Radio AM to FM: November 12, 2004
This Just In ...
Is the record industry planning to go after passengers of cars with radios?
According to a recent story in About.Com, the Recording Industry Association
of America will be expanding it's copyright infringement lawsuits and will
be filing against anyone who has ever listened to a radio broadcast in a car:
friends, family members, carpoolers ... even hitchhikers.
"We think this is a no-brainer," an unidentified RIAA spokesman told
About.Com. "These drivers have been illegally sharing music on their radios
for too long."
At issue: RIAA attorneys claim that the radio in each car was meant to be listened
to only by the actual buyer or owner of the car, and music licensing fees were
calculated by that premise. Additional passengers who listen to music in a
car owned by someone else, therefore, are doing so without the permission of
appropriate copyright holders. In other words, they are listening to music
illegally shared by the vehicle owner.
According to the story, RIAA attorneys will be filing papers in Federal District
courts across the country to have automakers release the names and addresses
of every car buyer over the past 20 years.
Additionally, they are trying to obtain a court order to exhume the bodies
of Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell and Guglielmo Marconi in order to sue the corpses for unfair business practices. Clerk-Maxwell developed
the theory of
electromagnetic waves, while Marconi is credited with discovering wireless
radio.
In case you are concerned that this move by the RIAA may affect you, keep in
mind this: the About.Com story is satire. See the hilarious original story
by Corey Deitz at http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa082603a.htm.
Mail Bag
I used to listen to the Drama Hour on KSUR, but then they
changed to the
awful oldies programming and left only Stan Freberg. Now they
even canceled him. Are there any other stations, AM or FM, which broadcast the
drama
hour or parts of it? -- Del, via email
For this I went to my official source for radio drama, reader Mike
Dangott,
who sent the following:
Saturdays 9 - 10 PM, Imagination Theater on KFMB/San Diego (760 AM).
The first Monday of each month, Midnight to 3 AM, Don't Touch That Dial on
KPFK (90.7 FM).
When conditions permit, 10 - 11 PM, When Radio Was on KSL/Salt Lake City (1160
AM). The program is repeated during the early hours (after Midnight) on weekends.
Two web sites that may be of interest: www.wrvo.org, which plays old-time programs
every day from 5 to 9 PM Pacific time, and www.jessthemess.net, which runs
the old CBS Radio Mystery Theater, 10-15 episodes available at one time.
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Copyright © 2004 Richard Wagoner and The Copley Press.
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