The "Carlyle Comment" 
The "Carlyle Comment"
June 13, 2010
I'm Jim Carlyle. It's "that time of year" and "that year" again....time for politics to "ramp up" on your local radio and tv stations.
It's a bittersweet relationship the electronic media has with politicians. By federal law, we're obligated if we sell to one candidate in a race to sell to another. We also have to allow "equal access" from one candidate to another. What does that mean? It means, that as a listener, you may become over-run with political ads at many levels of races. (local, state, and federal.)
Radio and tv stations have very little control over this part of our broadcasting, and in many but not all cases, politicians are given the lowest rates we offer to advertisers by law, too. This particular law governing broadcasting by the way, comes from the the same government that endorses charging this station, and all others like it a "performance tax" for every song we play for you!
So, as elections get
nearer, we remind you that what you hear from candidates on this station does
not originate from our pens, nor does it mean that our station is endorsing one
candidate over another. .....we hope that, if you plan to vote you will be an
educated voter beyond just knowing the name of the candidate that had the most
money to spend "on the air." There's much more to politics than the depth of the
candidates' wallets.
So, is anyone planning their "election is
over" party yet?
INFORMATION ON
THE PERFORMANCE TAX THAT
COULD TAKE MONEY FROM IONIA COUNTY AND
CAUSE WION RADIO TO MAKE SOME TOUGH DECISIONS!
Jim Carlyle, Morning show host,
Manager & co-owner, WION
APRIL 20, 2010 UPDATE CLICK HERE FOR MP3 VERSION
Recently on this station, you heard us talking about the importance of your contacting your members of congress to ask them to support local radio stations like this one by their voice against a performance tax which is being debated at the federal level.
A performance tax if enacted will cost small radio stations like this one an estimated five thousand dollars per year, with the money coming from this county and being sent to record companies, supposedly on behalf of singers and musicians who claim that radio should pay them for playing their music.
As we have stated in the past, all radio stations pay fees to BMI, SESAC and ASCAP, the music licensors for composers and publishers of original music works. Musicians, on the other hand are expected to make their living by interpreting and performing those works, and by selling their interpretations in the form of CD’s, downloads, concerts, and corporate endorsements. Musicians, by the time they are played on this station are already signed by major record labels and compensated as such. Taxing radio stations to augment artists’ income is simply wrong.
Also simply wrong was President Obama’s administration endorsing this. The federal government already has too many of its hands in private business, and aside from issuing an FCC license for us to broadcast, and enforcing the protection of our frequencies from illegal and harmful transmissions, that is all the government should do within the radio industry.
Just this week, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters informs us that house speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced her support for the performance tax. A tax that could cause this radio station to change its format, eventually eliminating what few jobs we have managed to create in our county. Our current online survey of listeners indicates you appreciate the localism provided by our personalities on WION. If we are forced to pay this tax, our level of localism will suffer as the station may have to return to pre-programmed, non-local talk format, meaning less localism and less of the “information you need” here on WION.
There is also a very real danger that the performance tax, with Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement could be attached to a piece of legislation earmarked as “must pass” and that broadcasters would then be a victim of harmful and needless legislation because of personal agendas of some legislators.
If you’ve not already done
so, please, visit our website at www.i1430.com and use the easy links to
contact your members of congress. Tell them you value the jobs that your local
station created. Tell them you value the programming on your local station, and
that this tax could mean the end of
local
programming
We’ve worked hard to build this station for you, not for the federal government to promote private and selfish interests of large record companies.
Your business could be next. If the federal government can endorse taxing the playing of music, they can get their hands further into the running of your business as well.
Contact information for your members of congress and a link to directly contact house speaker Nancy Pelosi are on our website at eye fourteen thirty dot com…
I’m Jim Carlyle, owner of WION, asking you to help support local radio….and its continued growth in your community. And that’s my Carlyle comment.
April 3, 2010
CBS Radio news, following the Los Angeles Times, announced on Friday, April 2nd that President Obama's administration favors what is known as a "performance tax" on local radio. We need your help. This is blatantly WRONG, and beginning Monday April 5th in our noon and 5PM hours block, the "Carlyle Comment" on this will air. You get a preview here from the radio station owner's standpoint. An owner who has literally worked long days and long hours for nearly six years to build WION and our sister station, WGLM. Please get involved. As Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H would have said, the Performance Tax is "right off the stable floor!" The audio link (mp3) is here:
TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA TO LEAVE RADIO ALONE
TEXT OF THE AUDIO HERE:
First it was insurance companies. Then it was banks. Or, was it automotive manufacturing SECTOR next? It doesn’t matter the order of events, more and more….the federal government is getting its hands into your daily life, and it needs to stop. The latest in a long debate you’ve heard about on this station was quite disconcerting. I’m Jim Carlyle, co-owner of WION, Ionia and WGLM am and fm in Greenville and Lakeview. If you’re listening to this station, you’ve become accustomed to “the music you know. Now, with the recent endorsement of the idea by President Obama, major record labels and singing artists who are crying they don’t make enough money are pushing even more for a tax on this radio station and all local ones like it that play music, for every SINGLE song that is played.
You may not know it, but WION was off the air in Ionia County for nearly a year before our team bought it and restored it to today’s well-liked, very local, and highly listened-to status. WGLM radio in Greenville before our team bought it, was, for the largest part completely programmed by satellite dishes and computer automation with no local morning show, and very little local presence in its community. Both WION and WGLM work hard with a dedicated but small staff to bring you our programming every day, and a “performance tax” being endorsed by our federal administration is simply unacceptable and completely out of line.
This proposed tax is being pushed to Congress and the President by singing artists and major record labels who already get paid when you buy their CD’s and music downloads. Concert-goers to major name shows are paying over one hundred thirty dollars a ticket in some cases to see their favorite artists, and the “big name” artists that are clamoring to be paid more by radio stations like this one make more money than you or I could dream-of. Radio has always played a part in promoting the music industry. Radio has helped build careers. It has promoted concerts, and…small stations like ours pay thousands of dollars to the publishers and composers of your favorite songs every single year. Artists, on the other hand, together with record labels are expected to make their living by licensing and selling their interpretations of the composers’ work, if those songs are not original to the singer.
You’ve heard the term “special interest” frequently apply to organizations lobbying for their cause with all levels of government. Well, its time you get involved with this “special interest” in your community. Running a radio station takes talented people. It takes engineers, salespeople, office workers, and public relations individuals. It takes money to make it all happen, money earned locally and spent locally. (That's money generated from the sale of our air time to your favorite local advertisers.) It’s why we always have said, “Shop locally and listen locally” to this station.
If the performance tax is passed, the station you are listening to will be assessed thousands of dollars to be paid to record companies, many not here in the united states. It will take money out of Ionia, Greenville, Lakeview, and all the surrounding areas, and funnel it to big business because their voices are, indeed louder than those of you, the U.S. citizen.
President Obama should not, underline NOT be endorsing this performance tax. The beauty of our capitalistic American society is that any well run business in the proper economy will thrive. It is never the job of the federal government to intervene in business and endorse one kind of business over another. It’s also not proper for the president to blindly endorse the concept of a performance tax that could literally shut down small town radio stations when they can no longer afford the tax levied on them.
There are some large radio companies in bankruptcy right now in west Michigan, two of the biggest in the nation. If the performance tax passes, they’re likely to lay off more workers and consolidate multiple stations even more to compensate for this tax. It's not good for Michigan, not good for radio, and not good for you, the listener. Here at WION and WGLM, we don’t have that luxury. Our managers and staff already work long hours, our co-workers care about our communities, and any further burden by any government entity will make it tough for us to keep the level of service to you, our listeners that we have consistently been able to provide and be proud-of. It could even cause the END of local programming on our station and the return to satellite delivered talk programming, the same as you can get everywhere on the AM dial.
It was the goal of Jim Aaron and I to be able to build good radio in small towns, and do it with good people around us. So far, your support has helped rebuild WION and WGLM, add an FM signal to Ionia County that's been gone for 30 years, and we’ve provided information, and entertainment, and employment for the better part of our six years as part of your community. But, we do need YOUR voice to Congress and the President telling them to “leave local radio alone” before we could be forced to make some tough decisions.
Please, e-mail or write your member of Congress today. E-mail or write the white-house. Tell president Obama that interference by endorsing a tax on local radio may cause local radio to vanish from the dial again and that comes at a time when small towns, small businesses, and small employers and entrepreneurs need to be allowed to use their God given talents to grow and serve their towns.
That's my Carlyle comment...
Jim Carlyle, co-owner, WION and WGLM