shit hits the (computer) fan: bye bye digiradio

Music: Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians: Ghost of a Dog (1990)

Last week the the Copyright Royalty Board struck down an appeal spearheaded by National Public Radio to have the new royalty fee structure for online broadcasting reconsidered. After the crippling effects of turn-of-the-century royalties, new fee structures were established that helped non-profit and small, community organizations thrive. Internet radio became, to some extent at least, a kind of "public access" to the digiwaves after the disastrous effects of Telecom 96 and Kennard's "low watt community radio" debacle. The pipe-dream of public access radio is even built-into Apple's iTunes (check the radio triangle on the left): all those stations listed in iTunes are gonna disappear.

The revised structures that take effect early May---unless some "circuit court" or another agrees to hear another appeal---will kill Internet radio. Period. Why? Well, the previous regulations exacted a scaled annual fee and 12% of the radio outlet's profit. Now, if you're a not-for-profit, you basically paid the fee and that was that. Under the new fee structures, Internet broadcasters pay on the basis of average listening hours for a sort of grace period. Then in 2009 the royalty structure goes per-song, per-listener! Mon Dieu! one can sense how this will strangle the small-time Internet radio outfit.

In an informal conversation with DJ Smokehouse Brown, the jockey confirmed that the new fee structures will wipe out KVRX's online streaming. KVRX, the University of Texas' only student run radio program, broadcasts on the airwaves in the evenings and on the digiwaves during the daytime. I've often depended on the Internet broadcast to listen to "Blues at Sunrise" as I prep for class on Wednesdays (though my computer). Nevertheless, what's pretty shitty about the coming fee structures is that most college radio outfits will be affected, and I predict there will be a new hunt for podcasters (currently and loosely protected by a peculiar read of the fair use doctrine---which is soon to be challenged, I predict).

SaveNetRadio.org is attempting to change the situation, but I agree this is too little too late. It's a done deal. The only public access left is, more or less, public access cable television.

It's the end of an era, folks. April is the cruelest month for music lovers. Support your local radio by listening to it the old fashioned way, as it seems like that's they only way they can hang on in the coming Dark Age of Radio.