SAVE BEETHOVEN RADIO!!!

[Nicole Marie]

We need your help. The RIAA wants to raise the royalty rates of Internet stations to double what it is now by 2009!! We want to pay royalty payments but we want a rate that is affordable. If they raise the rates it will be 100% higher than our revenue... we will have to close up shop. Write your state reps! Visit the link below to read more and how you can help...

http://www.savenetradio.org/

[Catmando]

We need your help. The RIAA wants to raise the royalty rates of Internet stations to double what it is now by 2009!! We want to pay royalty payments but we want a rate that is affordable. If they raise the rates it will be 100% higher than our revenue... we will have to close up shop. Write your state reps! Visit the link below to read more and how you can help...

http://www.savenetradio.org/

That's incredible Nicole! Unbelievable. Unfortunately, I can't sign the petition because I'm not a U.S. citizen.

[navneeth]

I saw this a couple of days ago.

Is it possible to create a petition by Beethen Radio, so that listeners from outside the U.S. can also sign. (Every day you get requests from all corners of the globe.) I can't say if the authorities will take us seriously, but it's worth a try.

[Catmando]

I saw this a couple of days ago.

Is it possible to create a petition by Beethen Radio, so that listeners from outside the U.S. can also sign. (Every day you get requests from all corners of the globe.) I can't say if the authorities will take us seriously, but it's worth a try.

Yes, a good idea. I'd sign it for sure.

Although Beethoven Radio is located and based in the USA, it is most certainly "The World's Classical Music Station". This decision would affect all of the many listeners outside the USA also.

[jamiebk]

This is shocking and is no less than a blatant restraint of trade. I have signed the petition and already written my representative. I just hope that there is still time to get this resolved

[GreatCarouser]

/signed


Hope it helps....

[Trumpetmaster]

Y.R.H.

Done Deal....

Signed the petition and contacted my rep via his on-line website.

Hopefully enough people will get involved to
fix this injustice.

I cannot think what it would be like without Beethoven Radio....

Regards,
TM

[Shapley]

I read that Sirius/XM were going to be trying to 'make some moves' to save satelite radio from failure. Could this be a part of that effort? Obviously, they stand to gain by knocking out the competition, and internet radio would seem to be their biggest competitors on the worldwide market.

I'll study up on the issue, but I'll probably be adding my name to the petition and e-mailing my Senators and Congressman.

I'll let you know if I find any valuable information about the scheme.

V/R
Shapley

[hal 9000]

My congressman has been emailed.
My name has been added to the petition.
I will certainly do what I can to help.
Unreal!

[analog]

Wow! I thought RIAA was just a standards organization that wrote technical guidelines for high quality sound recording.

Here's their website: http://www.riaa.com/issues/music/webcasting.asp

In addition they've become a corporate SS - cyber-spying on college kids, filing John Doe lawsuits, and writing laws that both legalize and fund these excesses.

Check this piece: http://www.muddlawoffices.com/laws/RIAA/RIAA_Stages.htm

[dai bread]

I was tempted to sign the petition anyway, but thought if I did someone would get up on his hind legs and bleat about it. If you want to get up a separate petition for BR listeners world-wide, I'll be happy to sign.

In this country, a CD that costs $1 to press costs $30+ to buy in a standard record shop. I don't have a lot of time for the recording industry.

[barfle]

I sent the letter and signed the petition, too.

Good luck, even though there are days I can't hear you.

One of these days the RIAA is going to find out what "antitrust" means.

I'm all in favor of respect for intellectual property, which is what royalties are supposed to pay for. But a lot of this stuff is blatant grabbing of what's not rightfully theirs, and when I see how it hurts the entrepreneurs, I tend to get ticked.

[bignaf]

the RIAA royalties might make me money in the future, so I won't sign the petition, but I won't mind anyone else signing this petition.

[analog]

NM - History doesn't exactly repeat itself, but it sure rhymes.

This is reminiscent of the creation of FM radio and how the money boys stole the technology from its inventor, Ed Armstrong.
Armstrong had built a small network of FM stations in the Northeast. RCA, then in the broadcasting business, got FCC to wipe him out by laying TV channels right over his frequencies, which shut him down and obsoleted all his equipment. Then they stole his patent. The poor guy eventually jumped from a 13th floor window.

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=624

Of course AM radio was big business in the pre-television days, and there were powerful people who wanted things to stay as they were. Innovation only meant smaller profits for them. At that time there was no more influential man in radio media than the founder of RCA, David Sarnoff. Known as "The General," Sarnoff controlled all the technical aspects of radio; he also created the NBC and ABC television networks. He was also an important early supporter of television and developed the current NTSC standard for TV that we have used for over 60 years.

Seeking to kill FM radio before it could threaten his profits, Sarnoff's company successfully lobbied the FCC to have the FM spectrum moved from Armstrong’s frequencies to the ones we use today: 88 to 108 MHz. That move immediately rendered Armstrong’s Yankee Network obsolete, along with all of the FM radio sets which had been produced. The cost to re-equip the stations for the new frequencies would be enormous. The FCC ruling said that the 40 MHz band was to be used for the new television broadcasts, in which RCA had a heavy stake. RCA also had an ally in AT&T, which actively supported the frequency move because the loss of FM relaying stations forced the Yankee Network stations to buy wired links from AT&T. The deck was stacked against the future of FM broadcasting.

I think I'll acquaint my congressman with the tale.....


a.

[jamiebk]

the RIAA royalties might make me money in the future, so I won't sign the petition, but I won't mind anyone else signing this petition.

You may find that there is no one left to air the music for which you could be paid

[analog]

I'm signatory # 8335.
Looks like they're pouring in about one per minute now.


Good Luck, NM.

a.

[Nicole Marie]

the RIAA royalties might make me money in the future, so I won't sign the petition, but I won't mind anyone else signing this petition.

You may find that there is no one left to air the music for which you could be paid

Well said Jamie. We want to pay royalities but we think it should be the same rate already established for AM and FM stations. (We pay one rate for the Am signal in Hartford and a second for the dot com.) We do believe artists should be paid but it should be the rate already set. We will have to pay 100% over our revenue. We will have to shut down so bignf sorry but you will get nothing at then end of it. Plus you don't even see the correct amount. RIAA keeps most of it and little makes it to the artists. You may want to send them a letter.

[Shapley]

I was signatory number 8525.

[navneeth]

That's a powerful ad.

[hal 9000]

Since we're stating signatory numbers...I signed yesterday, I was signatory number 6808.