The petition to bring the King Biscuit name beck to its home in Helena, AR
is picking up steam! We now have close to 2200 signatures and it is growing
rapidly every day! I want to thank everyone who is supporting this. With
more support we can show the greedy, insensitive thieves at Performa
Entertainment Real Estate what a public relations disaster they have
created. If you want to see justice served, and value the history and
heritage that is the Blues and ave yet to sign this petition, please do it.
Your comments are important, but please do not use foul language. For those
of you who aren`t aware of the situation, please read the following.
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To provide a little background, allow me to capsulize the situation. Since
1941, KFFA radio in Helena has broadcast a radio show called "King Biscuit
Time". This radio show was a Blues show hosted by famous Blues artist "Sonny
Boy" Williamson. The show was very important to Blues music`s history and is
the longest running Blues radio show in the country. It was sponsored by The
King Biscuit Flour Company in Helena. In the early 1970s, a NYC company
began broadcasting a one-hour rock concert series and called it "The King
Biscuit Flower Hour", essentailly stealing the name. From the late 70s
untill the late 90s, this company was dormant. They began leasing archives
of the show and petitioned a court in New York for rights to the name. The
King Biscuit Flour Company had long been out of business, although the
Helena radio show still used the name for the sake of its historical
significance. From 1983, the non-profit Sonny Boy Blues Society has put on a
free Blues festival, calling it The King Biscuit Blues Festival in honor of
this hertage. Through some travesty of justice, the New York court awarded
the rights to the people who produced the rock shows, who then named their
company "King Biscuit Entertainment". KBE then decided to extort money from
The Sonny Boy Blues Society for use of the name they had nurtured for twenty
years. Being a non-profit organization putting on a free festival, the SBBS
could not afford these demands and were forced to stop using the name last
year, only 2 months before the scheduled festival. King Biscuit
Entertainment then leased the name to Performa Entertainment of Memphis.
Performa decided to set up a festival using the name at the same time in
order to confuse music fans and drain the attendees from the original
festival. This festival is a major source of income for an impovershed area
of The Delta, and your neighbors. They also plan to force the Helena radio
show off the air so that they can broadcast their own show from Beale
Street, again stealing the heritage and income from Helena.

This blatant act of corporate greed is a slap in the face of Blues fans and
a huge black eye for Memphis and its tourist industry. Blues fans around the
world are outraged. An online petition has been started that calls for a
boycott of the Memphis festival, Beale Street, and any peoject Performa is
involved in. Here are a few comments taken from the petition:

"We simply could not believe that cooperate America could be so blind. The
Helena Blues fest and King Biscuit (Time) are historic around the world as
the "REAL DEAL" in blues. You can never move that to Memphis or anywhere
else. Please be reasonable and let the name stand for what it has always
stood for Blues in Helena!!!!!!!"

"What's being done to the King Biscuit Blues Festival, and to the city of
Helena, Arkansas, after the support it has given Blues music for decades, is
a travesty. It is appalling that this can happen, and I will never support
this Corporate take over. Helena is the home of The Biscuit, and nothing
will ever change that."

"Once again greed trumps history and heritage...the people responsible for
this travesty should be ashamed of themselves. Anyone with half a brain can
see that this theft and exploitation of the King Biscuit name is just plain
wrong!!"

It`s obvious that Performa has created a public relations disaster that is
reflecting directly on the city of Memphis. The only way to rectify this is
for the good people of Memphis, business organizations and The Memphis
Convention and Visitors Bureau to convince Performa that what they are doing
is wrong, and is bad for Memphis. Tell Performa to allow the Sonny Boy Blues
Society to keep the King Biscuit name and allow "King Biscuit Time" to
continue broadcasting as it has for over six decades. Convince them that
holding a festival in direct competition with the Helena festival will
backfire and do irreparable damage to their own reputation, as well as
hurting the city of Memphis.

The petition can be seen online at:
http://new.PetitionOnline.com/Biscuit/petition.html

You can write Performa Entertainment Real Estate at:
John Elkington
c/o Performa Entertainment Real Estate Inc
203 Beale Street Suite 300
Memphis, TN 38103 901-526-0110

Sincerely,

L. W. "Junior" Jackson
juniorjackson6@...

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