Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: News

KTRM radio fans are going to have to continue adjusting their dials in order to tune in to 88.7 The Edge.

The campus radio station is no longer streaming online as a result of legislation that requires the station to pay a yearly fee. However, the money is not the issue.

Senior Harry Burson, station manager at KTRM, said that to broadcast on the radio, the station pays royalties to songwriters for the songs it plays, and must monitor what it broadcasts for about three days out of the year. Burson said that to stream online, the station would be required to monitor what it broadcasts for two weeks out of every quarter, four times a year total. KTRM would have to keep track of the song name, artist, label, album and year produced for every song played in that two-week period, all day and all night.

KTRM station director Mark Smith said there is a private business that has been charged by the federal government to collect copyright fees, called performance rights.

"Throughout the relationship [between radio and] the record labels, the trade-off has been, the record labels provide free product to radio stations," Smith said. "Radio stations then promote that product on the air by playing the songs and talking about the artists, while the record labels hope that people will go out and buy them."

Smith said that when the Internet came along, the relationship between radio and record labels began to change. Smith said the federal government now has laws in place that require stations to pay performance rights to stream online.

Smith said the fees vary based on how large a market a station is in. In Truman's case, Smith said KTRM is a non-commercial, educational station that would be required to pay $500 a year to stream.

"That's not really the problem for us," Smith said. "The problem is then the record keeping."

In addition to monitoring the broadcasting for two weeks every quarter, Smith said KTRM also has to account for how many people are linked up to the stream at all times during the two-week period. Smith said KTRM does not possess the ability to monitor that much information and then process it onto a spreadsheet to be submitted to the company.

Smith said KTRM has not stopped streaming entirely. He said the Edge still is able to stream local music and talk and news shows. Smith said KTRM currently is investigating different ways to stream online. One possible solution is to stream through a filter that would keep track of all the data necessary for the reports.

Sophomore Shannon Zaloudek said she thinks KTRM should stream online. Zaloudek said she thinks it would be more accessible for those students who are working online but do not have access to a radio.

"It sounds like a lot of work," Zaloudek said. "But I mean, if it's a radio station for the students, they might as well make it more convenient for students to access it."

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