Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has joined as a cosponsor of the Local Radio Freedom Act in the U.S. Senate. He is one of 20 senators to sign on to the bill shortly after it was introduced.
The resolutions in the House of Representatives and the Senate oppose “any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge” on local broadcast radio stations.
Cosponsors in the House include Wisconsin Reps. Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Glenn Grothman, Tom Tiffany, and Mike Gallagher.
Last session more than half the members of the U.S. House cosponsored the bill.
The Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) signals Members of Congress’s opposition to any potential legislation that would impose new performance royalties on broadcast radio stations for music airplay. “Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over the air, or on any business for the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station broadcast over the air,” reads the Local Radio Freedom Act.
