Fed II Star - January 22, 2006

FED RADIO GOES OFF THE AIR

I am very sad to report that Archer's excellent Fed Radio station has gone off the air for legal reasons. This is particularly disappointing after the excellent Top Ten feature that Archer ran over the Christmas holiday period; we were also working closely with Archer on some new features for the future, such as the guest DJ slots, the Valentine's Day love songs, and the possibility of live commentary on some of the Fed events.

Fed Radio is a victim of the short-sighted policies of the major music companies, who are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is this organization that has been pursuing the evil file-sharing pirate criminals such as 12-year old girls and pensioners. Under their rules, anyone who runs an internet radio station has to pay royalties for each song broadcast, based on the number of listeners, and the RIAA's lawyers have now turned their attention to those that haven't been paying those royalties - including Fed Radio, which received an official notice that it had to either start to pay, or stop broadcasting.

This is particularly annoying when we know that the Top Tens, in which Fed Radio played the favorite songs of Fed staff and players, resulted in Fed players going out and buying CDs because they liked what they heard. Yes, they listened to the free radio station, heard music by bands they'd not heard before, and then paid real cash to get that music. Sounds like the record companies could only benefit from this kind of thing, but they are too short-sighted to realize that.

Needless to say, we quite understand that in the face of this ultimatum, Archer had no choice but to go off the air. We are going to do some investigation to see if there is any way he can open up again without incurring the wrath of the pigopolists at the RIAA. Meanwhile, we are also in discussion with Freakster Radio, which is listened to by a number of Fedders, about taking over some of the things we had planned for Fed Radio. More on those plans in future issues of the Star.

Freakster Radio is at http://sc6.spacialnet.com:13338/.