June 25, 2007
WAMU.org to Observe Day of Silence
If you regularly tune into to an Internet radio station while working at your computer (and we most certainly do), you'll likely not be able to find any music on your favorite station tomorrow. The regularly scheduled programming of tens of thousands of Internet radio stations will come to a halt tomorrow as part of a national Day of Silence organized by SaveNetRadio.org, a coalition of artists, labels, listeners, and webcasters.
Web radio stations are taking this action to protest the recent 300 percent royalty rate increase for online music webcasters, to raise awareness of the threat these new rates pose to the future of Internet radio and rally support for legislation pending in Congress.
Locally, WAMU.org plans on observing the Day of Silence on its two Internet music channels, explaining:
The new rates would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006, and would nearly double the overall cost to WAMU 88.5 for providing a music stream on BluegrassCountry.org this year. With the rates set to increase annually, the station's overall streaming costs would almost triple by 2010.
We only have a partial list of participants, so if you of any other local stations that have also announced their participation, let us know in the comments.
SaveNetRadio.org is asking people to call their representatives in Congress and urge them to support the The Internet Radio Equality Act, which would overturn the recent decision on raising webcasting fees.
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Hey...Today, I wrote to WAMU because I was frustrated at the lack of a "call to action" in their PSA's and site letter. I received a response in a couple hours from them, explaining that they're limited by American U's policies and can't issue a call to action, but to visit tellthemitmatter.org/radio.html and saveourinternetradio.com to decide what to do to help.
That policy isn't tremendously unusual (I should have known before writing them), especially for nonprofits, but it explains why they don't have that sort of info.
So, go write people! It's a cause well worth 10 minutes of our time...hope this helps!
-j
As for NPR and 'bluegrass', I'd prefer them to drop bluegrass and give us more other programming. While I am sure there is a following, I cannot imagine that that NPR would have more listeners and support for almost any other type of shows it does.
@ Chris:
I think you're totally right...and, from what I understand, it's WAMU's "adult" stream (I don't actually know what's adult about it) and Bluegrasscountry.org that are threatened. Perhaps I'm wrong here, but that's what I've garnered. In any case, I'm a big fan of the blue grass, so that was my main motivation for writing.
Right, they should "drop bluegrass" from a bluegrass-only web radio station called BluegrassCountry.org. That's pretty logical, chris.
BluegrassCountry.org was created specifically because the broadcast radio marketplace was not offering a home for that particular type of music, and because WAMU was simultaneously significantly reducing its own on-air bluegrass programming. It's a non-profit effort like the radio station, however, and these new royalty rates are going to cripple them.
Save your griping for some forum where it has some relevance, please . . .
Rather than a Day of Silence, wouldn't it be smarter to make it a day of complaining about how dumb congress is? Make it silent, people will just think there's a problem with the stream. (Or maybe I'm taking "Day of Silence" too literally and that is what they're doing, in which case, rock on!)
Call my representative? Sweet. I'll do that just as soon as I get one.
- Any DC resident