The Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) is pleased to inform you that we have reached a settlement with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) which: (i) finalizes license fees for the period 2001-2003; and (ii) establishes new ASCAP performance licenses for the period 2004-2009 that, for the first time, unlink the fees payable to ASCAP from station revenues and instead set forth flat dollar amounts of fees that will be payable to ASCAP by the commercial radio station industry as a whole, and provides stations with the right to perform ASCAP music as part of a simultaneous stream of their over-the-air signals on their Internet web sites. (You will need to check with your own attorneys to determine what additional rights may be needed to permit you to stream your signal on the Internet).

Eliminating the revenue-based music licensing system has been an important objective of the industry for many years, and with this agreement we have now succeeded in eliminating the revenue-based system from licenses with both of the major performing rights organizations, ASCAP and BMI.

The ASCAP allocation methodology tracks the methodology that was employed in the BMI license agreement reached last year and the Order that will be presented to Judge Conner contains the same type of provision that was entered in the BMI proceeding related to funding the administration of the new licenses and continuing representation of the industry regarding music performance issues.

The formal Court Order finalizing the settlement will be presented to the Court for signature on October 15, 2004.

The broadcasters on the Committee have worked closely with the Committee's economists and counsel to develop a methodology that fairly allocates the agreed upon industry-wide ASCAP fees among stations.

Even though these agreements were the result of a compromise and do not accomplish all of the goals that the industry had sought to achieve when it commenced negotiations with ASCAP several years ago, they represent a significant step forward for the industry and a real achievement for the Radio Music License Committee and the stations, whose interests we represent.