Like Our Country, Internet Radio Is In Crisis

Looks like we will have to give up any hope for the "Internet Radio Equality Act".

If you're a regular listener to internet radio, you may have heard aired on ours, as well as pier stations, a request for your support of Bills H.R. 2060 AND S. 1353, otherwise known as the "Internet Radio Equality Act".

To date, this has become a stagnant issue in Washington. The effort is to equalize the higher royalty fees determined by the Copyright Royalty Board to be paid to record companies, artists, and composers for the songs that you hear on internet radio. These are paid through the recording industry's sanctioned agency SoundExchange. Compared to the exact same royalties paid to satellite and eventually terrestrial radio for the same music, this was obviously un-fair and a stealth attempt to slowly bleed internet radio music stations to death.

Already crawling at a snail's pace to begin with, the effort has now hit a brick wall.

Needless to say, the financial debacle by government is now the 10,000 pound gorilla in the room. And because of the exposure of blunders by a majority of representatives, senators and the White House, before and after, the financial bailout action, makes it quite obvious by many that the pending upheaval of the upcoming elections will spell the doom of many incumbents. Perhaps the majority of those who co-sponsor the IREA.

Thus, what would be considered a moral act of establishing fair play of all entities that play music across the board, will take a further back seat, (more like taking a place in the upper pigeon hole in the furthest corner of the guest room closet) when compared to more pressing issues that have had to pause because of the 700 billion dollar mortgage crisis.

Realistically and comparatively to priorities, it's more for the reason that American's could care less about anything else at this point.

With all these delays, life couldn't be sweeter for the recording industry and Sound Exchange, who have had all the opportunities in the world to strategize and re-strategize it's efforts of holding together, the unbelievable large royalty percentage imposed on internet radio. This more than likely puts the internet radio industry at the mercy of a totally new line up in Washington.

The whole story began in Washington and ends in Washington. Who do you currently have faith in there to proceed with anything?

Why Should It Matter If McCain Sends Emails?

The latest Barack Obama attack ad is trying to focus on John McCain being a "computer illiterate" and how important that in this day and age that a leader should have thorough knowledge of the internet from blogging, emails, OS and IM to be effective. Am I to be so impressed that a candidate that can master "geek-speak" can harness the massive affairs of the free world? (I don't believe I've seen Mark Cuban on the ticket.)

My instant response to that is, if that's the case Sen.Obama, do you have thorough knowledge of the operation of military aircraft?...Or for that matter, an aircraft carrier?..Or for that matter, an entire naval fleet? How about staring the enemy in the eye? That means more to me in a commander-in-chief than for someone who can just set up a MySpace page.

Phoenix, AZ You're IT!

It's back! After a summer hiatus the featured city/state of the week has returned to to The Nation page on our GUS.FM website. We're proud to roll the new version out with eyes on Phoenix, AZ!

If you're a regular and you've tracked the week to week focus, what you will find is that it's not much different, but we wanted to remain a bit more relevant to the music. That's the general reason why you visit, right? Among other things what you will find is an embedded video that we can manage to dig up to feature either a song to a namesake, or what would really be great is if you are artist with original material that not only can get the recognition that you're looking for as well as a suggestion to what should be the next featured area.

This is also a way for you to keep up to what Wikipedia has published online about your respective zone. Since you're free to edit, you may be able to pinpoint and correct mistakes or add your own adjustment to their article. Just click on the name of the town and/or the state flag on the site.

GUS.FM 128kbs Server Changed

If you have the GUS.FM 128kbs Shoutcast stream bookmarked to your media player, make note that we have transitioned to a new server which is online now. You may simply go to the GUS.FM website and click on the listen link in the current song playing window which will open to the new stream address and refresh your bookmark. Or you can enter this url into your media browser:

http://67.159.44.161:8108/listen.pls

We will pull the plug on the original Shoutcast 128kbs stream on 9/1/08.

Though we have diligently made changes to all known portals, we're aware that in time there are many relays that have voluntarily, and unknown to us, picked up our webcast.

If you know of such a situation, please contact that individual service and link them back to this message, or email us at contact@gus.fm.

Time For My Opinion on Internet Radio Royalty Rates

I'm ocassionally asked, or am forwarded news articles about the plight of the

Boycott Gary Glitter Music

I will not, and have never aired Gary Glitter material on my radio station! He is a convicted child predator and pervert of the worst extreme!

I could say that would sum it all up and close this particular article, except for one thing. He still receives royalty checks every time his 1971 hit song "Rock and Roll Pt2" is played at virtually every sporting venue in the world. And you may unknowingly be feeding his appetite.

My daughter was in high school band, and I remember each touchdown that was scored was punctuated by each teams' respective band by the familiar duh duh duh...da duh-da duh. The rights that were obtained to play that in a public setting was (or legally, should have been) licensed to compensate the composer. That is Gary Glitter in this case. And my tax money, stadium admission, and band support money funneled to his sick, twisted coffer.

The same for your high school, college, and pro team attendance.

A multiple offender in Britain, and fallen from grace, Glitter doesn't seem to absorb the gravity of his offenses. So it seems, if he couldn't be able to fix in his homeland, he trolled about internationally.

Just released from a three year sentence at a Vietnamese prison for molesting two 11 year old girls, Glitter is now slithering back to London. If that's not bad enough to an accumulation of money he made while he slept and God only knows what type of punishment you receive in a Vietnamese prison. If you ask me, even that was too lenient.

There are appropriate appendages that should be cut off Glitter at this point. If you can't get to the prime one, go for the next best thing and cut off his money. Be aware of this situation and demand that his music no longer be played at any venue.

It's a shame. I enjoyed playing this hit song in my early radio years and had fond reflections of my high school years.

From this point on, however, any time you hear "Rock and Roll, Pt.2" consider it the "Child Predator's National Anthem."



National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website

Online Radio-GUS.FM: New and Improved!

Let's start off by saying.."We're exhausted! But the 'Classic Hit Combo' is back (and ON) with a vengence!" So come back to GUS.FM!

To catch you up to speed, especially if you've tried to login to the music stream, the internet has not been a very good friend for us this summer. Largely due to unexpected failures in the mainframe infrastructure from our origin, one after another. In keeping a discrepency log, the last count was 119 occurances in the last 30 days alone. (Hey, honestly, even we quit listening!)

Frustrations, lost sleep, revenue and a steady decline of listeners hit us with a brick of embarassment. When will it ever end? With a large degree of certainty we believe it has! Running the latest ping, and a little tweaking, I have never seen a such a clean response. And you can tell by listening!

The 'Classic Hit Combo' has gained a worldwide notariety that we intend to keep. Striking a cord with our listeners, that never stopped loving the classic hits of the past and developing new ones. With the likes of Classic Rock, Blues, Country, Christian and Oldies, it's sure to keep you in a grip for a long time to come.

A word of advice, if you ever run an internet radio station, you're at the mercy of your IP. But be nice and willing to work together and they'll be at your mercy.

Drop us a line and tell us what you think. Enjoy!