Texas Broadcasters Advance Policy Concerns in Congress

posted on 3.06.2023

- Music Royalties, NextGen TV, Big Tech Top Agenda

TAB dispatched a 25-person delegation to Washington, DC last week to advocate for local Radio and Television broadcasters’ top policy concerns before members of Congress, meeting with all but two of the state’s 40 House and Senate offices.

The TAB delegation pressed lawmakers to:

1. Support HConRes 13, The Local Radio Freedom Act. The measure opposes efforts by the recording industry to force local Radio broadcasters to pay a new performance royalty in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars broadcasters already pay collectively to artists through SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR.
2. Encourage the FCC to move quickly in establishing a new task force to accelerate the deployment of NextGeneration Television. The new technical standard ensures local TV broadcasters can thrive in the modern media marketplace with mobile service, better video and sound, enhanced emergency alerting, multilingual options and more – all free, over the air.
3. Approve the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. The legislation would create a temporary anti-trust exemption to allow broadcasters and all other interested publishers to collectively negotiate with individual Big Tech companies on the terms of use of their content.

The meetings were held over two days following the NAB’s State Leadership Conference which attracted more than 560 local broadcasters from across the country.

The TAB delegation included station owners and executives from independent, group- and network-owned stations alike, including:

• David Abel, Cox Media Group San Antonio
• Raquel Amparo, CBS Television Dallas-Fort Worth
• D’Artagnan Bebel, FOX Television Houston
• David Candelaria, KTSM-TV El Paso
• Ben Downs, Bryan Broadcasting Bryan-College Station
• Sarah Frazier, Audacy Houston
• Paul Gleiser, ATW Media LLC Tyler (TAB Chairman)
• Wendy Granato, KTRK-TV/ABC 13 Houston
• John Hannon, TelevisaUnivision Houston
• Romeo Herrera, Radio United Rio Grande Valley & Laredo
• Tami Honesty, Radio One Dallas-Fort Worth
• John Kittleman, KRGV-TV Rio Grande Valley
• Eric Lassberg, KXAN-TV Austin
• Mark Masepohl, TelevisaUnivision Dallas-Fort Worth (TAB Past Chairman)
• Pam McKay, Radio One Houston
• John Moesch, West Texas Radio Odessa-Midland (TAB Treasurer)
• Carolyn Mungo, WFAA-TV Dallas Fort Worth
• Ashley Parker, KSAT-TV San Antonio
• Kathy Saunders, FOX Television Dallas-Fort Worth
• Gerry Schlegel, 95.9 The Ranch/LKCM Radio Group Dallas-Fort Worth
• Pat Stacey, KLTV Tyler
• Luis Villarreal, KGNS-TV Laredo (TAB Secretary)
• Josh Young, KWTX-TV Waco

Questions? Contact TAB’s Oscar Rodriguez or call (512) 322-9944.

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