Monday, July 16, 2007

Webcasting Update-Dennis

Well, we're still webcasting today.

Late Friday, we received word that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
(CPB), and National Public Radio (NPR) were still in negotiation with Sound Exchange
to settle the issue of royalty payments for webcasting of public radio music programming.

While no agreement was reached on a substitute for the March 2nd decision of the
Copyright Board (which would substantially raise royalty payments for webcasters,
including public radio stations like KCCK), CPB offered a payment (on behalf of public
stations) to SoundExchange, which has been accepted, to cover what NPR and CPB believe
is due July 15 as the base rate payment for stations beginning March 2, 2007. NPR
and CPB are confident that public radio stations can continue their music streaming
operations for the next three months as good faith discussions are ongoing about
the structure and amount of the ultimate fee.

Bottom line: We're still streaming and should be able to continue so for the near
future.

Stay tuned.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Great Fest! -- Dennis

Hope you were at the Pentacrest at some point this weekend for the Iowa City Jazz Festival. The weather was perfect, and the music spectacular. Our 20-hour live broadcast of the Festival ended with a delightful set from the Ben Allison Quartet Sunday afternoon (Record company restrictions would not allow us to broadcast the Derek Trucks Band Sunday night).

We'll be re-broadcasting the Festival on Labor Day, so you can catch what you may have missed, and Bob Stewart's interviews with the headliners will be posted on the web site this week.

What did you think of the Festival? Post your replies below!