A Fight is a Brewing...

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville.

Everyone's attention is scattered these days, from Tiger Wood's apology to people flying planes into office buildings. The economy is soft at best and this Winter has been a bear.

Bubbling under all this is a battle that is about ready to hit the fan.

The royalty tax ...This Trojan horse is about ready to open up and spill out ...The news stories are beginning to air. (Saw one in Nashville on TV this week) ... Radio owners are about ready to draw down ... and this may not be pretty ... fighting words like:

"The Recording Industry Association of America, Music Managers Forum, American Association of Independent Music, and others say the promotional value of radio airplay has declined dramatically because audiences now get their music from so many other sources."

Who is doing PR for the RIAA? The Dixie Chicks? Wow ... if radio is so unimportant, then why levy the tax? What does it matter? Then next you go tax the Internet?

Now does anyone really think the Coasters and the 1910 FruitGum Company are actually going to see this money? Stimulus bimulus ... TAX is tax ... who ever grew anything with a TAX?

I was sort of seeing both sides until these sly radio cuts starting coming out ... Long, long ago when ASCAP and BMI were making sure songwriters were taken care of, something should have been done for the non-writers. A few deals were made with L.A. movie musicians, but does anyone think in these times you can levy some big tax on a business that has been hurt in this recession/maybe depression ad market?

Kill radio? Turn all the stations to Talk? How smart would that be?

More news from THE HILL:

"The Judiciary Committees of both chambers have passed the Performance Rights Act that would require broadcasters to pay the additional royalties. The National Association of Broadcasters has stepped up its lobbying and advertising campaigns on the airwaves to prevent the bill from moving forward ... NAB is also asking members to sign a resolution called the Local Radio Freedom Act."

TAX is always the left side of the political spectrum's answer to almost everything. When you here the ads that remind us that the labels are mostly foreign-owned enterprises that should stir up the "regular" guys out there ... A big star goes to the Hill and cries foul ... a star who doesn't write his music. Ah, poor star...Okay, I agree, they should be paid. But right now ... is not a good time to do this...

We are on shaky ground in the ad world and every other world you can think of. The Internet is the Wild West. That new technology alone has almost destroyed the world's newspapers. Rewrote the way record labels work and trying to take its next victim --movies.

You can not single out radio at a time it is very vulnerable. Record labels hate kissing radio's butt, but that's another subject for another day.

We need to get through this technology shake out ... and economic malaise ... then figure out how to treat performers fairly.

Slapping a big tax on radio that is already overleveraged and short-staffed might be just enough to really mess things up.

Free money always sounds good. Nothing is ever free ... nothing ...everything comes with a price.

Pendulum swings ... radio has been a partner with the labels, but it's domestic abuse. Radio has strong-armed the record people and the Feds have slapped them down a few times. Takes two to payola.

Tough subject ... no one really wants a Dodge City showdown. One is coming. It might even require some big drama for the radio folks.

Like in the movie "Tombstone": "You tell them I'm coming .. and Hell's coming with me" ...The labels do NOT want to blow smoke at this bull...