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Rehr: 'This Is An Important Moment For Radio'
 CHARLOTTE -- September 28, 2007: At his Thursday keynote address at the NAB Radio Show, NAB President/CEO David Rehr said, "This is an important moment for radio. We must decide: Do we want to keep moving forward or stay behind?"
Before unveiling the "Radio 2020" marketing initiative for the Radio Show's 3,127 attendees -- up from 3,021 in 2006 -- Rehr cited a study conducted by O'Keefe Brands for the NAB, the RAB, and the HD Digital Radio Alliance. (More on Radio 2020 here.)
"Participants in the focus groups overwhelmingly stated that radio is very important in their lives," he said. "Nearly all said they rely heavily on radio to easily connect to a diverse world of entertainment and information, no matter where they are. This confirms what we've known all along: Radio matters to listeners."
But not all the news from the survey was good. "Many listeners acknowledge that they take radio for granted, precisely because it's so pervasive," Rehr said. "And, as a result, listeners don't really think about radio's value and importance. Listeners also believe that many stations could do a better job of playing a wider variety of music, and some perceive a trend towards less format diversity." Radio 2020, he said, will help address these "misguided perceptions."
Rehr then talked about some of the major issues facing radio broadcasters, beginning with the recording industry's campaign to have a performance royalty established for broadcast radio. "The big record labels are spinning the same old tune to Congress -- asking them to impose a tax on radio to line the pockets of international radio executives," Rehr said. "We can't and won't let that happen."
He said the NAB is meeting with members of Congress, running ad campaigns, and "mounting an aggressive grass-roots effort" to block the royalty.
Moving on to the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, Rehr said that, after the merger plan was announced, "NAB threw down the gauntlet."
He reiterated the NAB's position that a combined XM-Sirius would constitute a "government-sanctioned monopoly" and said, "Granting this monopoly violates FCC rules and precedent, congressional policy, and antitrust principles and would undermine audio-content competition, not enhance it."
Rehr then looked at what he called "the Copyright Royalty Board's terrible decision on Internet royalty rates."
He said, "As you know, in March, the Copyright Royalty Board, or CRB, announced it was increasing rates by an outrageous 138 percent in four years. This decision threatens to bring a dramatic stop to a new medium still in its infancy -- radio streaming."
Rehr said, "NAB supports a comprehensive approach to addressing this problem," and added that he was "extremely disappointed" when SoundExchange -- which collects and distributes Internet radio royalties -- rejected an NAB settlement offer.
Rehr ended by telling a story of George Washington, during the bleakest days of the Revolutionary War, writing on a piece of parchment the words "Victory or death."
"Obviously, in the battles that we face, individually, we are not in a life-or-death situation," Rehr said. "But from this story, we can gain inspiration and remember the fighting spirit of our forefathers. Yes, we will ask more from you. Yes, we will expect more from you. Yes, you will expect more from others in radio. But standing together, aggressively facing the future, we will bring a great victory to this great industry. Remember: Victory or death."
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