Play Meter

Issue: 1985 September 01 - Vol 11 Num 16

Letters to
the editor • •

much to improve the overall health of
all of us .
As for communication, the fac -
tories could read the same trade
publications we do, exhibit at all trade
shows, and have mini -workshops at
the distributorships. The communi-
cation lines worked well before . We
need to get back to basics.
Let the names of those greats who
have fallen , serve as a reminder to all
of us .
That 's entertainment.. .
Jeff Rosenthal
M&J Novelty
Brooklyn, New Jers e y
Sold down the river
Tha(s entertainment
Pla y Meter ha s been running
blurbs proclaiming "We are in the
Entertainment Business ." I think we
should thank Play Meter for reminding
us. And for those of us who are
unaware of this fact , please note it.
For too long , the industry has
seemed headed for self-destruction by
poor product, overpaid commissions,
greedy and/ or selfish manufacturers .
We hear of secret agreements , and of
operators alliances to communicate
with the factories (who have not
exactly listened so far) .
Bravo also to Play Meter for con -
tinuing to print articles on Increasing
Grosses on Old Games, Computer-
ized Management , and Game Trading .
We need more of this type of articles.
Let the industry beware. Manufac -
turers produce and operators oper-
ate. If equipment isn 't entertaining, we
all lose. We don't need an alliance. We
need better, higher quality product
and less fighting . The coin-op cus-
tomers will do the rest.
Operators can make good money
from older stock. We need more new
ideas, while the manufacturers
rlevelop new product. And to those
factories who still advocate kits are
bad, I say that's not good enough.
Factories have as much of an obli-
gation to the industry to help opera-
tr.rs keep older stock productive, as
they do to produce new quality pro-
duct. It's true for all manufacturers ,
not just game manufacturers . Stan-
dardized wiring and the like will do
PLAY METER. September 1 . 1965
We were completely shocked at
the compromise agreement between
the AMOA and the Performing Rights
Societies. A careful analysis of the
agreement sets forth the fact that we
operators and members of the AMOA
will receive a small 10 percent credit
for a year or so.
As we all realize , part of the pro-
blem is in the enforcement of the fees .
As I understand , only 30 to 40 percent
of the jukeboxes are registered . They
will never be registered unless some-
one searches all areas and forces the
operators to register all boxes.
It was our understanding that
AMOA was striving fo r a registration
fee (one time) to be paid by the opera-
tor at the time of purchasing the
jukebox from his distributor . This
would save the high cost of enforcing
the registration . Nothing has been
mentioned about this possibility.
What happened?
We definitely think the member-
ship was sold down the river. AMOA
wasted their time and effort. AMOA
should have ascertained its direction
by polling its members. It's the mem-
bers who m ust pay high royalty fees.
The royalty fees must be changed
to a one time fee paid at the time of
purchase . We operators also pay a
royalty fee each and every time we
purchase records for the jukebox.
Enough said .
J .William Corey
President
C.P.C . Music , Inc .
Crawfords ville, Indiana
0
Reasons he reads
I look forward to reading your
magazine very much .
I've made about every effort to
reduce my operating costs to survive
as an operator. However, dropping
my Play Meter subscription would be
a bad mistake.
Here are a few good reasons that I
like the magazine.
1. The survey of the most popular
games.
2. The editorial is very info rmative
and tells us about the character of the
owner. (She says what's best for t he
business, and treats the manufac -
turers, distributors , and operators
fairly.)
3. T he distributors' ads, especially
Faco West's advertisement on which
machines give the best return on
investment.
Even though I have a college
degree in accounting, and have my
own system on return on investment,
Faco West's system I like even better
than my own. Thank you Faco!!
Play Meter, keep up the good
work.
Marlow Remmers
linc oln, Nebraska
Audio Visu Amusements
OFFERING THE FINEST
NEW AND USED EQUIPMENT
YOU'VE TRIED THE REST, NOW TRY THE BEST!!
We're Eager To Serve
1809 O live Stree t, St. Louis, Missouri 63103
314/421-5100
for furt her information, call Pete Entringer coll ect
9
OMAA protests
AMOA agreement
The Ohio Music and Amusement
Association (OMAA) adopted a reso-
lution at its June 27 board of directors
meeting protesting the May agree-
ment between PJ..AOA and the Per-
forming Rights Societies on jukebox
license fees. In a strongly worded
statement. OMAA stated that "PJ..AOA
did not discharge its duties according
to directives and goals it initially pub-
licized and that the agreement is not in
the best long term interest of the juke-
box industry."
The PJ..AOA agreement was the
solution to an ongoing problem of
excessive license fees imposed upon
jukebox operators beginning with $8
per year in 1978 rising to $50 in 1985.
Jukebox operators were outraged
at the increase and had sought relief
with the PJ..AOA agreement. However.
the agreement fell short of providing
much relief. and in fact calls for an
increase to at least $60 in 1987. The
agreement provides a S I 0 rebate for
1985 and 1986. and a rebate of any-
thing over $60 for 1987 and 1988
provided there are II 0.000 jukeboxes
registered in 198 7 and I 15.000 in 1988.
Ohio operators are angry about
the agreement and how it was
obtained. Said OMAA president Larry
Van Brockel. "This agreement was the
best kept secret since the atom bomb.
PJ..AOA made no attempt to let us know
what was going on. There could even
be more things in the agreement that
we still don't know about. Even the
point about low compliance among
operators has not been challenged . I
believe the compliance is much
higher."
He went on to say. "The PJ..AOA
approached the OMAA to organize a
grass roots organization. to have our
members work hard contacting sen-
ators and representatives to make
them aware of our problem. We were
10
asked to do it and we did. We worked
hard. and all of a sudden we find out
an agreement was reached and we
didn't know anything about it."
This resolution. noted Van BrockeL
is not the opinion of one or two people
in the association. but represents the
whole association. " At our board
meeting it was I 00 percent unanimous
that everyone was extremely unhappy
with this agreement. " said Van
Brockel. " A group representing the
PJ..AOA came to Columbus to talk with
us about our feelings on the matter
which we told them in detail. How-
ever. they didn't give us any satis-
factory answers."
OMAA's resolution states its objec-
tions to the PJ..AOA agreement: ( I )
PJ..AOA's original goal was to mount a
grass roots campaign. not to negotiate
OJ;\ agreement that prohibits any
further legislative effort before 1989;
(2) the settlement establishes a new
floor to fees that only two years ago
were considered so oppressive as to
cripple the already staggering juke-
box industry; and ( 3) the settlement
seems to be the result of the Perform-
ing Rights Societies perception of lack
of unity on the part of PJ..AOA negotia-
tors.
Van Brockel said that the hope of
OM.AA by adopting this resolution. is
to emphasize to PJ..AOA that they are
representing operators all over the
country and they need the grass roots
campaigns and operator support
"Something as monumental as this
agreement should have involved
Dyal receives award
John Dyal. Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. right was given an award
by Standard Change-Makers. Inc. for the "Greatest Percentage of Increase
in Sales for 1984 ... The award was presented by John S. Dugan. national
sales manager. at the Company's 30th annual sales meeting in Indianapolis.
PLAY MfTER, September 1, 1985

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