UCLA Radio hasn’t had a true radio signal since its
inception in 1963. With the recent ability to stream music over the
internet a viable alternative had been found.
But this summer, new government policies forced the station to
reevaluate the affordability of broadcasting over the web.
This situation is playing out all over the country, since the
enforcement of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 this
past Sept. 1. Under a final ruling by the Library of Congress,
imposed royalties aimed specifically at webcasting could
potentially cost stations thousands of dollars a year.
Although UCLA Radio probably doesn’t broadcast to enough
listeners to receive a bill greater than the annual $500 minimum
fee, these new policies forced UCLA Radio to cease operations over
the summer as they worked out the various consequences.
“We’re trying to cut down music programming between
the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m,” General Manager Nichole
Benavente said. “So it’s going to be mostly talk
(related), plus ethnomusicology is going to have a show. It’s
not going to be straight format like we had before.”
The ability to broadcast copyrighted material has never come
without a price. Even major radio stations pay royalties to
compensate the songwriters and music publishers. They are, however,
exempt from paying the record companies under the mutual
understanding radio broadcasts provide their artists with
beneficial exposure.
The Recording Industry Association of America has a different
attitude toward digital streams. The internet radio boom prompted
action presumably over the fear internet streams will one day be
able to produce perfect digital copies, promoting piracy. Now
stations that don’t broadcast over the FM or AM radio dial
must pay .07 cents for each time a song is transmitted to a
listener’s computer, in addition to the fees already charged
by licensing organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.
While the .07 cent figure adopted by the Library of Congress has
potential to run some smaller webcasters out of business,
it’s half the .14 cent figure suggested by the Copyright
Arbitration Royalty Panel, and significantly less than the
RIAA’s initial demands.
“We’re not in any fear right now of exceeding the
minimum, although we do want to change the way we broadcast
music,” Media Director Arvli Ward said. “(In the past
we didn’t) have DJs in the middle of the night, so we put CDs
in and played them all night long. So that’s one of the
things we probably won’t do anymore. We don’t want to
have a dead signal, but if it’s a question of one day paying
for that, then we probably don’t want to do it.”
According to Ward, the station’s summer hiatus was
actually a prime opportunity for UCLA Radio to make long considered
changes.
“One of the ideas is to try and have talk shows that might
be related to student government,” Ward said.
“That’s really not so much about the DMCA and trying to
keep the fees down, but that’s really something that many GMs
have wanted to do over time to diversify the audience and try to
expand it.”
Still, the new DMCA policies also require stations to keep
extensive records of the songs they broadcast and they also expect
stations to make retroactive payments for the copyrighted songs
they’ve broadcasted since Oct. 28, 1998. These policies have
all contributed to dissent from webcasters around the country.
“I really think that since we’re based at a college
and we do have the credentials, that college radio stations like us
should be exempt,” Benavente said. “We don’t
charge fees, it’s mostly for educational purposes. (UCLA
doesn’t) have a radio department, or a journalism department,
but students are interested in college radio.”