Today, the FCC is receiving comments on a petition filed by the musicFIRST Coalition, claiming that some radio stations are refusing to air musicFIRST ads, threatening artists who support the Performance Rights Act and running "misleading" ads produced by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Comments to be filed by the Music Managers Forum, a member of musicFIRST, include an e-mail sent by college radio station WICB/Ithaca to Aimee Mann’s online message board. The e-mail reads, "Since you support musicFirst, WICB hereby drops Aimee Mann and Til Tuesday from our playlist like a bad habit."

Jennifer Bendall, executive director of the musicFIRST Coalition, commented, "The e-mail is clear. WICB dropped Aimee Mann because she supports the effort to create a fair performance right on radio." And they did not stop there, Bendall says. "Like other radio stations, WICB dropped Aimee Mann and ‘any other musicFIRST supporters.’ It is a sad day when a licensed radio station affiliated with a major college punishes artists for exercising their First Amendment Rights."

According to the musicFIRST filing, one major radio group dropped a top selling artist's record after he spoke in support of performance rights legislation. The PD of a Florida radio station declined to add an artist’s recordings to his station’s playlist because the artist is listed as a member of the musicFIRST Coalition, and another told a representative of two prominent artists that the artists’ support for the Performance Rights Act would have a "chilling effect" on their relationship. Also, a Delaware radio station boycotted all artists affiliated with musicFIRST for an entire month, the Coalition claims.

musicFIRST is asking the FCC to find that the stations have violated their public interest obligations and consider the broadcasters’ malfeasance in connection with their license renewal. musicFIRST is also asking the FCC to consider this conduct as part of its overall review of the length of radio stations licenses, currently seven years, and shorten the license period.

"Our message to the FCC is clear," Bendall said. "We respect a broadcaster’s right to oppose the Performance Rights Act. But we cannot tolerate broadcasters’ use of the public airwaves to stifle debate, threaten artists and musicians and undermine the public interest in pursuit of their narrow, private business interests."

In response, the NAB filed its own comments with the FCC, dismissing the musicFIRST petition as nothing more than a "carefully crafted public relations document" that runs counter to the First Amendment, the Communications Act, and a precedent set by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the FCC. musicFIRST's "effort to stifle broadcasters' speech and inject the Commission into stations' programming decisions violates long-standing Communications Act law and policy, well-settled Commission precedent and broadcasters' basic First Amendment rights," the NAB told the Commission.

The NAB also touted an interview with the late Michael Jackson, which first surfaced on YouTube and was featured on ABC's Good Morning America last week. When asked, "What is your greatest lesson learned?," Jackson responded: "Not to trust everybody. Not to trust everybody in the industry. There's a lot of sharks, and record companies steal. They cheat. I have to audit them. And it's time for artists to take a stand against them."

The NAB points out that the interview surfaces at a time when record labels are asking members of Congress to instate a fee on local radio stations for airing music, and the new licensing fee would direct 50 percent of the collected money to the song's copyright holder, which RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol has told a Congressional committee is "typically, but not always, a label."