March has been busy for clean-up projects. One important one was finding the
original B-4 contracts for the Dr. John sessions in the early 1970's. There has
been quite a bit of new use for the song "Right Place, Wrong Time". I
received a call from a member reporting the use, so I contacted the jingle
department at the LA Federation looking for the B-forms. There has been a
Heineken commercial running using the song and they needed to bill the company
for reuse for the musicians. As the sessions were done in 1973, I had to dig
through quite a few boxes before finding them. These sessions will now be
documented with both the jingle and newuse departments. Just another reason why
you may want to be on AFM contracts.
I know I wrote about this before, but if you move or drop out of the AFM and
have ever received new use checks, you must call the new use department at the
West Coast Federation to update your information. They work off of the AFM
database; if you drop out of the AFM they have no way of finding you to send
checks. Their phone number is: 323-461-3441 ex. 215.
The Latin Grammys will be hosted in Miami on September 12. A serious contender for last year's awards, Miami lost out to Los Angeles because of a 1996 Miami-Dade law barring the city from doing business with any group that includes representatives from Cuba. That law has since been ruled invalid by the Supreme Court.
A delegation from Miami-Dade, including mayors Alex Penelas
and Neilsen Kasdin, paid a visit to Los Angeles this past February to lobby for
holding the awards at American Airlines Arena. The show could bring in a
potential $40 million in revenues to the region, but Miami must still come up
with $1 million to cover production costs.
Mike Greene, president and CEO of NARAS, announced on April 4 that Miami will
host the Latin Grammys, which will be broadcast on CBS. Local 655 member Kiki
Santander was on hand to help make the announcement. The awards show will be
preceded by a month-long Grammy Fest which will include concerts, educational
events, exhibits, workshops, and receptions.