MUSICIANS FIGHTING BILL THAT WOULD CUT TV FEES

The issue was music and, in a sense, who owns it.

The setting was the Belly-Up Tavern, which as one emcee put it, felt a little bit like “Live Aid” in North County--or, as one voice in the crowd put it, “How-to-Get-Paid Aid.”

Mixing music with politics Sunday night, headliners Thelma Houston and John Ford Coley gave the winningest testimony as to why their music belongs to them--they sang it and played it.

The occasion was “Don’t Stop the Music,” described as a “BMI Town Hall Meeting” on how publishers, songwriters and musicians--like Coley and Houston--are threatened. Such meetings are part of a nationwide grass-roots effort, organized by music rights groups such as Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI).

The villains, said the speechmakers, are television broadcasters who buy rights to syndicated programming.

Under the current system of “blanket” licensing, broadcasters pay producers for the rights to syndicated programming. “I Love Lucy,” “The Fugitive” and “MASH” are all examples of syndicated shows. In addition, the broadcasters pay music rights organizations--BMI, ASCAP, SESAC--for the music that accompanies such shows.

This gives the authors of such music ongoing proceeds, in the form of royalties, every time their music is aired. Such a system, its advocates say, has functioned well for 40 years.

But now, bills in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives seek to mandate “source” licensing and thereby alter the blanket system. Under the new law, TV broadcasters would pay a one-time fee for syndicated programming--to the source from which it originates. This would wipe out the fees now doled out to publishers, songwriters and musicians, with groups such as BMI acting as intermediaries.

Such legislation would lower costs for television broadcasters and, in Jim Free’s opinion, shatter the incomes of “makers of music” nationwide.

Free, a Washington-based lobbyist working for BMI who spoke Sunday night, said:

“If something ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We have all kinds of problems in this country--huge deficit, need for arms reduction. . . . This issue does not deserve a lot of time in Congress.”

Free explained the process this way:

“Say you’re a TV station in San Diego--KXYZ. You go, once a season, and buy TV programming from producers--Lorimar, MGM, Paramount, et al . You purchase for a set price programming for one year’s run. In the purchase price, you buy syndicated rights. You do not pay for the music. The music is paid for in additional fees--to performance rights organizations, such as BMI.

“Source licensing wants to change that system forever. It mandates that when KXYZ goes to buy ‘MASH,’ it pays whatever it has to, and included in that price is the music. The composer, musician or performer gets no more from that point on.

“The danger is, what if a series becomes a hit? Say, you’ve written the music for ‘I Love Lucy’ or ‘MASH.’ You get no more under the source system than you would if the series becomes a dog. You’ve literally sold your music away for what in the long run becomes nothing.”

John Ford Coley, who lives in Carlsbad, is a former member of a Top 40 band, England Dan and John Ford Coley. He has written a lot of songs and, from time to time, still performs--as evidenced Sunday night, quite well. He also dabbles in acting, but most of his income comes, he said, from royalties made off music drafted for television and the movies.

“In the print medium, if someone takes a writer’s work and makes it his own--for gain and profit-- that’s plagiarism,” Coley said. “We’re seeking to avoid that. We’re seeking to stop that. We don’t think it’s fair, or legal.”

But it would be legal if such legislation passes. House Bill 1195 is sponsored by Rep. Frederick Boucher (D-Va.). Senate Bill 698 is sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). Free took pains to point out that several local representatives have gone on record as opposing the bills. They include both of California’s U.S. Senate members, Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson, as well as Reps. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach), William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) and Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach).

Proponents of the House bill include Jim Bates (D-San Diego), Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado).

Jennie Wilcox, a spokeswoman for Thurmond, said he favors the bill for a variety of reasons:

“He feels that, when local television stations buy syndicated programs, the music should come with the rights as a whole. He sees it as an issue of fairness. A station has already purchased the broadcast rights, but that’s virtually worthless without the music that goes with it.

“He feels the blanket license system isn’t appropriate for syndicated programs. Blanket licenses came into being when most TV broadcasts were live. Now the music is pre-taped. Blanket licensing also discourages local stations from hiring local composers. As it is, they have to run everything through BMI and ASCAP.”

Jim Free countered by saying, “I don’t know if he’s noticed, but local TV stations aren’t exactly getting poor. Sen. Thurmond may owe a debt to some local TV mogul in South Carolina. A lot of politicians may. And that’s why they feel the way they do.”

The purpose of gatherings such as Sunday night’s is to notify music lovers of the need, in Free’s words, to write their congressmen.

Ron Anton, a vice president of BMI, talked repeatedly of “the domino effect” that he thinks such legislation carries.

“We’re in big trouble if this passes,” Anton said. “Who’s to stop source licensing from leapfrogging from local television, in this case, to network television to cable television to radio to movies? This is one of the major sources of revenue for publishers, musicians, composers. They need to do everything they can to protect it.”

“Eventually, this hits the consumer,” Free said. “You just won’t have the music you now have. Musicians ain’t gonna write it for free--or maybe they will, which is very sad. A Henry Mancini is gonna say, ‘You can’t source-license my music!’ If he can’t get a cut every time it’s played, why bother?

“This is just asinine. Did we invent stereo TV to use less music? Look at shows like ‘Miami Vice.’ Now, how would that sound without music?”