Reps. Gene Green (D-TX), Mike Conaway (R-TX), Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) circulated this "Dear Colleage" letter today on Capitol Hill encouraging their colleagues to join the growing bipartisan chorus of lawmakers who stand opposed to the record labels' campaign to decimate a musician's number one promotional vehicle.

"Just like every other industry, the recording industry is suffering both from the economic situation of this country, but also from the technological changes that have provided a-la-carte music service on iTunes.com, Amazon.com, and other online music services," the letter reads. "But rather than adapting to the new technologies, the recording industry is trying to bite the hand that feeds it by imposing a new tax on its biggest promotional tool, as if free radio were immune to the economic downturn."

NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton commenting on the "Dear Colleague" letter said: "The CBO report and today's Dear Colleague letter raise fundamental questions about the record label money grab from local radio. Exactly how much money would radio stations be required to funnel to RIAA companies? How many radio jobs in America would be lost if a performance tax becomes law? How many charities supported by local radio stations would suffer? How many music stations would switch to an all-talk format to avoid paying onerous fees to offshore labels based in Japan, the UK and France?"

P.S. We agree with the radio guys on this situation. We really don’t think it is the record labels as much as the individual artists who are pushing the royalty payments from radio. The labels and their promotion departments have far too much to lose. If labels were backing this effort, none of the stations would take calls from promotion people nor support the artists’ tours. Most of the acts, like Emmylou Harris, aren’t on big labels anyhow.