Tod Maffin says a proposed new bill will be the “death of radio.”

It’s 2012. You turn on the radio. Some song is ending. The DJ introduces the next song and you only hear the opening second of it, when suddenly, a voice cuts in and says:

“I’m sorry, but since you indicated your household has more than four people in it, and you haven’t licenced your home for ‘public performance’ of musical works, we are unable to play this song.”

 

This just became a very likely reality thanks to U.S. lawmaker Mike Ferguson. He’s introduced an audio broadcast flag bill that would let the FCC force radio stations to provide “so-called “flag” technology be used to prevent content on HD Radios and satellite digital radios from being re-distributed.”

Cool. I can’t wait to buy a new HD radio with this cool feature. Worser and worser.