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<font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace"><big><big><big><big><big>THE
DAY of SILENCE</big></big></big></big></big></font><br>
On Tuesday June 26th , KFCF will turn off its' Internet stream and
archives in solidarity with thousands of Internet broadcasters to
protest the July 15th cost increases and data reporting changes. The
future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for
webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are
due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!).<br>
<br>
To protest these rates and encourage you to take action and contact
your Congressional representatives, we are taking part in the Day of
Silence, by silencing our programming for one day. We ask that you
excuse the interruption of our normal programming, and ask that you
take action to help ensure this silence is not permanent. Please call
your Congressional Representatives today. Click the link below for
instructions how. Thank you.<br>
<big><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><small><small><small><small><small><br>
<b><big><big><big><big><big>What's this all about?:</big></big></big></big></big></b></small></small></small></small></small></font></big>
On July 15th, royalty payments for webcast music will increase by as
much as 1200%. This outrageous and unfair ruling will result in many
webcasters owing music royalty fees that are more than their yearly
budget! Because of this, many popular Internet radio services will shut
down.<br>
<br>
Non-commercial stations, like KFCF, must pay the commercial royalty
rate once a certain amount of online listeners tune in. KFCF may have
to limit the amount of online listeners we have.<br>
<br>
Even worse are the draconian data reporting requirements, that say we
have to report data about every piece of music we play and how many
people were listening to it. KFCF gets programming from KPFA,
satellite, CDs, vinyl, iPods,78s, cassettes and other sources. Being
required to track down the song, artist title, album name, ISRC code,
LP number and other information for every cut would require us to hire
multiple full time staff to comply. In the past we had the option of
paying $25 in lieu of reporting the data, but that option is now gone.
If we have to report this data we will be forced to turn off our
Internet streams and archives.<br>
<big><big><b><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">What You Can Do:</font></b></big></big><br>
<b><br>
1. Contact your Representatives:</b><br>
The Internet Radio Equality Act has been introduced in Congress to
address the webcast royalty issue. Use the online form at
saveinternetradio.org to find the phone numbers of your Congressional
Representatives. Pressure from constituents seems to be working - The
IREA now has over 100 Congressional co-sponsors. Contact Diane
Fienstein, Barabra Boxer, Jim Costa, George Radanovich and Devin Nunes
today!!!<br>
<b><br>
2. Share:</b><br>
This is not a fringe issue: At least 50 million Americans listen to
Internet radio each month!<br>
Join KFCF's mailing list (see <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.kfcf.org">www.kfcf.org</a> for details)to stay up to
date on issues that affect media freedom. <br>
<br>
<b>3. Support:</b><br>
Listener-sponsored KFCF can't continue our work without your help! If
you haven't become a member, please do so today!<br>
<br>
"In this case, 'silence' is an extremely appropriate metaphor, since
silence may be what listeners hear from most webcasters starting on
July 16th," says Kurt Hanson publisher of RAIN: Radio And Internet
Newsletter (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.kurthanson.com">www.kurthanson.com</a>), one of the event's organizers. Hanson
is also founder of AccuRadio.<br>
<br>
Major webcasters like Yahoo! Launch, Rhapsody, and Pandora.com will
silence their streams along with other Day of Silence participants like
KCRW.org, Live365, MTV Online, Radioio, RadioParadise, KPFA, KFCF and
AccuRadio .<br>
<br>
Many webcasters are planning to shut off access to their streams
entirely, while other webcasters plan to replace their music streams
with long periods of silence (or static or ocean sounds or similar)
interspersed with occasional brief public service announcements on the
subject.<br>
<br>
This "Day of Silence" is an encore of a successful media event
initiated by RAIN and organized by small webcasters on May 1, 2002 in
response to a similarly royalty rate ruling from a Copyright
Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) five years ago. That event garnered
national attention and was subsequently followed by a rate cut by the
Librarian of Congress and the passage of the Small Webcaster Settlement
Act for the period 1998-2005.<br>
<br>
Please take a few moments and contact your congresspeople and let them
know you support Internet broadcasting. We want to continue streaming ,
paying reasonable rates to the artists, not the ridiculous fees the
greedy RIAA/Record Companies are demanding. This will affect not only
KPFA and KFCF, but other valley public broadcasters like KFSR, KVPR and
Radio Bilingue.<br>
<br>
Thanks.<br>
<br>
Rych Withers<br>
President KFCF/Fresno Free College Foundation<br>
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