KCRW and the fate of Internet Radio


Feeling a little less guilty today, after becoming a paid subscriber to my favourite National Public Radio station, KCRW in Santa Monica, California.

Until 2005 I was an avid listener of Detroit's NPR affiliate, WDET. I was a fan of NPR news and an even bigger fan of the daytime music programing of Judy Adams, Martin Bandyke and their night time colleagues, Liz Copeland, Ralph Valdez and Chuck Horn. Then right after a less than successful pledge drive, the new station manager eliminated most of the music and added more news and talk.

I couldn't complain. It had been a while since I'd donated. Instead I paid more attention to my cd collection and began programming my own music with iTunes. As NPR news became stridently anti-war I found myself listening more often to CBET, Windsor's CBC radio one station.

Much as I like my own music collection though, I missed being surprised and delighted by an experienced dj. I started looking for another source for eclectic programming. For a while I downloaded the CBC Radio 3 podcast which is often quite good but still not the odd world mix I used to enjoy on WDET.

Then last year I googled across two promising programs, Morning Becomes Eclectic and Sounds Eclectic, both available on KCRW's all music webcast. I've been listening to KCRW ever since.

The reason I decided to stop freeloading and make a donation is that internet radio is under attack right now in the US. A decision by the Copyright Royalty Board last month will raise fees for webcasters 3 to 12 times their current rates, bankrupting most of them. This takes effect on May 15. KCRW will likely survive, but only if a lot more of their listeners become paid subscribers.

Last week the Internet Radio Equality Act was introduced in Congress. It could reverse the Board's decision and put webcasting on the same footing as the rest of the radio industry.

Update: The CRB has delayed the rate increase two months, until July 15.

Posted: Mon - April 30, 2007 at 01:28 PM          

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