties in with the ASCAP and BMI
rate increases that is affecting what WJIB may
be airing in the future...

=
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