[78-L] ^Questions re airplay of old recordings on radio.

[David Lennick]

Ken "Silver Showcase" wrote:
> Royal Pemberton wrote:
>> Last week I got an E-mail from someone who's trying to get records by his
>> favourite singer played on the radio.  The singer only had one album
>> released in the US in 1974 but continued to record in the UK until 1982.
>> The man who sent me the E-mail said the station told him the singer had to
>> be an 'approved' artiste, meaning, approved by ASCAP, BMI et al.  I know
>> broadcasters have to pay ASCAP, BMI, SESAC et al usage fees based on the
>> number of plays of their registered songs, but what of the 'approved' bit?
>> Is there such a thing, or was the radio station chap telling the person who
>> sent me the E-mail that to get rid of him?
>>   
> 
> I worked at a local radio station for 26 years.  Songs are licensed.  
> Singers are not.  Methinks they invented an excuse just to brush the guy 
> off.
> 
> -- Ken


I didn't make it clear in my reply, but that's exactly what happened. We used 
to do the same thing if it was a performer we didn't want to play. If we didn't 
know the "artiste" then we could always say we'd look into it, being careful 
not to encourage the listener to bring his own records in for us to enrich the 
audio radiance. Of course saying "approved" could refer to management's 
policies, without having to bring in ASCAP, BMI etc. We also had to be polite 
to performers who had a following and had made recordings they thought would be 
absolutely perfect for our station....

dl