Eric,

The use of the multiple copies PCL code, I guess, would need to be at the start of the report just by the sheer nature of what it is trying to achieve.
Other PCL codes (fonts etc.) can be placed anywhere in the report as John suggests.

As I suggested before, try changing the font size or bold within a report to make sure that the printer is accepting PCL.
e.g.
$BOLD = CHAR(27) + 'XXXXX'
$$TEXT = 'THIS IS NON BOLD ' + $BOLD + ' THIS IS BOLD'

I don't have access to the PCL for BOLD for your printer, so if you substitute XXXXX for the PCL this should work.
NOTE: The PCL is case-sensitive.

Hopefully this should explain better!