Conyers Plans Radio Royalty Town Hall
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers hopes some star power will help drive support in Detroit for legislation he has championed that would end a long-standing royalty exemption granted to AM and FM radio. Conyers and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, will host a town hall meeting on Tuesday at Wayne State University where a chorus of prominent music industry representatives will lend their voices to the cause. Conyers has invited Dionne Warwick, Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas, Duke Fakir of The Four Tops, Sam Moore of Sam & Dave. Also scheduled to appear are musician Ralph Armstrong, Rhythm & Blues Foundation Executive Director Kendall Minter, Industry Ears co-founder Paul Porter, American Federation of Musicians Local #5 President Gordon Stump, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO's Saundra Williams and Tony Gray, president of Gray Communications.
The Performance Rights Act, which passed the House Judiciary Committee recently, has been panned by the National Association of Broadcasters and was the focus of protests by black radio stations in Conyers' congressional district. On Capitol Hill, he has stressed important carve-outs in his bill aimed at minority owned and small radio stations. The changes earned Conyers the support of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the NAACP and a number of unions. Now his aim is to "set the record straight" about his legislation outside of the Washington echo chamber. Earlier this month, the Michigan Broadcasters Association vowed to defeat the legislation, claiming it could cost stations in the state more than $63 million annually. Radio One founder Cathy Hughes wrote an open letter arguing the bill would "murder black owned radio."
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