Cuts & public radio playing music

[K.M. Richards]

So far, we are indeed holding on and avoiding a recession. Powell is very astute and knows when the Fed should and should not act. But people are worried, and the perception is that we are closer than before.

Donating to public broadcasting has a significant emotional component. A populace that perceives the possibility of financial upheaval may hold off on donations right now, just as their money may well be the difference now.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

Been teetering so long that the last administration even redefined what an official recession was.

It was not. The definition of a recession hasn't changed since the late 1960s, when the Commerce Department started using NBER definitions for recessions. Did the White House Change the Definition of 'Recession'?

Business Cycle Dating Procedure: Frequently Asked Questions

www.nber.org

How long has this teetering been going on? Seems I've been hearing that prediction for multiple years, going back to the first Trump administration and including Biden's four years.

You have that perception because the economists who get quoted in the press aren't very insightful. Some of them rely on the simple "due factor" from baseball. The 2009-2020 expansionary period was the longest in US history, and it was only ended by a pandemic. Some economists think we're "due" for a recession simply because there hasn't been one in 15 years.
Others are primarily political operators who will tell you one thing when Team Red is in power and something different when Team Blue is.

Ignoring that you used "assume" when you meant "presume" (unless you are personally accepting the financial responsibility, in which case thank you for saving public radio all by yourself), everyone here knows the reality of listener donations. There is never enough as it is, and now stations will be asking for even more.

This is not accurate.

Merriam-Webster wrote:

Assume and presume both mean "to take something for granted" or "to take something as true," but the words differ in the degree of confidence the person assuming or presuming has. Presume is used when someone is making an informed guess based on reasonable evidence. Assume is used when the guess is based on little or no evidence.

The country is teetering on the verge of a recession, and the moves in DC are pushing us faster in that direction. Not only do I believe the existing donors will not be motivated to give more of their discretionary income, I believe there's a good chance that many of them will say "sorry ... no more".

Who said anything about donating more? Pretty sure you invented that. Using music formats and automation is about cutting costs -- dramatically -- to suit the new world.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Merriam-Webster wrote:

Assume and presume both mean "to take something for granted" or "to take something as true," but the words differ in the degree of confidence the person assuming or presuming has. Presume is used when someone is making an informed guess based on reasonable evidence. Assume is used when the guess is based on little or no evidence.

I'd suggest you take it up with my high school English teacher, but she's been dead for over 15 years now.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The BBC World Service is used as overnight fill at many public stations, and the BBC’s Newshour program is heard during the day. Access to BBC programming isn’t free. Wonder if that will get cut by many stations caught in a budget crunch?

 

[ted chittenden]

I suspect music formats on public radio will make a comeback in the next 12 months, because playing jazz or whatever after 6pm will likely be cheaper than acquiring several shows to fill that time.

Actually, I suspect the shoe is going to be on the other foot for the reasons outlined by others above. It's going to be a lot cheaper to pay for a single hour news/talk show than it will be to pay for ten or eleven jazz numbers during that same hour, especially if you have to pay afee per song per listener as required by the RIAA if you wish to continue streaming music on your station.

 

[CTListener]

The BBC World Service is used as overnight fill at many public stations, and the BBC’s Newshour program is heard during the day. Access to BBC programming isn’t free. Wonder if that will get cut by many stations caught in a budget crunch?

The World Service is one of the two BBC radio services (along with Radio 4) that won't be paywalled for American listeners. Its availability as filler programming for public broadcasters here should be unaffected.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

It's going to be a lot cheaper to pay for a single hour news/talk show than it will be to pay for ten or eleven jazz numbers during that same hour, especially if you have to pay afee per song per listener as required by the RIAA if you wish to continue streaming music on your station.

It definitely will not be. Music royalties for over-the-air use are a blanket thing, a certain amount of money per month for all the music you can play.

As for, SoundExchange (streaming royalty) I can't speak to because of the CPB deal written and Non-disclosure agreement written about on page 1.

 

[TheBigA]

As for, SoundExchange (streaming royalty) I can't speak to because of the CPB deal written and Non-disclosure agreement written about on page 1.

I think it's also a blanket rate. Religious stations sued SoundExchange a few months ago saying CPB got a lower rate. There are details in that suit.

After this, CPB will still exist, just with no funding. I'm sure that will be addressed in the coming weeks.

The public broadcasting act was not repealed, so everything in it still stands.

 

[ted chittenden]

The World Service is one of the two BBC radio services (along with Radio 4) that won't be paywalled for American listeners. Its availability as filler programming for public broadcasters here should be unaffected.

It won't be affected *if* you listen directly over the Internet. I know that back in the 2001-2003 timeframe, several NPR-affiliated stations actually cut off their Internet streams during BBC overnights because the payment issues hadn't been decided yet. Given the current budget cuts over at the BBC, it wouldn't surprise me if it decided to up the rates U.S. public radio stations must pay to carry it, despite the defunding of the CPB by Congress at the request of the current U.S. President.

 

[Don CT]

You know the answer to that. Now that the government has taken taxpayers off the hook the answer is simpler than ever before.

Illegal immigrants that don’t pay taxes?

 

[TheBigA]

Now that the government has taken taxpayers off the hook

You may want to rephrase that. Public radio supporters for the most part are also taxpayers.

 

[TheBigA]

Relevant to this discussion about music & public radio, I saw this at WXPN Philadelphia:

The Federal Government has voted to defund public media. This is despite the fact that total federal funding of this resource accounted for less than one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget, and millions of Americans have long relied on this lifeline of essential emergency information, local news, and access to free and independent music and cultural programming.

A rescission package eliminating all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)—a nonprofit authorized by Congress since 1967 to steward the government’s investment in public broadcasting, via grants to individual stations—has been passed. These funds had already been approved for the next two years, and stations had been counting on the support for their essential operations.

This action, while primarily intended to harm NPR and PBS, deals a heavy blow to the entire public media system. Music stations like WXPN were never the target. Nonetheless, we are collateral damage.

What does this mean for WXPN? WXPN previously received approximately 5% of our annual budget through a CPB grant, on top of which we are further impacted by additional hits to our budget, such as music licensing costs, which CPB previously covered.

WXPN will now have to raise an additional million dollars per year to offset the loss of funds and services.​

While this won’t halt WXPN’s operations, it will limit our ability to provide a wide range of programs and activities to our community of artists and audiences. Our work powers the local music ecosystem and the creative economy through concerts and promotional partnerships; opens up free access to experiences, both in person and digitally, for music fans; expands and builds upon our place as a national leader in musical discovery through our hosting of the annual NONCOMMvention; and invites community to take root through regular shared events like weekly Free At Noon concerts and the XPoNential Music Festival.

Now we have to take a hard look at our remaining resources and determine what can continue as usual and what will need to be reconsidered in this new funding climate. The most important thing you can do is support WXPN and the public media system in a way that is meaningful to you. To all our members and donors: THANK YOU for having our backs. Together, we will forge a new path.

Federal support we will learn to live without. But it is YOUR support that breathes life into WXPN. Onward.

 

[TheBigA]

NPR Has announced the creation of a fund to assist local stations impacted by the loss of federal funding:

NPR Makes $8M Change To Protect Endangered Stations - Radio Ink

NPR is shifting its own budget to shield member stations from the fallout of Congress’s CPB funding rescission.

radioink.com

Speaking with Texas Public Radio News Director Dan Katz, NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said NPR’s board made the decision to cut the organization’s own operating budget by $8 million and redirect that money to assist stations, particularly those in rural areas, facing major shortfalls.

 

[TheBigA]

Today, CPB announced it will cease operations at the end of September. It's staff will be let go. There will be no one to negotiate music royalties and there won't be money to pay for them. So sometime in the next two months, public broadcasting stations will have to come up with a replacement system of taking care of this function. Obviously something neither the president nor congress considered.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it will shut down after Congress cut money

Currently, the CPB helps support more than 1,500 locally owned NPR and PBS member stations.

www.nbcnews.com

It will be up to CPB in its final days to contact the stations and the representatives of the music industry with the news.

 

[CTListener]

Today, CPB announced it will cease operations at the end of September. It's staff will be let go. There will be no one to negotiate music royalties and there won't be money to pay for them. So sometime in the next two months, public broadcasting stations will have to come up with a replacement system of taking care of this function. Obviously something neither the president nor congress considered.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it will shut down after Congress cut money

Currently, the CPB helps support more than 1,500 locally owned NPR and PBS member stations.

www.nbcnews.com

It will be up to CPB in its final days to contact the stations and the representatives of the music industry with the news.

Public radio stations weren't playing "YMCA" or "God Bless the USA" anyway, so what does it matter to the GOP if stations stop playing woke, highbrow music?

 

[ted chittenden]

Public radio stations weren't playing "YMCA" or "God Bless the USA" anyway, so what does it matter to the GOP if stations stop playing woke, highbrow music?

Actually, I suspect that some public music radio stations will continue to exist, especially in the classical realm. What will be much more difficult to find will be on-line streams for the music stations. SoundExchange is likely to ask for a per song per listener fee for public radio stations (remember that lawsuit filed by religious broadcasters against public radio?) and most will be unable to come up with the money that the music industry or its artists want.

That's the irony here. President Trump and the current GOP wanted public radio funding to stop because they believe the news and talk were biased against them; yet it will be the news and talk that will ultimately beable to better withstand this funding loss, at least in the short term--there is more support for it among the general population. What might ultimately doom all of public radio (as well as much of the commercial radio sector and some religious stations) is the aggressive tariffs Mr. Trump has placed on goods coming into the U.S. As of today, we are now finally beginning to see the negative effects of these behaviors and pronouncements in terms of lack of job growth and increasing inflation. And if this keeps up, neither corporations nor consumers will be able to support radio of any kind.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually, I suspect that some public music radio stations will continue to exist, especially in the classical realm.

A lot of classical is not covered for author and composer rights. It's possible that some arrangers might justify claims, but I suspect that jazz and Americana stations or programs will be more affected.

 

[TheBigA]

One way I could see this going is for NPR to use its legal team to handle the negotiations with the music industry, seek a funder to pick up the royalty fees, and then make the service available to anyone who agrees to run the funding announcements. However, in order to do this, the NPR Board would have to approve it. This is the non-com version of barter. Even then, I could expect some stations to balk at running the funding announcements.

CPB was like your grandparents. Everybody loved CPB. What's not to like? Replacing them, even for music royalties, won't be easy. Because public radio stations are fiercely independent.

 

[CTListener]

A lot of classical is not covered for author and composer rights. It's possible that some arrangers might justify claims, but I suspect that jazz and Americana stations or programs will be more affected.

Only in classical music, though, do you find arrangers who are just as dead as the composers, and for 75 years or more! The most popular rendition of "Pictures at an Exhibition," composed for piano by Mussorgsky, who died in 1881, is the orchestral arrangement by Ravel, who died in 1937.

 

[davideduardo]

One way I could see this going is for NPR to use its legal team to handle the negotiations with the music industry, seek a funder to pick up the royalty fees, and then make the service available to anyone who agrees to run the funding announcements. However, in order to do this, the NPR Board would have to approve it. This is the non-com version of barter. Even then, I could expect some stations to balk at running the funding announcements.

Do we have any news or information suggesting that NPR will regroup and continue to operate without the Federal Government?

CPB was like your grandparents. Everybody loved CPB.

No, that is not true. Some people disliked it in the belief that it leaned left, and others disliked it because they believe that the government should not be involved in broadcasting in any way.

What's not to like? Replacing them, even for music royalties, won't be easy. Because public radio stations are fiercely independent.

"Fiercely independent" tends to file down its fangs when funding is cut. I'd expect a lot of collaboration as stations look for post-CPB support.