knt radio.site status and functionality
As of Mar. 23, 2008
Audio clips temporarily removed due to issues brought on by recent manufacturer "upgrades" that resulted in glitches in the player interface. We're researching alternatives for a new replacement player and will re-post the clips once it's deployed.
As of Mar. 17, 2008
Since Congress can't seem to figure out what to do with regard to Internet radio royalties, webcasters on four legal fronts have filed lawsuits to appeal the egregious rates set last year by a three-judge panel that failed to adequately consider the economic realities of basic business. In particular, that it is impossible to operate a business that is required by the government to pay more in mandatory fees than it can receive in revenue.
As it was reported in the March 17 edition of RAIN - Radio And Internet Newsletter, "Industry attorney David Oxenford has laid out some of the main points of the webcasters' and broadcasters' appeals briefings that were filed within the last week.
"There were four briefs filed: a combined brief from large and small commercial webcasters (DiMA members plus Accuradio, Radioio, Digitally Imported Radio and Radio Paradise); one from commercial broadcasters (Bonneville, the NAB, and the National Religious Broadcasters Association); one from a collection of non-commercial broadcasters (college radio, NPR, and non-comm religious broadcasters); and a brief from Royalty Logic, a SoundExchange competitor.
"Oxenford boils down appellants' claims as: (1) CRB failed to consider a flat-fee option, (2) CRB did not adopt a flat-fee for non-comms, even though SoundExchange and NPR had negotiated one, (3) CRB held that small commercial webcasters weren't really concerned about a 'percentage of revenue' option, (4) the $500 minimum fee is arbitrary, (5) the use of on-demand service agreements as a basis for the non-interactive webcast royalty determination, and (6) CRB decided it couldn't craft a compromise decision but had to pick one side as 'the winner' and adopt its plan.
"Oxenford explains the briefs will be answered by the Department of Justice (which defends the CRB) and SoundExchange. The process will continue for several months, followed by oral arguments which may not take place until fall. It's very possible there will not be a final appeal decision until 2009."
All of this industry terminology sounds confusing, but what it boils down to is that Congress mandated a "willing-buyer, willing-seller standard" that the Copyright Royalty Judges failed to apply in any reasonable sense. Instead, the CRB imposed mandatory rates exceeding the gross revenues of more than 95 percent of the Internet radio industry, which leads to the wholesale destruction of most online radio operations and clears the field for domination by a small number of corporate giants.
KNT is confident that the issue will be resolved eventually. But until it is, we will continue to maintain radio silence.
As of Nov. 16, 2007
Due to the as-yet unresolved issue surrounding performance rights royalties, there will be a delay in the launch of KNT's radio stream until late-Q1 or early-Q2 2008. Congress is holding hearings in both Houses, with record labels on one side of the argument saying they want more money, and webcasters on the other side doing their best to explain to our nation's lawmakers that we can't stay in business if the royalties demanded exceed 100 percent of our revenues, which is exactly what is happening to many existing Internet radio stations under the new rates imposed earlier this year.
The last time this happened was 2002. Toward the end of November that year, a senator with some common sense and the power to back it up put through The Small Webcaster Settlement Act, which basically ended the money-grab and imposed a five-year stay of execution on our fledgling industry. This year, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives called The Internet Radio Equality Act, which seeks to align the percentage of revenues paid by satellite radio with those paid by Internet stations (like this one). To date there have been more than 120 co-sponsors. But due to other forces, the current prospect of the IREA becoming law appears bleak.
There's no doubt that the solution is coming soon. But where 2007 started out with questions surrounding the fairness of Internet radio royalties (ridiculously high) as opposed to the relatively miniscule royalties demanded from satellite radio, the issue has now become mired in an even bigger conundrum: broadcast radio, for the first time in its 80-plus year history, is currently being targeted for performance royalties as well. Suddenly our issue of reasonable royalties for Internet radio has taken a backseat to an even bigger political quagmire that threatens to overturn the status quo of free broadcast radio. And the fight is bloody.
With no solid royalty figures to factor into our business plan, KNT cannot launch without taking a huge, blind risk regarding its potential to survive whatever might come out of Capitol Hill. If we were to take the deal currently being extended, we could end up obligating ourselves to paying huge royalties for several years that were determined during the early stages of the negotiating process. But if we hold off launching for a little while longer, it's fairly certain that there will be a much more reasonable price tag.
So the delay is a fundamental business decision. We're pretty sure that the deal handed down earlier this year is the worst-case scenario. There will have to be a more sensible resolution. So we're waiting it out.
Stay tuned ... we're not going away!
As of Sept. 8, 2007
KNTRadio.Com website framework completed and uploaded for staff review. Public comment is also invited. Please note that this is a preliminary layout, pending final decision in November after sample audience testing for the overall look and feel. As of this date:
- Search function (top right of each page) is not yet activated.
- Samples added. We still have a lot of archived material to comb through, so please chime in if you have any ideas.
- Audio tools page currently installed as a placeholder pending completion of public tutorials.
- Home page main content section also a placeholder with temporary filler pending re-working of the template.
- KNT News audio samples currently being repackaged from airchecks. News page currently in placeholder status.
- "KNT Looks At ..." section to be added to all left-column menus.
- Breakout player window currently being designed; to be prominently linked from every page when we go live. This will allow listeners to leave the website without losing the program until they're ready to turn it off.
