If one thought positively about Garry Meier’s move from WGN-AM to WGN’s Internet feed, one could think he would do for Internet Radio what Howard Stern has done for satellite radio. It could be “revolutionary”. Um, no. WGN’s decision to move Meier from its AM terristial station to WGN.FM could rank as one of the biggest blunders in Chicago radio […]
A bunch of items in this week’s Grab Bag: – Is Robin Robinson on her way out at Fox-owned WFLD? Sure looks like it: According to a report surfacing a little over a week ago at Chicagoland Radio and Media, Robinson is expected to depart when her contract expires later this year. Robinson is the longest-tenured anchor at WFLD, being […]
The long standing battle between the RIAA and SoundExchange, and Internet radio webcasters is finally over after a long two-year battle. The parties reached an agreement today on a royalty rate to 2015 (2014 for small webcasters) and retroactive back to 2006 – which includes a discount of rates for large webcasters and percentage-based payment options for small webcasters set […]
Founder charged with fraud It looks like the axe is waiting to swing on Chicago Sports Webio. The innovative Internet sports-talk radio station and website may be a casualty of one of the founder’s greed and insipidness. And that may be enough to land him in jail. David Hernandez, who co-founded the station with former WSCR personality Mike North was […]
It’s not a beautiful thing. Or sight. With all the news regarding the digital TV transition, this piece of news came out of left field: Mike North was ousted at ChicagoSportsWebio.com today, after helping launch the Internet radio sports station earlier this year. Also ousted were his wife, BeBe North; and Jeff Schwartz. North was fired after he asked CEO […]
There may be light at the end of the tunnel for Internet radio fans. The Senate passed the Webcaster Settlement Act on Tuesday, which enables Internet streamers to negotiate lower rates with SoundExchange and the RIAA. The bill sailed though the House on Saturday, and is now headed to President Bush’s desk for signature. It allows SoundExchange to negotiate with […]
XM and AOL have ended their partnership as advertised, effective today. AOL signed a deal with CBS Radio a few months ago, and is scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, but you likely won’t see any CBS Radio content on AOL Radio for another month or so. But in AOL Radio’s blog, they claim the reason they broke up with […]
This comes after Yahoo! and AOL are considering shutting down their Internet radio operations after a 38 percent increase in royalties to air their music. Both are reportedly losing money, as well as other operations, and with still no firm agreement on a model that will work for Sound Exchange and web carriers, Internet radio once again may be on […]
Twenty-four small webcasters have signed deals with SoundExchange to continue to stream. The agreements to pay royalty fees are in effect until the end of 2010. The rates they will pay basically are the same ones they have been previously been paying, and lower than the rates Copyright Royalty Board set last spring. Ah, the art of negotiation. It works!
The major record labels and SoundExchange have come to an agreement with large webcasting companies over terms concerning the rates those webcasters have to pay for streaming. According to the agreement, large webcasters like AOL, Pandora, Yahoo!, MTV and Live 365 will not have to pay more than $50,000 per service as a per-station or per-channel minimum royalty to webacast […]
Internet radio has nine lives it seems – In a startling turn of events, Sound Exchange said yesterday in front of Congress that it will not enforce the new royalty rates and the webcasters can stay online, as the new rates are hammered out. Don’t know what’s going on here, but it looks like the people have spoken. But Internet […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected a stay requested by webcasters to delay a rate increase instituted by Sound Exchange on July 15 that would put a lot of them out of business. The webcasters are now urging supporters to contact their senators and representatives to bring the Internet Equity Radio Act to a direct vote. Meanwhile, Rep. Ed […]
On June 26th, U.S. Internet streamers and webcasters will shut down their services for a day to protest the rise in internet royalty rates webcasters would have to pay to keep the music flowing. As you probably know by now, the Copyright Royalty Board has approved the major rate increase, which would put the majority of webcasters out of business […]
It looks like the fate of Internet radio is going to hinge on Congress. Four major companies who stream on the web – RealNetworks, Yahoo, Pandora, and Live 365 sent letters to all 535 members of Congress regarding the increase of royalties that will have to be paid effective on July 15, with rates that were retroactive to January 2006 […]
It looks like the congressional heat is getting to the RIAA and Sound Exchange… The dastardly duo has offered a deal to small webcasters to roll back royalty rates back to 2005, with the proposal earning AFTRA’s apporval. (And the RIAA and Sound Exchange still thinks that Congress is on their side…)