Ted Carnahan

I wrote earlier on the injustice of the Copyright Royalty Board’s recent retroactive ruling regarding internet radio. I just heard back yesterday from Kenneth Turner at EMF Broadcasting, the corporation behind Air 1 and K-LOVE. Here’s what he had to say:

I appreciate your concern. At this time, it’s too early to tell what, if
any, impact this would have on Air 1. That said, we are working
diligently with the various parties involved and hope to come to an
reasonable solution.

If this ruling goes through in its current state, it is entirely
possible that many webcasters would have to shut down due to the high
costs involved. We hope it doesn’t come to that and would appreciate
your prayers for a favorable outcome so that Air 1 can keep on
streaming.

Most people’s concern about the Copyright Royalty Board ruling is for small internet radio stations, not a corporate giant like EMF. Nevertheless, it sounds like even large terrestrial broadcasters like EMF might be forced to shut down their internet radio feeds unless something is done soon.

Just found out that the Copyright Royalty Board, the federal board appointed by Congress to set royalty rates on music (among other things), has decided to change how Internet radio broadcasters are charged for broadcasting copyrighted music. Instead of the current percentage-of-profit approach, broadcasters will now be charged per-listener, per-song. This will destroy Internet radio for several reasons:

1. Rates will skyrocket more than 30% year over year for several years under the new plan.
2. For most Internet radio stations, the fee schedule will represent over 100% of their revenues.
3. The change is retroactively effective to the beginning of 2006.

It’s also worth noting that by charging retroactively to the beginning of 2006, this could be considered an unconstitutional ex post facto law.

This may also have implications for terrestrial radio stations that broadcast online, like Christian radio giant Air1. I’ve contacted them for more details.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone to visit Save Our Internet Radio for more information and then sign the petition to protect Internet radio.