Phase out over-the-air signals? (was: Re: WCRB to simulcast on 88.7in R.I.)

[A Joseph Ross]

On 6/3/2011 8:11 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:


> Ah, but you need a different kind of license to do Internet
> broadcasting, thanks to a bogus distinction in the copyright law that
> treats streaming as somehow magically different from OTA broadcasting
> as far as piracy goes.  The NAB has thus far successfully fought off
> correcting this in a way that would hurt OTA broadcasters, which the
> copyright industry has been lobbying for for years.  But Bob's
> electric bill at WJIB is probably less than the mandatory copyright
> license costs would be for streaming to the same number of listeners.
> Plus, the blanket license for streaming includes a number of asinine
> restrictions on program content (e.g., cannot play more than three
> songs performed by the same artist in an hour).

This may be so right now, but when nobody is listening to AM radio, Bob 
will have to change or get out of the business, and selling the station 
may not be much of an option if nobody is listening.

Or perhaps by the time Bob's older audience stops listening, Bob will be 
ready to retire anyway.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                     617.367.0468
92 State Street, Suite 700          Fax: 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004     http://www.attorneyross.com