Amusement & Music Operators Association

In case you missed it, earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board voted to recommend to U.S. states they lower the blood-alcohol content threshold that determines drunken driving.

The current level BAC in all 50 states is .08. The NSTB is now proposing the BAC measurement, which yields the percentage of alcohol, by volume, in the bloodstream, be reduced to .05.

To be clear, no one, and certainly not our trade association, is supportive of any measure that would put more impaired drivers on our streets. But when do such crusades collide with individual liberties and making the right decisions? While this incremental step will not solve the issue of irresponsible actions by drunk drivers, it does, as one industry executive said: "Criminalize perfectly responsible behavior."

When I was younger, I withdrew treasures not from a bank, but from a library. I worry about the future of libraries and bookstores, but not so much about the future of financial institutions.

At AMOA, we have a treasure of pictures, show directories and other artifacts that chronicle its 65-year history.

But nothing tells the story of an organization — at least this one — better than its newsletters. For years, AMOA members received the "Location" newsletter in the mail each month. The accompanying picture is the first issue, published in April 1964, just over 49 years ago.

I can just envision the newly appointed-MOA (Music Operators of America) Managing Director Fred Granger, or office manager Bonnie York on his behalf, sitting at the typewriter at the La Salle Street headquarters in downtown Chicago and banging out the monthly two-page newsletter.

The "Location" newsletter morphed into a full-fledged magazine in the 1980s, then retreated back to a newsletter, before "retiring" in 1996-97.