Boston University student radio station WTBU is the Recording Industry Association of America’s latest victim. According to new regulations reached through negotiations between the RIAA and the Library of Congress, the station will be forced to compensate the RIAA for each song played on its website retroactive to Halloween 1999, a move that will cost the station at least $500 a year and could jeopardize the station’s ability to survive, according to WTBU General Manager Russell Rubin. Though Rubin said the station is voluntarily complying with the new law, College of Communication broadcast journalism majors’ best source for broadcast experience within the BU community and stations like it throughout the country have been unfairly targeted by the recording industry’s powerful representative association. The costs to all BU students could be great.
The station owes the RIAA $2,200 for all webcasts since the station began streaming over the Internet in 1999 and will be forced to pay $0.0002 per song, per listener in the future, or $500 minimum per year, as a result of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Because more than 95 percent of WTBU’s listener base comes over the Internet, according to Rubin, WTBU, and many small webcasters and university stations similar like it, could be out of business by the end of the year.
WTBU is an easy target for the RIAA. The station and stations like it do not have the resources of a major radio station and represents the age group probably most likely to illegally pirate digital music — college students. It is an easy way for the recording industry to make some small change while making an example of helpless targets.
The RIAA’s callous fees ignore WTBU’s irreplaceable contributions to the BU community. The station allows broadcast journalism students the opportunity to both hone their craft and apply what they learn in the classroom every day. It allows its daily listeners the opportunity to hear their fellow students in action while more intimately connecting to BU’s news and culture. It is truly “the beat of Boston University.”
Though Rubin admitted it is unlikely WTBU would be caught if it did not comply with the new regulations, the law forces college stations to make the unpleasant choice between violating the law or facing bankruptcy. Stations that provide such valuable services to both their broadcasters and listeners should be exempt from the RIAA’s pet regulations.
Boston University must stand up for its student radio station. The school should come out strongly against the RIAA’s unfair charges on small student stations like WTBU and should promise to keep WTBU afloat, should it run into difficult financial times.
Though its listenership may be small and its radio signal weak, WTBU is an irreplaceable student attraction at Boston University. The entire Boston University community should work to ensure the RIAA’s unfair charges are not the station’s death knell.