Radio Up In The Air

Since I've been at my new job, I've had the opportunity to listen to a lot of music. I have heard everything on my MP3 player by now, so I really enjoy listening to new music programmed by someone else. My favorite source by far has been Soma FM.

I've also filtered my sports radio tolerance down to pretty much one or two shows now. The primary is Dan Patrick. While he is a bit dry and not much of a fan of Chicago for some reason, he does get interviews with the biggest names in sports.

Well, in the next month or so, it'll be back to the drawing board. Dan Patrick is quitting ESPN to either take over on The Price is Right or start some syndicated show on his own (satellite, maybe). Not the end of the world but a bump to my daily routine.

More devastating will be the loss of Soma FM this coming Monday. Apparently, SoundExchange (governing body that distributes royalties to artists) feels that larger concerns like AOL and Yahoo! Music need to pay a lot more to broadcast via the Internet and they're willing to put the smaller broadcasters out of business to make that happen.

They're really missing the boat here. The smaller broadcasters, like Soma FM, expose newer and harder to find music to a more specific demographic. AOL and Yahoo! can strike an agreement with the big labels and they're back in business despite these new royalty rates. Soma FM can't hang - they'll be expected to come up with something like 600% of the revenues they forwarded for royalties last year. It will put them out of business.

I've called and written to my representative (some of you know him quite well!) and beseeched the congressmen from IL to support the bills that would allow for a stay on this new rate structure until some sort of reasonable solution can be discussed.

Bottom line - if the artists, labels, and fans of independent (not Sony-BMG, Warner Bros., etc.) music are all in accord that Soma FM should be allowed to exist, why should SoundExchange, the CRB, or the RIAA have anything to say about that?

If you have a chance, check out http://www.savenetradio.org/ today and maybe make a call to your representative to support the appropriate bills. I'd really like to be able to listen to Soma FM on Monday.

For more detail on the nature of this travesty and a transcript of Congressman Jay Inslee's enlightening speech to the House of Representatives, click here.

Oh, and Dan Patrick can kiss my ass.