When MTV signed on in August 1981, the first video it aired was the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Neither MTV nor video has yet killed off radio, but a proposal floating around Congress may do just that.

Almost 1,000 Maine radio industry jobs will be in jeopardy if what has come to be known as the “performance tax” gets teeth on Capitol Hill. H.R.848 and S.379, the “Performance Rights Act,” or PRA, seeks to mandate a fee on local radio stations to play music, the largest chunk of which would go directly to foreign-owned record labels. Three of the “big four” record labels are based overseas, so enacting the performance tax on Maine radio stations diverts desperately needed local revenue into the already very deep pockets of overseas music moguls.

The impetus for this legislation is the record industry’s failing business model. The convergence of digital compact discs and the Internet in the 1990s meant songs could be shared by one person to a million with the click of a mouse. The resuling steep decline in CD sales now has the record labels scrambling to make up lost revenue on the backs of the very radio stations whose free promotion enables music sales. That they cloak this money grab in the guise of “supporting the performers” belies the fact that numerous performers, among them the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Cher and Eminem, have sued their record labels over unpaid royalties in recent years.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, recently said that small businesses accounted for 80 percent of job losses since last November. Many of Maine’s radio stations are just that: small businesses that are already feeling the stress of the recession and have had to make painful job cuts. Hitting local radio stations with an additional fee such as the performance tax could force many to go off the air, causing irrevocable economic harm to a truly American industry, or to switch to non-music formats, prompting even steeper declines in CD sales.

Even though we all love turning on the radio and hearing our favorite songs, radio’s role goes beyond entertainment to helping the people in the communities they serve. Maine radio stations give nearly $49 million each year in donated airtime, disaster relief and fundraising assistance to countless nonprofit organizations and community causes. This doesn’t even include local radio stations’ assistance during weather emergencies. When a big snowstorm blankets the state, we turn to our local radio stations to keep us updated on school closings, power outages and closed roadways.

Local radio stations are not trying to avoid paying a just tax, or refusing to give money where money is due; they’re simply trying to survive and protect themselves from unfair legislation. Radio provides the performers and labels with free airtime, helping them to reach 235 million American listeners each week. Former Stanford University professor James Dertouzos recently published a study that found free music airplay by radio stations generates between $1.5 billion and $2.4 billion in sales annually for labels and artists. This doesn’t account for the additional revenue from concert tickets and merchandise sales that radio helps to generate.

Maine’s unemployment rate rose to almost 8 percent in July, a number that hasn’t been seen since the early 1990s. Many of our state’s industries have had to lay off workers and cut back their spending. Yet, in the midst of this unprecedented financial crisis, some politicians in Washington continue to support the PRA, which threatens jobs and nonprofit assistance throughout the country and in Maine.

Sens. Snowe and Susan Collins and Rep. Mike Michaud have co-sponsored a countervailing measure, the Local Radio Freedom Act, which would keep radio free from these ridiculous performance fees. With their help, we can work to keep jobs in our communities, protect our nonprofit organizations, and keep free radio free.

Suzanne Goucher is president and CEO of the Maine Association of Broadcasters. E-mail: [email protected].