Sha Na Na frontman endorses music honesty.

SHARON, Pa. — When Jon Bauman isn't performing with Bowzer's Rock 'N Roll Party, he's busy trying to stop fraud in the music industry.

Bauman is probably best known as the lead singer of Sha Na Na — that 1970s group who looked like 1950s rockers.

Bauman stopped here Sunday and Monday to attend a fundraiser for state Sen. Bob Robbins, one of the early advocates of the Truth in Musical Advertising legislation that became law in Pennsylvania earlier this year.

The law calls for fines of up to $15,000 for people passing themselves off as original music acts without any original members.

Bauman took time on Monday at the Vocal Group Hall of Fame to talk about his efforts to make this law national.

The hall of fame and its founder, Tony Butala, have been the guiding forces behind the law.

Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, South Caroline and North Dakota have already passed Truth in Musical Advertising laws and four other states have it moving through their legislatures, he said.

Bauman hopes to have 10 to 15 states under the Truth in Musical Advertising umbrella by year's end.

"We've had very little opposition anywhere," he said.

Bauman said Pennsylvania has become the leader in its bill's language and now its enforcement of the bill.

Effects so far

So far, the state hasn't fully prosecuted anyone performing illegally under the law, but it has forced venues who signed contracts with these fake groups to bill the shows as tribute acts and not the originals.

He said those acts were signed to perform before Truth in Musical Advertising became law on May 2.

Bauman has come to believe that the venues booking these acts are as much a victim as the person who buys the ticket thinking they are getting an original music act.

"I'm beginning to think these venues will be the first line of defense," he said.

When the venue owners are educated, they won't offer a hall for the fake performers to sing, and will shut them down before they break the law, he said.

Bauman said supporters are also working on a federal Truth in Musical Advertising law which will be a great way to educate consumers about these fake acts.

However, he said they still intend to pursue this law's passage in all 50 states — because it would most likely fall to the states to enforce it