Paranoia

From: MojoNaut Chas <chas@pandromeda.com> Subject: Re: paranoia
Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 14:51:39 -0400
To: musgrave@pandromeda.com, legume@subgenius.com, codini@socal.rr.com,
stang@subgenius.com

At 11:38 AM 5/18/2002 -0400, you wrote:

I heard the Computer Guys saying that hardware firewalls are the way to go.

Lemme know if you learn anything about that...

Oh man... I wish I would have heard that. I'll check it out.

But...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warning: long CARP Act Rant - ('gume - post this in alt.slack if ya' could)

... I DID hear a bit of them talking about that damned CARP Act... forcing any internet webcasting radio station to pay extortion fees in the 10s to 100s thousand dollar range annually to broadcast on the net. (30 grand is the minimum... meaning every college radio station that webcasts would have to pony that up just to be there.) This is worse than anything the FCC ever even dreamed of doing... and guess what?... starting next week... it's the law.

WCSB will be going off the internet air next week, or whenever the new law goes into effect. (It's soon) Hail the King... who just handed over all internet radio and music copyright content - and new paths to extortion payola - to his cronies. Thanks to the child-king... just about EVERY cool radio station webcasting WILL BE GONE from the web starting next week. EXCEPT... OF COURSE... the BIG CORPORATE COMMERCIAL radio stations who can afford the payoff.

I've no idea how they'll extort money from non-domestic web radio stations... but I'm sure they'll find a way to either extort their bloodmoney or block them. The Computer Guys were outraged too. They even declared a call to action for folks to WRITE their lawmakers.

And whyyyyyyyyyyyyy... blah blah am I so pissed... Because my show is THE heaviest hit show at WCSB. Fuckers!.. and I don't even play much copyright protected music. What will this do to my Clockwork Orange Alex radio ego when I look over to the right when I'm sitting at the board and just see a blank blue screen? All my ESO Droogies are orphaned out there somewhere in all the zeros and ones.

And yes... this also means that anyone who catches HourOfSlack on the web (off any of the stations like wcsb) will most probably no longer be able to. None of this effects On-Air broadcasting... just webcasters. So your fave local college radio will still be there - locally... but if they also webcast, they have two choices - pay up or stop webcasting.

The WORSE part is it all happened under everyone's radar. All of a sudden - here it was - it was voted on - and it's gonna' be law. Like it or not... pay up or leave the party. There were organized protests, and two separate days of radio silence... to no effect on the momentum. It went through easily piggybacked along with a bunch of post 9-11 domestic security stuff. The top rungs of the music industry have long been drooling for the chance to control every outlet for sharing and airing music... by law. Now they got it.

This is the NEW fight. The OLD fight (detailed below in the footnote) is passe and almost seems inconsequential now. The new fight - is MUCH more insidious that the old one could have ever been.

Hope ya' enjoyed it while it lasted, kids.

ESO Radio
Thursday nights - 11pm-1am EST
WCSB Cleveland OH USA - 89.3 FM
www.wcsb.org
No format - No rules - Ignore alien orders

On the Air since 1986
On the Web: 1998 - 2002 R.I.P.

footnote:
On the bright side... the FCC has completely backed off of any hassling college radio for bad words and nasty-ass rave&rap fuck music. HELL... they even gave us LOADS of room for fun in "Safe Harbor," the FCC mandated time when we can air indecent and profane stuff.

It's weird for me to think of the FCC as a friend, because I came into radio when they definitely were NOT! But I gotta' admit, as long as you give fair warning before airing nasty stuff, and you do it in "safe harbor," they mind their own damned business now. (Which has a lot to do with the censorship fight back in 1990 when Frank Zappa went up against Tipper Gore and her Parents Against Everything... which resulted NOT in a new law... but with that little b&w PARENTAL warning sticker. WHICH, btw... is voluntarily put there by record makers... AND means that the gov't refused to pass a law and instead dumped it all back on the parents to keep an eye on what their little brats are listening to.

After years of no safe harbor, and even getting downright nasty about leveling fines, they gave it up... then opened up the time to span from midnight until 6am. The only thing the FCC asks is to play a legal disclaimer warning listeners that you're gonna' play naughty stuff before airing said naughty stuff. That's it.

Heck... they''re not even going after pirates anymore. Two years ago that was the biggest stink... now who could care... and the left end of the dial is bulging with 15 watt signals on weekends in city downtown areas (a fave marketing ploy of gay and rave dance clubs - and in Clevo there's about 3 or 4 latino ones too)

All in all... the FCC has backed WAY down on who their picking on. I think they're just kickin' back and collecting fat paychecks. I mean... why bother with all that listening and following up to complaints stuff when no one cares. The public is much more of a tizzy over terrorists and internet pedopriests than to worry about what's going on in underground radio and music.

THIS could be a GOOD thing. MAYBE... just MAYBE... REGIONALITY will come back into music... NEW styles will emerge. It'll be like the 50's underground, where all these different styles of fast electric boogie blues emerged and became known as rock and roll. Think about it...
No more internet underground radio
PLUS
Unrestricted content on LOCAL college radio EQUALS
Regional flavor ONCE AGAIN in rock music.

PRAISE BOB... this COULD be the end of 20+ years of formulaic pop trying to act authentic by incorporating those tired old genres of punk, grunge and rap.

The beautiful thing about this is it will happen just like it did in the 50s... under the radar of the big corporate record companies. Suddenly... a new generation will start something new... just like it should be. The suit 'n tie guys in New York and LA won't understand it. The collective market they've assembled will start cracking and shattering into regional factions and styles. They won't be able to market a band from Boston to a kid from Phoenix. The formula won't work anymore when the pendulum of musical regionality swings back. Once again... It won't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

Therefore... I predict... that the internet copyright act, or CARP... WILL bring about a whole NEW Elvis... a NEW Beetles... a NEW Jimi Hendrix... a NEW Led Zeppelin... a deeply needed and desperately desired new movement and musical shift in rock music

All hope is not lost, kids... sell your computer... turn off MTV... and buy a top-of-the-line FM+shortwave receiver and a REALLY BIG antennae... STRAP that baby to the top of your double-wide... and start stockpiling squid and duct tape.

Funny how things just might work out.

Peace and lusty luv vibes

~Chas

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Original file name: Re- paranoia.txt - converted on Friday, 13 June 2003, 22:43