[BC] Certain Spots Blocked From The Internet

[Rich Wood]

------ At 12:34 PM 9/16/2008, Tom Dimeo wrote: -------

>Doesn't seem to me like anyone wins in the current situation.
>  Couldn't some kind of compromise be worked out between AFTRA
>and the radio station or network.

In most cases it has little to do with the station. National and 
regional spots are usually produced by an ad agency. They get socked 
with the fee. If a station runs a prohibited spot they strain their 
relationship with the agency by costing them money. There were 
negotiations and they produced what we've got.

>Then, it never made sense to me that a station should have to
>pay the RIAA for playing music.  If anything, it seemed to me
>it should have been the other way around, because the station
>was giving exposure to the music and causing people to go out
>and buy it.

That's an argument you and I know to be true. When I programmed 
WPIX-FM, New York, I had record promotion people practically crawling 
up the side of the building to get to my office to pitch their music. 
They were also paying independent record promoters to augment their 
own people. I got CDs in the mail that didn't even fit the format. If 
radio wasn't important why did they pester me so much? If radio 
people are allowed to make our case there's no way they could argue 
we had no affect on sales. With today's formats it's not such a 
compelling argument but the history of radio and records being 
jointed a the hip shoots their argument in the foot.

I'm afraid much of the government's ruling on this will come from 
back room, closed door meetings where radio isn't welcome.

Rich