Taxes Kill Jobs
Nancy Pelosi is pushing a new tax that will kill local radio stations and kill local jobs.
She is taking her marching orders from the unions and is pushing for a vote on a new performance tax on the radio industry.
When I was in Las Cruces earlier this week, a local radio station owner said the new performance tax will kill about one out of every four radio stations nationwide. We have almost 10% unemployment and Pelosi is pushing for legislation that will kill local jobs and radio stations and send performance tax proceeds to overseas record labels in Tokyo, France and England.
The second beneficiary group will be the entertainers. The government should not have tax dollars going to GM, AIG and Goldman Sachs and it should not be taxing us to give money to famous recording artists. We already give our recording artists free air time. That is enough.
Where is the sense in letting the government kill these jobs?
This tax will hurt listeners and local advertisers most. The local radio station is the source of local news, local weather and information about events in your town. Your local supermarket will not be able to advertise with XM radio and that is more dollars leaving your town going to some big city. Right now, local advertising creates local jobs.
Performers benefit from having their new records and cd’s played free of charge on radio stations. One study showed that 85% of the 235 million listeners each week first heard any given song on the free air time given to recording artists by the station.
The performance tax is not a new idea. It has been tried for years. Every time before, Congress has decided that the current system is good for everyone. This Congress should defeat the tax.
Call your congressman to express your view.
The following are comments from a radio station owner in New Mexico's Second Congressional District.
For over 60 years the music industry has had an agreement with the radio industry. Radio stations receive music, for free, from the record company's. The music usually comes with a biography on the artists and a letter encouraging the the program director to play a particular song on the album.
The radio stations play the artists at no charge to the record company.
The record company benefits from the sale of the music heard on the radio. Many stations have been sent gold records from record company's in thanks for helping sell a million copies.
The argument seems to be that now with satellite radio and internet, broadcast radio is no longer effective.
A recent survey shows that 93% of all Americans still listen to free, over the air radio during the week. Even in a small market like Grants, we get calls asking who an artist is that they heard on one of our stations and where they can buy the CD. If a bill like this were to pass, I believe Nancy Pelosi would be unhappy with the consequences. Many stations would switch to a Talk Radio format to avoid the tax. Most stations, including mine, would carry Rush Limbuagh, Sean Hannity etc. They have the highest ratings. Nancy forgets that not all radio stations are owned by Clear Channel and Citedel. Even if I were taxed just $100.00 a month, that would be $100.00 less I would have at the end of the month to support my family and buy goods in my local community.
I have had many artists stop by the station over the years. They drop off a CD of their music asking me to play it on the air. If they sound good, I will play them. Sometimes they run out to their car so they can hear themselves on the radio. I have never had an artist ask me to pay them to play their CD. They are thankful for free exposure.
Thanks for your support on this.
