x We're looking for webcasters and musicians who might be willing to come to Washington, DC, on April 30th (starting at 3PM) through May 1st (through 6PM) to participate in a "Hill walk" — being part of one of several small teams of people that will each visit six or seven Congressional offices that day and tell our story. If you'd like to volunteer your possible availability, please use the feedback form here. (SaveNetRadio.org will select a group of invitees based on a variety of criteria including geographic coverage of a variety of Congressional districts.) x

BY KURT HANSON and DANIEL MCSWAIN
Plans for the upcoming "Day of Silence" are coalescing, and a framework for the event is coming together, as support and suggestions from webcasters continue to pour in to our offices.

As mentioned previously in RAIN [here], the primary goal is to design a "media event" that gets press — specifically, press that will have a direct impact on Congressmen. The goal of a "Day of Silence" is not primarily to get listeners calling their Congressmen, although we think it will also do that.

With that in mind, here's a look at the plans so far:

• We believe that the ideal date for this particular event is Tuesday, May 8th — exactly one week before many of us may need to go silent permanently. Also, by that date a bill will hopefully already have co-sponsors, might have a committee hearing, and could be coming up to a vote soon.

• Per the suggestion of some webcasters, we considered re-naming the event "The Day The Music Died."(It might be problematic to use it for May 8th if the music comes back to life on May 9th) However, we're already using that name for D-Day, May 15th — which will be the day the music dies, permanently, if Congress doesn't step in.

• "Day of Silence" is a nice, catchy, four-syllable name that resonates. It works well in headlines. Some journalists (and consumers) remember the same event five years ago and we can build on those memories.

• The idea of a day of all non-RIAA music has also been suggested. The problem with that idea is that many listeners might respond, "Fine! Problem solved! Just do that permanently!" and for most webcasters, given their genre choices and target audiences, that is not technically practical. [As a reference, a list of RIAA-member labels is here.]

• We have floated the idea of, on that day, organizing a nationwide talk show hosted by some combination of NPR stations and/or Wolf FM. To really live up to the name "Day of Silence", however, we concluded that this time we really need silence. (Too many journalists last time started going down the path of "You're calling it a Day of Silence, but you're not really silent...?" We don't want to risk that again.)

• For those webcasters who have advertising commitments to fulfill, we believe a Tuesday will work well. Hopefully the event gets so much press coverage that some of the hours of listening you lose on Tuesday you may be able to make up on Wednesday through Friday.

• Last time, five years ago, we did not have the participation of the major Internet-only players. This year, we already have commitments  from major webcasters. We're also reaching out to large broadcasters (i.e., Clear Channel, CBS, Entercom, Bonneville, Cox, et al.) to gauge their interest in participation.

• We will work out a system where you can commit to your support and participation. We should all work together to develop personalized banner or player ads explaining the situation and encouraging action from listeners — "While we're silent today, we hope you'll use this time to call your Senators and Representative, so we don't have to go silent permanently a week from today..."

In planning the "Day of Silence", we've incorporated feedback from webcasters and listeners to make as successful of a "community effort" as possible. Use our feedback form to commit your station and volunteer additional suggestions.

Below is a table of several of the commitments from webcasters we've received so far. Keep them coming!

From The Hollywood Reporter: "In one of CBS Radio's first major moves in the technology space since Dan Mason recently took over as president and CEO, the CBS Corp. unit said Tuesday that it has incubated and become an investor in TargetSpot Inc., a provider of advertising serving technology for advertisers and Internet broadcasters...

"The company's technology allows businesses and individuals to create, buy and place their own advertising messages within streaming media using an array of jingles, sound effects and visuals provided by TargetSpot. Ads are then targeted to specific demographics, locations or properties, with the revenue being shared between TargetSpot and its respective broadcast partner...

"CBS Radio said it will utilize the firm's technology on its more than 100 music, talk, sports and news radio stations broadcasting live via the Internet.

"Mason last month took over the CBS Radio helm from Joel Hollander. At the time, he signaled an interest in bringing more digital applications and other technology to CBS Radio stations...

"'What we have created is a sophisticated advertising platform unlike any other technology being used by radio today,' Mason said. 'Advertising in streaming media isn't like putting up a banner ad on a Web page ... the technology, among the purest forms of business to business advertising, is specifically designed for monetizing streaming audio and video.'"

Read the entire article at The Hollywood Reporter.

Here's feedback from our suggestion of another "Day of Silence" here...

"Charg(ing) us for promoting their product is egregious and short-sighted..."

I have written several lengthy letters to Senator Feinstein. She thinks that by keeping these awful rates the artists are going to be paid. I am an artist with many records to my credit and I have always had to litigate to collect even a small portion of my royalties. That's the game the majors always play. They won't pay unless they're forced to via court order....and then they're late.

Keep up the good fight my friend. We're all in this together.

"(We) do follow the law to the letter..."

"Oh, that's right, there isn't an 'elsewhere'..."

"Always Country Radio fully supports all initiatives you've presented..."

"(Large broadcasters)... have a lot to lose, too..."

"If the public can't hear the music, who will buy it?..."