Satellite radio networks for retail/restaurant chains

[Sam The Record Man]

I'd love to know just how many businesses actually get the licenses necessary to play terrestrial radio in their shops.  It must be a tiny, tiny percentage.

I know, for example, that all the TCBY yogurt shops in Memphis that I've visited listen to the local hot AC station (FM 100).  I doubt the company is paying for that.  Who would enforce that, anyway?  The station gets captive ears and the advertisers get a little more exposure.

[CTListener]

Wasn't there the old "two-speaker rule" where you could play the local AM/FM station if you were a small business with two or less speakers in your establishment, or did that rule go down the drain?  I notice every Subway here using local FM's and just 2 speakers.

You CAN buy an XM/Sirius commercial package.

I understand those XM/Sirius commercial feeds run wall-to-wall music with no DJ patter or promos for other channels. However, I've been in several restaurants that have been running the same Sirius XM programming I get on my own receiver -- a McDonald's that pipes in The Blend, a pizza place that pipes in '60s on 6, etc.

[Nick]

It would be hard for the copyright police to enforce every store in every town. They most likely just enforce in the big cities where it's easy to walk down the street into each store and find out if the radio is playing. But there is no point to enforcing that rule, since ASCAP/BMI will most likely get no revenue at all when the store turns off the radio. When the radio is played in a store, it indirectly increases their revenue (ratings go up, more people exposed to a song could lead to a sale of the song). The radio stations are already paying the public performance royalty for their air signal and their stream.

[Radio_bored-Op]

ok legal issue aside for a momento:
it is fuuny, when . . . .say, the subway resturant
plays 93.1 FM, . . . (for example),and a spot for
. . McDonald's comes up . . haha!

[CrankyYankee]

My understanding of the proper way to play a radio station in a business is that the station must be coming from a radio and not piped through a p-a system throughout the store.  A store in a town where I used to live got nailed by ASCAP once for pumping a local station around the store via their p-a system.  The solution was to have a bunch of radios around the store all tuned to the same station.  Sirius/XM wants to know if their signals are in any way enhancing the business climate of a store where they are on, so that's why they want to know if you intend to use their service in a store or business.  BTW: The same thing goes for cable TV in a business setting.  If the service can be see by the public, the cable customer should sign up as a "business' subscriber.  My understanding is that there's usually no extra charge to be listed as a business customer.  If the TV is only in, say, a break room out back where the public is not allowed, the subscriber could be listed as a normal or regular sub.