KHUM-FM - Rykodisc approved webcasting of Digital Dan’s Frank Zappa show on Friday nights
Hoodoo
10/21/2005
The Eureka Reporter
http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=5206
It’s a way for radio to reach listeners worldwide, but can be a
financial and legal hardship.
That’s why Ferndale-based commercial radio station KHUM 104.7/104.3 FM
discontinued its Internet stream after it had done it from 1996-2000.
With the assistance of Arcata-based StreamGuys, the second-largest
Internet streaming service in the United States, KHUM will again
stream live beginning today at noon over www.khum.com .
KHUM will offer the service free for 30 days, but will eventually
charge a subscription fee for Internet listeners.
“Because of the complexities, we haven’t come to a final price of what
the subscription cost is going to be,” KHUM General Manager Patrick
Cleary said.
A person listening for an hour each day is quite different than
someone who does so for eight hours each day, he said.
At present, Cleary said, he guesses that the cost will be less than $3
a month.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed into law by President
Clinton on Oct. 28, 1998.
Among other things, it requires radio stations to pay a copyright fee
per song.
But there was a bigger issue which KHUM had to deal with at around
that same time, Cleary said.
“It was the peak of the first Internet boom,” Cleary said. “ ...
Everybody was starting a dot-com business.”
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said that its
contracts didn’t cover Internet broadcasting. So it demanded its
artists be given fair compensation when commercials were streamed over
the Internet.
It asked for $600 every time a commercial streamed, Cleary said.
“I only charge maybe $20 a commercial,” he said. “The station just
made the decision that (that) would put us out of business.”
Enter StreamGuys.
Bob Doran of the North Coast Journal wrote a story about streaming and
KHUM and StreamGuys read it and contacted KHUM, Cleary said.
“We are very proud to get KHUM back on the air and begin streaming,”
StreamGuys account manager Barry Klein said.
StreamGuys provides network facilities and servers globally positioned
on several continents, he said. It combines streaming services and
consultation.
It serves more than 700 clients globally, including local stations
KMUD-FM community radio and KHSU-FM public radio.
StreamGuys has begun to aid KHUM to comply with the DMCA legislation,
helping KHUM to measure hits per song, numbers of listeners — all the
data that is required.
In addition to helping KHUM collect the pertinent DMCA information,
StreamGuys is also aiding in the AFTRA requirements.
When KHUM plays a national advertisement on its regular radio stream,
StreamGuys pulls it off before the broadcast goes on the Internet and
replaces it with a local ad, such as a KHUM promotion.
“We provided software to make that work,” Klein said. “The one we’re
using now is industrial strength.”
Each ad has “headers” that listeners don’t hear, or “text strings,” he
said. The computer can hear them and it identifies what to do.
“If you’re listening to the radio, you’re not going to notice the
difference,” Cleary said, adding that he doesn’t think the lack of
certain commercials on KHUM’s Web stream will have an effect on the
radio station’s commercial viability.
“We don’t think people will listen to the Internet rather than the
radio,” he said.
Plus, the sound quality of radio is better than the Internet, he
added.
There was another DMCA rule that could have added a further
restriction to the material KHUM could broadcast on the Internet,
Cleary said.
“DMCA had rules as to how many songs you could play off of any album —
no more than two songs from any album in a row (and) no more than
three (from an album) within two hours,” he said.
KHUM had a number of specialty shows, including “Brunch With the
Beatles” and the “Little Feat Radio Hour.” However, both of those
shows have stopped broadcasting for other reasons, Cleary said.
KHUM still has Digital Dan’s Frank Zappa show on Friday nights.
Rykodisc owns the Zappa catalog and gave KHUM permission to stream as
many songs as it liked, so KHUM didn’t have to be concerned about that
DMCA rule, he said.
In addition to KHUM, KHSU and KMUD, other stations or music services
stream over the Internet, including locally based KRFH-AM, Humboldt
101, HumboldtMusic.com Internet Radio, HumCity Podcast, Club 330 Live
Show Stream and Radio Humboldt. Visit www.humboldtmusic.com to find
out more about these stations.
Having KHUM available on the Internet will be important for people who
live in isolated areas — even some areas in Eureka — and can’t pick up
the station on the radio, Cleary said.
“We think it’s going to create additional listeners,” he said.
Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter.