Changes to Jesus Music Oldies

MAJOR CHANGES FOR JESUS MUSIC OLDIES LISTENERS !!!
updated January 2008

There are more major changes coming to the Jesus Music Oldies web broadcast hosting service Live365. Since 1999, Live365 has provided hosting to web broadcasters at no or little charge. In 2002, minor charges were implemented due to the relentless legal prosecution of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) who is trying to squeeze blood out of the turnip and force these hobbyist broadcasters off the air with extremely high royalty fees.

This small monthly fee was used by Live365 primarily to help with legal costs in the fight against the RIAA and CARP. But for a long time, the company had been losing money. So as of June 1st, 2003, Live365 started charging all of it's broadcasters a hard monthly fee based on a schedule of services bought by the broadcaster. Everyone has to pay. And this plan greatly reduces or eliminates services that up until now were free to all broadcasters, large and small. In edition, it has taken away the ability to broadcast live on the basic level and puts listener caps on all streams, so that each station, depending on the level of service purchased, will now only be able to have a much smaller number of simultaneous listeners.

As of June 2003, JMO Media, parent owner of Jesus Music Oldies and owners of four web streams, has seen it's fees more than double, and has had it's live ability taken away on all except one station, and seen massive restrictions to how many listeners can tune in at the same time. Only recently has CARP allowed us to ask for help from our listeners to continue broadcasting. We can now legally ask you to help us to handle these new increased fees and help keep Jesus Music and Classic CCM on the air. At thistime, we can now collect donations via Pay Pal and affiliates but still can not sell advertising.

The most recent developement is that the government is close to approving retroactive fees and royalties that are up to five times more than terrestrial radio and satellite radio pay, effectively wiping internet radio off the web. There is a move to equalize the fees to the more fair rates the others pay through legislation, but we need listeners to internet radio to join in, contact their congressmen and demand these fees for made fair for all broadcasters. Please go to this website to see what you can do to Save Net Radio!

So what's going to happen? If the increased rates go through, most internet radio stations will go away. AOL and Yahoo, two of the giants of internet radio say they will cease all music streaming. Live365, our host site, vows to fight but we don't know for how long. We will stay on as long as we can afford to. This may mean closing one of our other streams. Or it may mean closing the JMO dial up stream. Or both. We hate the idea of doing this. I've been in radio broadcasting since 1968, was privileged to be involved in the birth of Contemporary Christian Radio and still love the old music from that era. It was my dream, as well as that of others, to bring this great classic music back to the world via the internet. Live365 seemed like the prefect way to do that. And...it still is. Live365 is still the cheapest and easiest web broadcasting host today. So we will stay there, for now. We will also do everything we can to stay online with the best Classic CCM available. That's our promise.

How will this change things for the listener? Not much will change for now. But the day of free interent listening is quickly coming to an end. You will still be able to hear free music at Live365 for now, but it's already become restricted. You may not be able to listen to all of your stations for free much longer. Or you may not be able to connect to a station because of the restrictions and listener caps. Yes, the day of free radio on the net is almost over, if the greedy recording companies and royalty collection agencies have their way.

What can you, the listener, do? The most immediate need is for all listeners to get involved, contact their congressional representatives and demand fair fees for internet broadcasters. You ask you to do this today! The link again for more information is here: Save Net Radio. The next very important action all our listeners could do is donate to their favorite station, whatever that might be. And do it on a monthly basis. It doesn't have to be much if everyone gave. A dollar per person each month on a regular basis would pay the bills. Pray about helping us out today. Just look for the PayPal buttons around the site, or click here:

Of course, there will never be any pressure to join or pay more than you want or have to. These changes started June 1st, 2003 with our plan change over and doubled fees to Live365. The restriction of free listening also started then with the listener caps and include all Live365 listeners. Sorry, but we have no say in this. And the schedule of new ultra high fees were proposed in 2007, and have been postponed several times, due to the outrage and controversy it is causing. Several congressmen have gotten involved and yours should too. Please contact them today as the rates are due to go up early 2008.

Know that we here at Jesus Music Oldies hold you, our listeners in the highest regards. You are why WE are here. We will do what we can to stay online with the best Classic Contemporary Christian Music available to us as long as we can. Please let us know what you think about this change and how we can make the listening experience the best possible for you.

Peace and blessings,

Rob W.
Station Manager Jesus Music Oldies

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