Brokeback Mountain Radio Two Program Guide

[Phillip Dampier]

BBM RADIO TWO

BetterMost, Wyoming

Program Guide

July 2007

Welcome to the July 2007 Brokeback Mountain Radio Two Program Guide.  This guide will be updated regularly throughout the month to give you information about our programming, upcoming events, schedule changes, and other related news.  Your input about our programming is most welcomed and helps guide us in selecting programs that best meet the needs of our audience.  Be sure to come back and visit the schedule regularly, as it will be updated by edits throughout the month!

AP News  Eventually updated every hour, this five minute newscast will bring you up to date on the events across the nation and around the world.  AP News in the morning often covers some lighter fare including consumer news, items from the 'you won't believe this' category, and events likely to make news later in the day.  In the afternoon, coverage of politics and business and other breaking events is emphasized.  And in the evenings, a roundup of the day's events to make sure you know what happened during the day now coming to an end.

National Weather Service Weather  Updated several times a day, you'll hear the latest forecast for the entire Wind River Basin, including the cities of Riverton, Shoshoni, and Arapahoe.  In the mornings, the hazardous weather outlook is often included to preview upcoming potentially dangerous weather situations coming later in the day.  Radio 2 hopes to expand the service to cover current conditions across Wyoming and the rest of the mountain west in the future.

The Cowboy Gathering  A weekly mix of cowboy stories, poems, and great cowboy music can be heard during this one hour show.  Lots of great western songs from the 1950's onwards will remind you of life in the rural west where Jack and Ennis spent their summers.

Open Spaces  An outstanding weekly roundup of news, culture, and current affairs impacting on Wyoming and all of the Rocky Mountain states, courtesy of Wyoming Public Radio.  If you want to know what life in the mountain west is like, this is your program!  Both hard-hitting news developments and great profiles of the people and places of Wyoming and beyond can be heard every week on this one hour broadcast.

Wyoming Fish and Game Report  A concise 10 minute weekly update of the latest news impacting on hunting and fishing across Wyoming, but also of interest to those concerned about the environment across the state.  The Fish and Game Report talks to the people who know.

Brokeback Mountain Campfire  A Soundscape Special Event, you'll enjoy nothing but the sounds of a crackling campfire on Brokeback Mountain on a peaceful night.  Listen for the sounds of wolves in the distance and the rustling of quiet breezes, and the snap of hot embers on a cool Wyoming night.

[ifyoucantfixit]

      iI found this article buried inside the LA Times website:

Judges clear way for higher Internet radio royalties
By Jim Puzzanghera, Times Staff Writer

10:51 AM PDT, July 12, 2007


Related Stories
- Web DJs silenced by royalty fees
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court panel has declined to delay a substantial increase in royalties that Internet radio stations owe for playing music, clearing the way for the hike to begin on Sunday.

Webcasters had sought an emergency stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the higher rates would drive many of them out of business.

Some small Internet radio stations already have stopped broadcasting to avoid accruing royalty payments because the rate hike is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006.

The court made its ruling Wednesday and released the decision this morning.

The Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure group of federal judges, set the new rates in March, eliminating a provision that allowed small webcasters to pay 10% to 12% of their revenues instead of a set per-song fee for every listener. The current rate of .0762 of a cent each time a song is played will more than double by 2010, and many Internet radio stations will face royalty payments greater than their revenues.

Many individuals make little or no money through their online stations, so the decision made webcasting prohibitively expensive.

Although the federal appeals court panel declined to stop the rate hike before it kicked in, an appeal is still pending before the court. Congress also is considering legislation that would halt the increase, although it could be months before it comes up for a vote.

In the meantime, webcasters are negotiating with SoundExchange, the organization that collects and distributes Internet music royalties. It has the power to strike separate deals.

"We're hopeful that Congress will take steps to ensure that Internet radio is not silenced, and that webcasters and SoundExchange will find a way to compromise and maintain the diversity and opportunity of Internet radio," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Assn., a trade group representing many Internet broadcasters.

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[Phillip Dampier]

I enjoy Radio 2, but I find that I can't passively listen to it like I do Radio 1.  Therefore, I don't listen as much. 

I'm curious about some things regarding it. . .

*  Is it part of Live365? 
*  How often are its contents updated (besides the news and weather)? 
*  Are there any upcoming programs you can tell us about/preview? 
*  How would one go about submitting ideas/samples for additional programming? 

Radio 2 is definitely a more active listening experience because it is mostly spoken word programming, except for the Cowboy Gathering and a few future longer form programs that are being added which are music-oriented.  Updates stopped when we were in Alberta, but now that we're back, we're configuring the station to run a lot more programming.

We are, as I write this, automating the updating process for most of the programming there because it was an entirely manual process at launch.  In the very near future, the hourly news and most of the feature programming will be updated automatically at least once an hour, so you will always have the latest news and features available.  The playlist is dynamically updated for each listener whenever they launch Radio 2.

Radio 2 is not a part of Live365.  It's a hybrid between on-demand radio and live streaming.  Programs are updated in the background, but individual shows can be paused, rewound, fast forwarded, or even skipped to move on to the next program.  It's very possible for listeners to hear different programs even when listening at the same time.  I felt this would be more convenient since it is more active listening, so people should have the ability to control the player a bit more.  It's also more or less commercial-free.

Upcoming and new programs include a resumption of the Cowboy Gathering (in fact I have two shows which I'll stagger for the audience), plus new features on what's going on in Hollywood, more programs about life in Wyoming and the mountain west, and some great radio plays and drama.  I'm also working on some longer form specials, but may launch them under a different channel so as to not disrupt the spoken word programming.  We're working on a musical retrospective of what one would hear on Wyoming radio back in the summer of 1963, based on the actual playlists of radio stations in the state and region.

We are extremely open to new programs created by the community here.  Since Radio 2 is a lot less focused on the film and is much more about the culture of the west and our own community, programs can cover just about any range of interest.  Just leave suggestions here or you can drop samples to me by PM'ing me for additional information.

[Phillip Dampier]

Royalty licensing for Radio 2 is handled differently because the majority of content is syndicated with royalty arrangements made already with the program producer and the copyright agencies, and because a lot of the rest of the content is spoken word.  I am still working on how I'll handle the 1963 special.  I may opt to create a third stream (they are virtual streams so they really don't impact on the server much) to handle this because I'll have to clear the music and don't want to pay a blanket license for Radio 2 if I don't have to.

Live365 handles all the clearances and royalties for Radio 1 themselves.  It's part of the reason we are peppered with commercials over there - it helps cover those costs.

Should we have had a problem with royalties after the great debacle earlier this year, I would have explored taking all of our radio services offshore.

John is finishing the code necessary to update automatically the content of Radio 2.  That will give us news twice an hour, more updated weather, and specialty programs.  It's all been a manual process until now.