Chuck Singleton Letter

Recent decisions regarding internet streaming are forcing WFUV to make some hard decisions. On March 2, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) of the U.S. Copyright Office established a new royalty rate for online streaming of recorded music. This has sent us - and every other small webcasters - to their calculators looking for a way to continue offering online music services. It is going to cost us a tremendous amount of money to continue -- the fees are retroactive to the start of 2006, and our first five years would total over half a million dollars. That's twenty times over the previous rate.

We have elected to maintain our live music streaming for the immediate future. We will also continue to work with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio in their efforts to come to a fair agreement.

What can you do? Besides your financial support of the streams, there are organized attempts to channel public opinion on the matter to the Congressional representatives in decision-making positions. Visit www.savethestreams.org for more information on how you can help to keep music streams on the Internet.

Thanks again,

Chuck Singleton, Program Director