Networks without ASCAP

Last week 14 resourceful songwriters filed suit against NBC, CBS, National Association of Broadcasters and Broadcast Music, Inc. for $1,215,500 on the ground that while fighting American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers the broadcasters had conspired to destroy the livelihood of the composers. Forthwith ASCAP repudiated the suit. Said a spokesman: "We have plenty of troubles of our own without worrying about what those guys are going to do."

ASCAP has plenty of troubles indeed. Convinced that they have the Society on the run, the chains have no intention of rushing quickly into a settlement of the music war. Each day B.M.I., radio's lusty little music mill, grows stronger and bargaining gets tougher for ASCAP. Last March a 15-man committee of the National Association of Broadcasters met with ASCAP, got nowhere in a four-hour session. Just as unfruitful was subsequent dickering. Now ASCAP is trying to deal separately with individual chains and stations, but it still hasn't figured out a mutually agreeable form of contract.

While B. M. I. goes smugly along, ASCAP has been full of internal confusion. ASCAP is bitter about the networks, accuses them of being indifferent to the public. Says a representative belligerently: "They don't have to sign. Nobody is going to force them. The music is here if they want to buy it and if they don't want to buy it the hell with them."

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