Good News/Bad News for Radio

First off, there is some good news for broadcast radio. The FCC and the four major radio companies in the U.S. have reached an agreement over recent payola scandals that were busted wide open by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The deal states that Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting, and Entercom Communications must pay out $12.5 million dollars, while providing 8,400 half-hour blocks of free airtime for local artists and independent record labels to promote and play their music. This is a great win for the independent music community, since it not only diversifies playlists for broadcast radio, but allows exposure for smaller bands on a larger scale. More can be found at this Yahoo news article.

Now on to the bad news. Currently, online radio stations are not regulated by any government agency and have been allowed to serve their own unique markets. These stations including colleges, as well as larger internet stations such as WOXY.com and Punk Radio Cast. However, recently the Copyright Royalty Board of the U.S. government has been investigating internet radio and has decided to impose a new system of paying for each song played on the station. This ruling also applies to all previously aired broadcasts from 2006, which honestly makes absolutely no sense. Please, make yourself aware of this ridiculous decision and remain informed. This drastically affects small radio stations that play great, independent music on their own terms and are relying on small profits from advertisements or listener donations. Heck, WOXY already came back from the grave once and it would be a damn shame if it was forced back into the ground. Read more about the decision here and here and I will try to post more about this once news comes out.