Gagging Order
I’m sure you guys have read about what’s happening with podcasts and Internet radio and such. Here is a press release from the kids at one of my favorite radio stations in all the land, KCRW.
KCRW OBSERVES INTERNET RADIO “DAY OF SILENCE”
KCRW 89.9 FM/Santa Monica and KCRW.com will join with fellow webcasters for a Day of Silence, Tuesday June 26th.The station will shut down regular programming on all three of its webstreams as a protest against the new high music royalties for Internet radio, established by the Copyright Royalty Board in March.
KCRW will produce a one-hour program—D-Day for Webcasters— featuring Pandora, Live365, Yahoo, AccuRadio, SomaFM, indie webcaster Bagel Radio and public radio station WAMU/Washington, DC among others. They will join host Ruth Seymour, KCRW’s General Manager, to describe the effects that the new rates will have on their ability to stream and to serve audiences online.
D-Day for Webcasters will be webcast all day Tuesday, June 26th on KCRW.com. It will be also be broadcast on KCRW’s airwaves on Tuesday, June 26th from 2 to 3 pm PDT.
Webcasters are supporting the Internet Radio Equality Act, which has garnered bipartisan support in the House as well as the Senate. In addition, they have filed appeals and a request for a stay with the US District Court in Washington, DC.
However, if none of these tactics succeed, webcasters will be required to send checks to Sound Exchange, the collection agency for the record companies and the artists, on July 15th. Rates are retroactive to 2006.
KCRW-FM, licensed to Santa Monica College, is National Public Radio’s flagship station for Southern California. The station serves Los Angeles and Orange Counties at 89.9 FM, Ventura County at 89.1 FM on KCRU/ Oxnard-Ventura, the greater Palm Springs area at 89.3 FM on KCRI/Indio-Palm Springs and Kern and Northern LA Counties at 88.1 FM on KCRY/Mojave-Antelope Valley. KCRW can now be heard in Santa Barbara at 106.9. Other translators carry the signal to the Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley areas at 90.7 FM, Gorman at 89.7 FM, Banning at 90.9 FM, the Ridgecrest area at 100.1 FM, the Thousand Oaks and Conejo Valley areas at 102.3 FM, Ojai at 102.1 FM, and Lemon Grove/Spring Valley in San Diego County at 89.9 FM. Every week, more than 500,000 listeners tune to the station for its eclectic and innovative non-commercial program schedule. KCRW can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.kcrw.com/, streaming three channels, with on-demand listening, 11 years of archived programs and a wide-ranging slate of podcasts.
