Friday, July 20, 2007

The Bastards Won

WDOA has ceased all streaming effective immediately Unfortunately it is not financially feasible to keep going . The RIAA rigged the game in that by law the collection agent for all indie artists is ta duh.. The RIAA (or their collection arm known as SoundExchange) this holds true even if the artist does not wish them to be!!! Yeah, what a country. Their lobbyists certainly got their moneysworth out of Congress and the President (It was Bill Clinton that signed the DMCA which started the ball rolling on this). WDOA ran on a budget of about $1000 a year, give or take and everyone who did shows was a volunteer, nobody was making or even trying to make money off WDOA. We made no money and was funded by myself, my wife, various donors, and by certain clandestine government scientists. Unfortunately in the world of the RIAA the minimum royalty fee for WDOA would be about $5000 plus we probably could not provide feeds for seperate programs, etc. We also would have to be able to keep much more detailed records of what we played AND WHO LISTENED, than we currently do. If we continued to netcast as we do, maybe the RIAA would never knock on the door, but on the other hand Heidi and I can't afford to risk the RIAA taking our house or meager savings. Anyhow it was a nice ride, and maybe we will do it again sometime, but for now stick the proverbial fork in us, cuz we are done.

We will have one last streaming feed on August 18th, 2007 where we hope to be able to play some highlights from our past, including some airchecks from the years of 1996 - 1997 when we started as a pirate/LPFM radio station in Worcester, MA. More details on the times of those streamings to come. Thanks to all the staff who have been a part of wdoa.com in the past including, Heidi, LB & Jeff Worm, Brian Commando, John Q. Public, Matt Griffin, Mike Marley, PA & Andy, Dave & Michelle Kowalchek, Brian Goslow, Reverend Joe, and others. --best of luck, Mike Malone 7/20/2007

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ah fuck!!!!
I listen over the net from Los Angeles

you guys were one of the few radio stations keeping me from going postal and killing random robot-civilians!!!

THANK YOU for all the supreme music you played, the efforts of the djs and for remembering what real radio was all about.

damn the MAFIAA!