CBC VS. BLACK RADIO OVER ROYALTIES: Radio One's Cathy Hughes leads the charge against Caucus.

Dionne Warwick hits back at Hughes in a statement.

      *A battle over music royalties has pitted members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) against the owners of black radio stations, sparking a rare public fight between African-American powerbrokers that could work against lawmakers used to easy re-election, reports The Hill.

      Under current law, stations only pay copyright royalties to artists who compose hit songs, not those who perform them. Other media, such as satellite and Internet radio, must pay royalties to performers. Radio owners say a law requiring them to pay additional royalties would bankrupt their stations.

      The issue has become so heated that the NAACP, the civil rights group that has spent nearly a century advocating for black Americans, has stepped in to call for a truce. The main adversary of the lawmakers is Cathy Hughes, the founder and chairwoman of Radio One, the nation’s largest black-owned broadcast company.

      She has aired a series of radio ads targeting black lawmakers, with the most recent round questioning the ethical integrity of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the chief sponsor of the legislation calling for radio stations to pay royalties to musical performers, and seeking to connect him to federal bribery-related charges to which his wife recently pleaded guilty.

      The fight has divided the liberal civil rights community, with the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) supporting Conyers while black leaders such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson line up with Hughes, Radio One and other black-owned stations.

      Radio One’s ads have also criticized Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and three other members of the CBC: Reps. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.). These lawmakers support Conyers’s legislation, which was approved in May by the Judiciary Committee and would require AM/FM radio stations to pay royalties to performers, such as Dionne Warwick, who didn’t compose some of their most popular songs.

      In fact, Warwick has released a statement lashing out against her placement on Hughes' hit list. Click HERE to read what she wrote.