Radio Radio

The Man of Wealth and Taste, friend of this blog and tireless crusader for Corporate Radio's Hindenberg-ing, informs us that:

"On Friday, March 2, 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) released a decision that will dramatically increase the royalties payments owed to rights holders to stream sound recordings of music offered on the internet. This includes all public radio websites.

The effect is a large increase in cost for public radio to webcast its music programming. While the exact amount has yet to be calculated, initial estimates place the potential cost in the millions of dollars of additional fees over the license term. In addition, the rates escalate about 240% over a five-year period. Such an increase threatens the viability of public radio’s future presence in on-line music streaming.

The rate structure announced by the Board is a disincentive to public radio’s public service mission of bringing new, culturally enriching programming to the American public. Where I live, 89.7 WNKU’s mission has been to appeal to your diverse interests by presenting a wide variety of musical, artists and styles including many from our own region here in Kentucky, Cincinnati and the Ohio Valley. WNKU’s website stream has enabled the station to showcase our unique programming and rich, musical heritage to a worldwide audience. The local PR station in your hometown is no different.

Section 118 of the Copyright Act of 1976 specified “a fair return to copyright owners without unfairly burdening public broadcasters.” Clearly this is not the case here. Congress will introduce a bill (H.R. 2060) addressing both noncommercial and commercial streaming services, the “Internet Radio Equality Act”. In order for this bill to be considered, approximately forty co-sponsors are need among our state representatives in Washington.

Please contact your congressional representativesthis week and ask them to co-sponsor and support the Internet Radio Equality Act. You’re re welcome to write a personal request or use this link for the “CRB IREA support letter.” These messages can be conveyed in many ways, but the most effective are faxes, telephone calls and emails.

This legislation recognizes public radio’s public service mission and will put these royalties under the same system and standards as the royalties we currently pay to the publishers/songwriters. We believe artists should be fairly compensated but under a system that allows the continuing operation and development of the Internet streaming of music that does not get exposure in commercial broadcasting.


Thank You

The Man of Wealth and Taste"