Filed at 10:50 a.m. ET
FREEDOM, Calif. (AP) -- The first commercial radio station to make its broadcasts available over the Internet has suspended its webcasts, saying it can't afford new royalties.
KPIG, an eclectic 2,850-watt radio station based in this small Santa Cruz County town, on Thursday ended seven years of continuous webcasting by signing off with the song, ``Happy Trails.'' The station will occasionally webcast live recordings from its studio and station-sponsored concerts -- music that isn't subject to royalties.
Station management attributed the shutdown to recently imposed fees that stations must pay recording studios for copyright music streamed over the Internet.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who oversees the U.S. Copyright Office, set the royalty standards last month, provoking cries of protest from small Internet radio stations that say the fees will force them to pull the plug on webcasts.
``The bill comes out to around $3,000 a month for KPIG, which isn't a whole lot, but KPIG is basically a small-market radio station. And right now, it's not making any money from that stream,'' said Bill Goldsmith, who operates KPIG's online station. ``That's $3,000 a month that they just can't afford.''
Earlier this week, a group of radio stations appealed the webcasting royalties in a Philadelphia federal court.
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On The Net:
http://www.kpig.com
