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CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Hometown radio stations here in the Cleveland area and those across the nation are facing a threat that could put a lot of them out of business - particularly these smaller minority-owned stations.
The threat is a proposed law in Congress that would impose a kind of performance tax on every record that the radio stations plays. This pay-to-play fee would be paid to major record labels which have been hurt recently by the big changes in how digital music is distributed. But the radio stations have a valid point when they claim that record labels and performers have benefited for years from the free promotion of their music.
Well, that is true enough. In the old days of radio disc jockeys, some of them got in trouble when record labels tried to bribe them to play certain records. Well, now the record companies want it the other way. You know, free over-the-air radio isn't as diverse as it used to be back - in its halcyon days - and odds are pretty good that if Congress goes along with this performance tax, local radio will suffer and that's bad for our communities.
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