Bipartisan Coalition Introduces Local Radio Freedom Act in House, Senate NAB strongly supports resolution opposing performance royalty on broadcasters 119 Representatives, five Senators introduce resolution backing hometown radio stations WASHINGTON, DC -- A bipartisan coalition of 124 Members of Congress have joined together to introduce resolutions in the House of Representatives and the Senate opposing any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge on local broadcast radio stations. The Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) signals Members of Congresss opposition to any potential legislation that would impose new performance royalties on broadcast radio stations for music airplay.
America's hometown broadcasters are deeply grateful for this broad, bipartisan display of Congressional support for the Local Radio Freedom Act, said NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith. Decade after decade, free radio airplay has propelled the careers of countless performing artists and generated hundreds of millions in revenue for the record labels. We thank lawmakers for standing in opposition to a job-killing performance royalty that threatens to destroy the economics of local radio.
Reps. Michael Conaway (R-TX-11) and Kathy Castor (D-FL-14) are the principal cosponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act in the House of Representatives. Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) are the lead cosponsors of a companion resolution in the Senate (S. Con. Res. 5).
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 the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station broadcast over the air, reads the Local Radio Freedom Act.
In the 115th Congress, a similar resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate in January 2017. The House resolution was introduced with 115 cosponsors, and eventually gathered 227 signatures. The Senate resolution garnered 28 signatures.
The 119 House co-sponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act include:
Rick Allen (R-GA-12)
Jodey Arrington (R-TX-19)
Brian Babin (R-TX-36)
Jim Banks (R-IN-3)
Joyce Beatty (D-OH-3)
Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12)
Mike Bost (R-IL-12)
Brendan Boyle (D-PA-2)
Mo Brooks (R-AL-5)
Susan Brooks (R-IN-5)
Anthony Brown (D-MD-4)
Vern Buchanan (R-FL-16)
Ted Budd (R-NC-13)
Cheri Bustos (D-IL-17)
G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-1)
Ken Calvert (R-CA-42)
Buddy Carter (R-GA-1)
Kathy Castor (D-FL-14)
Steve Chabot (R-OH-1)
Lacy Clay (D-MO-1)
Tom Cole (R-OK-4)
Chris Collins (R-NY-27)
James Comer (R-KY-1)
Michael Conaway (R-TX-11)
Paul Cook (R-CA-8)
Joe Courtney (D-CT-2)
Rick Crawford (R-AR-1)
Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28)
Warren Davidson (R-OH-8)
Rodney Davis (R-IL-13)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR-4)
Debbie Dingell (D-MI-12)
Sean Duffy (R-WI-7)
Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3)
Neal Dunn (R-FL-2)
Tom Emmer (R-MN-6)
Dwight Evans (D-PA-3)
Bill Flores (R-TX-17)
Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE-1)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC-5)
Mike Gallagher (R-WI-8)
Greg Gianforte (R-MT-AL)
Bob Gibbs (R-OH-7)
Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-15)
Jennifer Gonzalez Colon (R-PR-DL)
Paul Gosar (R-AZ-4)
Tom Graves (R-GA-14)
Glenn Grothman (R-WI-6)
Jim Hagedorn (R-MN-1)
Andy Harris (R-MD-1)
Alcee Hastings (D-FL-20)
Jody Hice (R-GA-10)
French Hill (R-AR-2)
Bill Johnson (R-OH-6)
Jim Jordan (R-OH-4)
Bill Keating (D-MA-9)
Mike Kelly (R-PA-16)
Trent Kelly (R-MS-1)
Derek Kilmer (D-WA-6)
Ron Kind (D-WI-3)
Adam Kinzinger (R-IL-16)
Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ-2)
Annie Kuster (D-NH-2)
Darin LaHood (R-IL-18)
Doug LaMalfa (R-CA-1)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO-5)
Bob Latta (R-OH-5)
Al Lawson (D-FL-5)
Dave Loebsack (D-IA-2)
Billy Long (R-MO-7)
Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO-3)
Stephen Lynch (D-MA-8)
Roger Marshall (R-KS-1)
Thomas Massie (R-KY-4)
Betty McCollum (D-MN-4)
Donald McEachin (D-VA-4)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
David McKinley (R-WV-1)
Mark Meadows (R-NC-11)
Paul Mitchell (R-MI-10)
Alex Mooney (R-WV-2)
Seth Moulton (D-MA-6)
Markwayne Mullin (R-OK-2)
Dan Newhouse (R-WA-4)
Devin Nunes (R-CA-22)
Tom OHalleran (D-AZ-1)
Pete Olson (R-TX-22)
Steven Palazzo (R-MS-4)
Frank Pallone (D-NJ-6)
Donald Payne (D-NJ-10)
Bill Posey (R-FL-8)
Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-AS-DL)
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-5)
Hal Rogers (R-KY-5)
Mike Rogers (R-AL-3)
David Rouzer (R-NC-7)
Bobby Rush (D-IL-1)
Tim Ryan (D-OH-13)
David Scott (D-GA-13)
John Shimkus (R-IL-15)
Mike Simpson (R-ID-2)
Adrian Smith (R-NE-3)
Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21)
Steve Stivers (R-OH-15)
Mike Turner (R-OH-10)
Fred Upton (R-MI-6)
Ann Wagner (R-MO-2)
Tim Walberg (R-MI-7)
Greg Walden (R-OR-2)
Mark Walker (R-NC-6)
Randy Weber (R-TX-14)
Brad Wenstrup (R-OH-2)
Bruce Westerman (R-AR-4)
Roger Williams (R-TX-25)
Joe Wilson (R-SC-2)
Steve Womack (R-AR-3)
John Yarmuth (D-KY-3)
Don Young (R-AK-AL)
Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1)
The Local Radio Freedom Acts five Senate cosponsors are:
John Barrasso (R-WY)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Tom Udall (D-CO)
On numerous occasions, both record label executives and artists have recognized the promotional value of free radio airplay. Recent statements include:
thank you everyone for making us #1 on alternative radio this week. its insane how much youve reacted to youre somebody else. thank you for getting it.
-- Tweet by Flora Cash, February 12, 2019
Alsooooo omfg 1999 impacts US radio today! If you hear it, tweet me and the radio station so i can say thanks @charli_xcx
-- Tweet by Troye Sivan, December 4, 2018
I was like, You know what? One day I'll hear my song on the radio, and that will be a moment.
-- Mariah Carey, Forever Mariah: An Interview With an Icon, Pitchfork, November 28, 2018
Thats the biggest thrill, to he
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
16/04/2024
If there remains any doubt that the cloud and artificial intelligence are transforming the workflows that drive the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry, Amazon...
16/04/2024
Evan Jacobs, VP Finishing & Stereo at Marvel Studios, cautioned not to downplay the home entertainment environment too much, noting that it's now hard to bu...
16/04/2024
The age of streaming the opportunity for different viewing habits for many. Entire seasons could be binged whenever you had the time to spare and didn't m...
16/04/2024
LAS VEGAS During a press conference at the NAB Show, ARRI unveiled its ALEXA 35 Live - Multicam System, which is designed to bring the cinematic image quality o...
16/04/2024
ROXi announced that it has partnered with Pearl TV and major U.S. broadcasters to deploy ROXi's FastStream-powered interactive TV channels on the broadcaste...
16/04/2024
U.S. Internet households now consume an average 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices. That's an increase of more than six hours in 2020, ...
16/04/2024
Lawo and Waves Audio have announced that the Waves SuperRack LiveBox hardware server being displayed at the 2024 NAB Show is fully compatible with Lawo's mc...
16/04/2024
At the 2024 NAB Show, Riedel Communications has unveiled its expanded RiCapture ingest solutions line with the addition of RiCapture i8, i44, and i84. Complemen...
16/04/2024
Coles enhanced colour separation, adding shape and depth to the characters through the use of a soft highlight and shadow roll off, and embracing the natural te...
16/04/2024
The Prismatic Company Debuts Strategy for New LightWeave Platform for the Creato...
16/04/2024
Avid to Demonstrate Latest Stream of Innovation at NAB Show 2024 to Drive the Op...
16/04/2024
Paramount Plus has ordered a fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and said the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be the final one. Season f...
16/04/2024
Sinclair said that it launched Broadspan, a datacasting platform based on the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology....
16/04/2024
LAS VEGAS Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, spoke about his bid to acquire Paramount Global at NAB Show April 14. Allen called Para...
16/04/2024
Major station owners are bringing interactivity to broadcast, hoping that will convince consumers particularly younger ones obsessed with TikTok to buy new ...
15/04/2024
(Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
15/04/2024
LONDONDERRY, N.H., April 15, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) received a $256 million order from the U.S. Army for continued production of the Enhanced N...
15/04/2024
Montreal, Canada - April 15, 2024 - Grass Valley, a pioneer in live production s...
15/04/2024
NEW YORK In a major step forward in the broadcast industry's move to ATSC 3.0, NBCUniversal announced that it is launching personalized broadcast experience...
15/04/2024
LAS VEGAS Ross Video has announced an agreement to acquire Bannister Lake Software (BL Soft), a 31-year old Cambridge, Ontario-based provider of data-driven bro...
15/04/2024
Panasonic has revealed some of its technology that will be used for the broadcast of this summer's Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris....
15/04/2024
Adobe Previews Breakthrough AI Innovations to Advance Professional Video Workflo...
15/04/2024
Zaxcom NAB Preview - Zaxcom's ZaxConvert Software is Now More Versatile & 10...
15/04/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton April 15, 2024
0 Comments
Advanced digital film camera in an incredibly versatile des...
15/04/2024
SmallHD's Free PageOS 6 Update Adds Powerful New Capabilities to All Current...
15/04/2024
SiliconCores patented Common Cathode driver chip delivers frame rates of 240 Hz and a refresh rate of 7680Hz, enabling slow motion, multi-camera view and multip...
15/04/2024
The UK-based virtual studio, sports and events graphics company has appointed Naphtali Cave into a newly created role to drive technical innovation and creativi...
15/04/2024
CBS's daytime panel talk show The Talk will end its run with a shortened 15th season, concluding the show in December, CBS confirmed Friday....
15/04/2024
Season four of Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog starts on Nat Geo Friday, A...
15/04/2024
In a notable leap forward for broadcasters planning to monetize their NextGen TV broadcasts, Sinclair has announced the launch of its Broadspan datacasting pl...
15/04/2024
Like a science fiction novel where artificial intelligence is involved in everything people do, the 2024 NAB Show is seeing artificial intelligence, and in part...
15/04/2024
Sustainability was one of the big topics at NAB Show last year, and this year the topic has matured within a media environment during technological and regulato...
15/04/2024
The cloud has offered significant on-demand availability for data storage without direct active management by the user. Increasingly, however, it isn't just...
15/04/2024
At first glance, it might seem a bit odd that the 2024 NAB Show is rolling out a new feature dubbed the Creator Lab....
15/04/2024
As the media and entertainment industry meets again in Las Vegas, NAB Show kicks off the beginning of its second century. Organizers describe an agenda suited t...
15/04/2024
Celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year, Ikegami USA will introduce four new additions to its range of broadcast-quality production equipment at the 2024 NAB...
15/04/2024
Digital Anarchy Debuts Major Update to its AI-Driven Digital Makeup and Skin Ret...
15/04/2024
Grass Valley Showcases Industry-Leading Innovations and Continued Growth Milesto...
15/04/2024
Hitachi Kokusai Demonstrates ST 2110 Studio Production Workflow
Brie Clayton April 14, 2024
0 Comments
To be shown at NAB Show 2024, new Interface Kit...
15/04/2024
Pebble Collaborates with NVIDIA to Bring PRIMA - Pebble's State-of-the-Art S...
15/04/2024
Need a summer job? Love baseball? Interested in finding out about a career in sports management, food service, hospitality and more? The Greenville Yard Gnomes ...
15/04/2024
Tonight on House of Zwide: Isaac asks Bra Zakes for help with any information he...
15/04/2024
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Phomolo threatens Pretty in an attempt to save LehasaDon't miss Monday, 15 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Skeem...
15/04/2024
Tonight on Scandal: Dintle turns to an old friend to assist with her missionDon't miss Monday, 15 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Scand...
15/04/2024
Christianity: Four people who claimed to be JesusChristianity is one of the world's dominant religions, with more than 80% of South Africans following this ...
15/04/2024
House of Zwide: Monday's episode, 15 April 2024 [VIDEO]Stay up to date with the latest episode of South African soapie House of Zwide on The South African w...
Bipartisan Coalition Introduces Local Radio Freedom Act in House, Senate NAB strongly supports resolution opposing performance royalty on broadcasters 119 Representatives, five Senators introduce resolution backing hometown radio stations WASHINGTON, DC -- A bipartisan coalition of 124 Members of Congress have joined together to introduce resolutions in the House of Representatives and the Senate opposing any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge on local broadcast radio stations. The Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) signals Members of Congresss opposition to any potential legislation that would impose new performance royalties on broadcast radio stations for music airplay. 
