Save OnLine Radio

[Suerreal]

I listen to online radio stations quite a bit. My favorite is boomerradio.com which caters to baby boomers.

However, recently enacted legislation threatens to kill off webcasters. As of May 16th, webcasters will have to pay sharply higher royalties retroactive to Jan 1st 2006. Currently, webcasters pay the same rates as broadcast radio. The new law will force them to pay 3 - 12 times what they are currently paying. Most webcasters play far more public service announcements than commercial ads, and cannot possibly generate enough income to pay the increased royalties. The fact that the higher rates will be retroactive for 16.5 months will mean that most if not all of these stations will be forced into bankruptcy and go silent as of May 16th.

While higher royalties to artists sounds like a good thing, if the webcasters go silent, there will be NO royalties. This will particularly affect new emerging acts and old retired acts no longer played much on broadcast radio. Furthermore, it will deprive them of royalties from CD and online track purchases from webcast listeners.

At its core, this legislation is anti-competitive and only helps the conglomerates like Clear Channel further control what you can listen to. If you want to sign a petition and send messages to your legislators asking them to stop this legislation from going into effect, please visit this site:
SaveNetRadio.com (http://www.savenetradio.org/index.html)

Thanks!

- Sue

[King Crimson]

just to say it, the "competitive" language in the 1996 telecom act is what made the Clear Channel of today possible.

but, i do agree that the FCC sucks out loud and is merely a creature of big industry. they kill every small spectrum range license proposal that would allow for local b-casting, quasi-independent radio, etc. that's pretty much all you need to know (and that's where webcasters come in....i suppose). judged by their (FCC) action and not words, it's clear that "diversity in the marketplace" means demographics, not access to spectrum space.

[OUDoc]

I count on you guys to tell me if this website is on the level (since it asks for name and address). Is it cool to give that info to this website?

[Suerreal]

About two years ago, I filled out a survey for boomerradio.com

Since then, I have received about 2 requests to fill out additional surveys from them, and then an e-mail alerting me to this situation, and giving me the link to this website. I can't swear I've never received spam because of them, because my g-mail account swallows up spam very nicely. But they haven't bothered me.

When I filled out the form and clicked SEND, I had to do additional tasks required by my legislators' e-mail to block out bot-generated e-mails. So I can vouch that the e-mails did go to the legislators' sites. I believe this site to be completely legitimate.

If you still have concerns, but want to send your thoughts to your legislators, you can e-mail them directly. The site makes it easy in that they use your zip to identify you representative and send the petition to your representative and senators without your having to look up their addresses.

- Sue

[Suerreal]

Great news!

The Internet Radio Equality Bill is ready to be introduced in the House of Representatives. But time is of the essence. It must be passed by May 15th, or internet radio stations will have to pay thousands of dollars in royalties retroactive to Jan 1st 2006. (16 1/2 months worth) on May 16th. Most will cease operations because they simply do not have the money.

Please consider calling your representative (contact information, talking points available on www.savenetradio.com ) to ask them to co-sponsor and support this bill.

- Sue
Don't let May 16th, 2007 be the day the music dies.
Go to Save Net Radio (http://www.savenetradio.org/) and call your representative today to get the Internet Radio Equality Act passed.

[dolemitesooner]

SCREW THEM

[Suerreal]

Update:

The Copyright Royalties Board published it's final determination late this week. It delayed the implementation date of the higher royalties until July 15th, giving Congress a little more time to act to block the new rules entirely.

So for fans of last.fm, Pandora, boomerradio and other internet radio sources, enjoy the extra 60 days. And keep checking in with www.savenetradio.org to find out how to help make this reprieve permanent.

- Sue