NAB Launches Ad Campaign Against Performance Royalties

NAB launched an on-air and digital ad campaign against legislation that would create a performance royalty for radio stations, said an NAB blog post and news release Monday. The campaign against the American Music Fairness Act (see 2202020070) will begin running “immediately” and calls for listeners to “urge Congress to stand up for local radio.” “We want to educate our audiences about the damage performance fee legislation would have on radio and our ability to serve tens of millions of Americans every day,” said NAB Radio Board Chair and Salem Media CEO David Santrella in the blog post. Proponents of the performance fee argued it would be negligible for all but the largest radio groups, and radio stations pay performance fees in most of the rest of the world. “We anticipate the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by longtime performance tax proponent Jerry Nadler (NY-10), will consider and most likely pass this bill out of committee in the coming weeks,” said the blog post. “We want to make sure the listeners who rely on local radio understand how this legislation would impact their communities.”