Date:         Thu, 13 Jul 2006 22:56:14 +0000
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Don Cox <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Community Radio
Comments: To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussi <[log in to unmask]>
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On 13/07/06, steven c wrote:

>> How do these stations afford to pay the yearly royalties to ASCAP
>> and BMI?
>> Very curious -- and sure wish there was one in this neck of the
>> woods!
>> 
> As I recall, having dee-jayed some three decades ago for a
> carrier-current station at Illinois State University, most of these
> stations are publicly- owned, not-for-profit operations, and are given
> special reduced rates by the performing-rights bodies as a result.
> 
> However (and I think this shows up later in this thread) the waters
> muddy considerably if they "simulcast" by web streaming. RIAA imposes
> fees for "broadcasting" records on the Internet, based on the idea
> they can be copied and used to create exact duplicates of commercial
> CD's.

Which is pretty absurd at the low bit rates everyone (even the BBC) is
using. 

> 
> Needless to say, back in my dj'ing days, computers were about the size
> of Ohio, required complicated cooling systems and climate control, and
> it would have been a bit tricky to set up an IBM 360 in your sitting
> room! The Internet did exist (as ARPANET) but about all you could do
> with it was send text messages...something like non-HTML e-mail today.
> So, the only way you could listen to WILN was to live in one of the
> dorms we fed our signal to (you could sort of listen if you had a
> transistor radio and stood next to a lamp-post on campus)...

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
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