2007

“Day of Silence” Petition Generates Huge Response

Details

Created on Wednesday, 27 June 2007 10:53

Philadelphia, PA WXPN, the nationally-recognized leader in Triple A music and a noncommercial radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, today announced that 11,004 listeners signed an on-line petition to protest higher royalty rates expected to go into effect on or after July 15.

The new rates would seriously jeopardize the future of radio streams. The rates would be retroactive for 17 months and payment would become due to the SoundExchange collection organization under the terms of a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision. The new rates would cost WXPN more than $100,000 annually; several times the annual funds raised by business support on the Internet streams.

Yesterday, June 26, WXPN silenced its four streams – XPN, Y Rock On XPN, XPoNential Radio and Folk Alley. No music was heard and a message was played directing listeners to sign the online petition to protest the increase.

“We had hoped to garner a minimum of 5,000 signatures,” said Roger LaMay, WXPN General Manager. “The overwhelming response of our loyal listeners sends a loud message to legislators and hopefully they will heed the call to save streaming radio.”

WXPN will forward the names of petitioners to the Washington, D.C. offices of Congressman Chaka Fattah and Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter.

WXPN 88.5 FM, the nationally recognized leader in Triple A radio and the premier guide for discovering new and significant artists in rock, blues, roots, and folk, is the non-commercial, member-supported radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. WXPN produces World Cafe®, public radio’s most popular program of popular music hosted by David Dye and syndicated by NPR, and the Peabody Award winning Kids Corner hosted by Kathy O’Connell. WXPN also produces the alternative rock service, Y-Rock On XPN (yrockonxpn.org) as its secondary radio channel in HD. WXPN serves the greater Philadelphia area at 88.5 FM, the Lehigh Valley at 104.9, Worton/Baltimore at 90.5 FM, Harrisburg at 88.1 FM, and the world via online streaming at XPN.org and XPoNentialMusic.org.