KCRW to air panel talk
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE There’s no need to crank up the volume.
Dead silence will consume Internet radio streams today as Webcasters across the country participate in a “Day of Silence,” protesting higher royalties set to take effect on July 15.
The Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) decision in March to increase royalties and change its fee structure sparked outrage in the world of online radio, many Webcasters claiming the hike would put them out of business.
Under the soon-to-be implemented fee structure, Webcasters would pay.08 cents per “performance” retroactive to 2006, performance being defined as the stream of one song for one listener. The fees will gradually increase every year, finishing with.19 cents per performance in 2010, more than double than in 2006.
Many Webcasters currently pay their royalties on a schedule based on percentage of annual revenue. Such is the case for Chicago-based AccuRadio, which shells out 12 percent of its annual revenue for royalties.
Starting at 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. tonight, more than 46 participating Webcasters will tune out their regularly scheduled programming, a show of solidarity, and an example of what may come if the new fee schedule does indeed shut down some of the smaller Internet radio stations.
Stations are taking different approaches to “silence,” some playing a loop of a public service announcement all day, others providing a link to KCRW, which will replay an hour-long discussion on the ramifications of the CRB ruling all day long.
Titled “D-Day for Webcasters,” the panel discussion will feature leaders from the Internet radio industry, including the general manager of Live365 and the head of Yahoo!
Music. The program will be hosted by Ruth Seymour, the general manager of KCRW, based on the campus of Santa Monica College.
“People are kind of pissed,” said Paul Maloney, the vice president of music programming for AccuRadio, one of the participating stations. “Our listeners are pretty well educated about what is going on and know why we are doing this, know our backs are against the wall.”
AccuRadio is one of the Webcasters that faces potential bankruptcy under the new fee structure. For the fees it would owe in 2006, AccuRadio, which serves more than one million listeners a month, would end up paying 1.5 times the revenue it made in 2006, Maloney said.
“These are bankruptcy levels,” he added. KCRW faces a different scenario.
Based on its current listenership, the station would go from paying virtually nothing in 2005 to more than $350,000 for 2006,Anil Dewan,the director of new media at KCRW, said in March.
The leading National Public Radio affiliate in Southern California, KCRW gains most of its revenues from donations. The station prides itself on offering an unrivaled selection of underground music by unknown artists.
KCRW operates three streams — one is exclusively dedicated to music and news respectively and a third that plays a combination of both.
The station supports reasonable royalties for artists and their labels,Seymour said,but opposes an underlying statement in the CRB ruling that if a public station has an audience over a certain size,it will be treated as a commercial station.
“We are really waging this battle on behalf of the principle, which we feel is the basis for all public institutions in this country and what in effect the ruling does is punish you for your success,” Seymour said on Friday.
CONGRESS MOVES TO SAVE RADIO “The Day of Silence” is also meant to make some noise in support of pending federal legislation that would nullify the CRB ruling and instead implement a fee structure where Internet, satellite and cable radio stations would pay the same percentage of revenue through 2010.
Introduced by U.S. Reps Jay Inslee, D- Wash., and Don Manzullo, R-Ill., the Internet Radio Equality Act would impose a fee based on 7.5 percent of the station’s revenue.
The bill has been lauded by Webcasters. Richard Strasser, the senior attorney representing the Copyright Royalty Board, declined to comment on the pending legislation.
The bill was introduced by Inslee in April and now has more than 100 bipartisan co-sponsors. The senate version was introduced in May by U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. Brownback is among the Republican field of candidates seeking the presidential ticket in 2008.
Following the CRB ruling, e-mails and phone calls flooded Inslee’s office. In May alone, congressional staff has fielded 1,700 e-mails and phone calls from constituents, the majority of which have been against the fee hike proposed by the CRB, said Christine Hanson, the press secretary for Inslee’s office.
“On Tuesday, many Webcasters will be silencing their online radio broadcasts to give Americans an idea of what could happen if new royalty rates go into effect on July 15,” Inslee said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. “There already is tremendous momentum for setting a fair rate — either by an agreement between Webcasters and record labels or the passage of legislation in Congress — and the Day of Silence only will increase it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 26, 2007. Read the original PDF.