The Return Of Your Favorite Internet Radio Station!
Yes, it’s true. This past week we had a very fruitful discussion with Live365.com about the return of our station to the network. The conversation was positive and both sides agree that upon the station’s return our listeners can expect exceptional programming, insightful commentary, and truly unique internet radio broadcasting experience.
It’s nice to be missed. The emails, phone calls, and letters have not gone unnoticed. As many of you know, the station went ‘black’ on the network last year (2008) because of bandwidth disputes between the network and the IMCRadio administration. I guess you could say that the station was a victim of its own success. The administration here brought attention to the initial fight, which is still ongoing by the way, between internet radio and the Copyright Royalty Board and SoundScan. We led the cause, literally, of letting our listeners and those of other stations on our network and elsewhere know of the broadcasting peril that internet radio faces. To our knowledge, we were the first internet radio station to produce special programming on the subject of unfair licensing fee rate hikes that were, and still are, on the horizon for internet radio. While it is true that there have been pirate stations broadcasting music over the internet illegally the member stations of the Live365.com internet radio network all broadcast legally. We all pay our monthly network fees. These fees are to insure that the artists who are members of ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, artists who publish their wares, are payed when their songs are played on the member stations of the network. To say that the fees that we pay are too low is unfair to the thousands of internet radio station owners around the globe.
So, why the argument? For the past few years terrestrial radio has watched its listener base erode. Each year, more and more listeners are opting to get their daily radio programming, be it talk radio or music, via the internet. As we’ve seen in the news, over the past four years especially, newspapers have been suffering a similar fate. More of us each day are getting our information and entertainment through digital means. What this means to terrestrial radio and other ‘analog’ media entities is that as your constituent base erodes so does your advertising rate base.
Well, enough of the lecture on eroding listener and readership bases. Trust me, these are subjects that will be covered on ‘Byrd Talk’, our ultra-successful entertainment talk show or other special programming that we may produce. The bottom line is this. We will continue, as we have been since we left the Live365.com internet radio network, to support the endeavors of the musician; independent or major recording artist. Our special programming has covered emerging authors as well. If knowledge truly is power then it will be important for you to continue to support IMCRadio.com.
You’re probably asking, ‘how can I support the station?’ One of the most effective ways is to spread the word. Tell others of the cool and hip radio station that you’ve found on the internet. Tell musicians that you know who are worthy of radio play, but just can’t get it, to contact the station. We’ll do what we can to help with the airplay situation and we’ll also critique their material so that it can be properly submitted to other stations as well. We will continue to be “The Home Of The Better Music Mix!”
Stay tuned.
