Live from New York...

I'm typing this from mid-town Manhattan, as the Intercollegiate Broadcasters convention is here. Imagine roughly 1200 young, bright-eyed high school and college radio folk from all over the country, and quite a few industry heavy-hitters to learn from. Besides bringing out my inner radio geek, I've observed a couple of things.
First, it seems like every college radio person is a manager of something. One station even had an assistant sports director! Way too many chiefs and damn few indians. Also, almost no one wore a watch. Big deal you say? Maybe, but I saw many kids checking their phones for the time. These things are more like lifestyle devices than phones. Internet, MP3, IM, and even FM are built into these things. I get nervous when I'm away from my email for a day or so, but these kids visibly suffer when they're forced to turn them off for a 90 minute seminar. Give them a Wi-fi connection and they can listen to streaming audio or watch TV. Much like cable made the differences between VHF and UHF TV go away, the lines between terrestrial and Internet radio are blurring fast.
Of course, one of the more popular seminars was on performance royalties. While I'm not opposed to artists being paid for their work per se, the fees can be out of reach for the little guys. For those who don't know, radio stations (and to an extent, nightclubs, stores etc) pay writers and publishers, not artists. There are 2 bills currently in the House. One would sign into law the current exemption radio enjoys and forbid any new fees or taxes. The resolution reads, "Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over-the-air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings." One hundred and five Republicans and 65 Democrats are now supporting the resolution. Wait..."SHOULD not"? What about "WILL not"? There's a world of difference there. And what,exactly, is a "local" radio station? See my previous "WGOD" post for my take on that. The other would repeal the exemption (thank uber-liberal Pat Lahey of VT for this one) and force heavy fee hikes on precisely the people who can afford them the least-college stations and mom-and-pop local station owners. Clear Channel, Entercom, Saga, etc won't choke on another thousand bucks a year, but try getting another grand from a college thats level-funded you for the last 10 years. ASACP/BMI/SESAC already have a minimum fee that rises as your revenue does. Maybe Soundexchange should consider giving educational and LPFM stations, especially in very small markets, a break by offering an affordable blanket license as opposed to the current clusterfuck of a system involving tuning hours and other dense metrics. Forcing them off the air will bring them less revenue, not more.