Photo Of The Week: Save The Iowa Blues Showcase Poster

Well It was fun while it lasted! The last Iowa Blues Showcase happened almost five years ago! It is amazing how quickly time flies. The showcase ran for almost three years 2000-2003. We put on shows at the Historical building, and at the Des Moines Area Community College. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. No one made any money during the run. In fact, we lost money, but we had a good time doing it. I really think the reason the show finally stopped, was not so much the money as the fact that the crowds had shrunk over the years. It is hard to get excited about playing a 200 seat theater, and have only 20 people in the audience. However, the music was great and you can still hear a lot of it on my internet radio station (click here).

The radio station started out great, but I am loosing listeners, so if you have forgotten where we are just click on the above link, or click on the link at the top of the blog. I would like to keep the station on the air, but if numbers don't pick up soon I may pull the plug.

Vote On The Internet Radio Poll

I have added a poll question to the top of the blog so I can get a grasp on what you want to hear on the station, and if you are listening:-) On the good news front it looks like a deal might happen between internet broadcasters, and Sound Exchange. However I am thinking of pulling the plug on the station after I rebroadcast all of the Iowa Blues Showcases. This Sunday I probably will rebroadcast the 1-17th show later at night. Not too many people are catching the show at 10am.

Do fill out the poll, and be sure to enjoy some great Iowa Blues!!!

Rebroadcast of 1-4-03 Iowa Blues Showcase Sunday 10am Central US Time

Hey Everyone, tonight I tested out a rebroadcast of the Iowa Blues Showcase, and I think I have all the bugs out. So on Sunday at 10am Iowa time(that is -5 GMT) I will rebroadcast our first radio show. I decided that 10am would give my listeners, and readers in Europe a chance to spend a Sunday afternoon, and evening listening to the blues. Since the largest bulk of both listeners and hits to the blog are from the US and Europe, that 10am is a good time.

Please feel free to email me if the stream doesn't work, or quality is not great. I have things set up so that even dial up should be able to enjoy the music. I am not expecting a ton of hits during the show, but if we do peak on listenership I will probably bump up the maximum amount of listeners for the following weeks show.

I hope you enjoy the show. This weeks show features Roy Cashman, Steve George, Don Brown, and Dewey Cantrell. Frank Strong doing Des Moines on 50$, and the worlds most dangerous blues band the Bad Boys of the Blues! See ya Sunday! Click HERE to access the Iowa Blues Showcase internet radio station.

Photo Of The Week: The Iowa Blues Showcase House Band

With the internet radio up and running I thought for picture of the week I would include a photo taken by IBSC fan number 1! Rob took a lot of photos of us during our season at the Des Moines Area Community College. It was quite the show, and we recorded 11 episodes there. I promise that sometime this week I will start rebroadcasting the shows on the internet. If you would like to listen to the computerized show then click on the Blues Historian is on the air link at the top of the blog.

Photo Of The Week Jay Taylor Of Chilihead Records

This weeks photo is none other than the guy who made the Iowa Blues showcase sound so good. Jay Taylor, owner of Chilihead Records, recorded, mixed, and edited together around 16 two hour shows that later became the Iowa Blues Showcase. Jay did an excellent job, and if you happen to hear one of the Iowa Blues Showcase recording on my internet radio station then you are listening to his work. Jay made us all sound like pros! Be sure to click on the title of the post it will lead you to Jay's webpage.

Blues Historian On The Air!!!

I finally gave up and bought me an internet radio station. (Click Here to listen) I know that the possiblities of internet radio going bye, bye, are still pretty good, so I thought I would get online on a monthly basis, and if things go south with Sound Exchange, then I would bail out. Please give the station a listen too. I think you will be surprised at the talent in Iowa!!! I plan on doing some live broadcasts in the future. If I do a livecast I will probably play everyone. So stop on by and enjoy the blues:-)

Blues History On UK Radio

The Telegraph from the UK, has a great article about early blues history, and the female blues singers who dominated those early years. (Click HERE for the story) It also talks about how a lot of the early blues were, ah, hmmmmm, shall we say, ummmmmmmmm, Naughty!!!!!!!!:-) Apparently this article is to promote a radio show on Radio 4. We have a lot of visitors from England, so don't miss this cool show. I don't know if it will be podcast, but you might check this link. If they internet broadcast it live, which I am sure they probably do, then don't forget that England is 4 hours ahead of Eastern daylight savings time, 5 Central, 6 mountain, and 7 Pacific.

KFMG LIVE! Newest Internet Radio Station

Just got this from Don "T-Bone" Erickson. KFMG a lengendary radio station that has just recently come back to life as a community radio station in Des Moines is now streaming live. Here is Don's message

We did it! KFMG is streaming to the entire planet! Check it out at www.kfmg991.org.

For those of you outside of the Greater Des Moines, Iowa area, yes, you can now listen to all of the great radio programming that we have on KFMG 99.1 FM.

Including of course my own show - "T-Bone's Blues & Groove Show" - which happens to be on tonight! I am on every other Tuesday night from 7-9 p.m. (Scott Allen is on the other weeks at the same time with his "Big Dawg's Blues & Boogie Show.")

Tonight also just happens to be the debut of "The Chill Zone with T-Bone" from 9-10 p.m., right after the Blues show.

So check us out if you can and check out our MySpace page at www.myspace.com/kfmg for the entire program schedule and more ...

Thanks!

Don "T-Bone" Erickson

KFMG plays all types of music, and has always been friendly to blues, and local musicians in Des Moines. Go ahead and check it out.

Internet Radio spotlight: Helsinki's Blues Cafe

Tonights Internet radio spotlight is on the Helsinki Blues Cafe. Blues from Finland! You can find the site by clicking HERE. You can also check out their myspace page HERE. Remember when you get to the website, click on the yellow circle with the speaker on it, and your computer will do the rest.

For the latest on the internet radio battles check out Rusty On Radio. At this point nothing is settled yet, but hopefully soon.

Internet Radio: Blues From Oxford

Tonights Internet Radio spotlight goes to Blues From Oxford. A station run by the rockmachine, and dedicated to Oxford area blues performers. Yup, thats right Oxford England! So enjoy some British blues tonight. As always click on the link below, then click on the yellow circle with the speaker on it, and you will soon be listening to some sweet blues!

Blues from Oxford

Internet Radio : Blues Radio

Today's featured Internet radio station is Blues-Radio.com. This station is run by Joe Buckel from Baltimore Maryland. Like always follow this LINK. Then click on the yellow circle with the speaker on it.

No news about the future of Internet radio. Things are still in limbo. Hopefully something permanent will happen in the near future. As for today, the high fees are still on hold, so Internet radio is still going. However, if you want to save Internet radio, then call your Representative, and Senator TODAY! Even though Sound Exchange, has agreed to hold off on collecting fees, that is no means a win for Internet radio. They could change their mind tomorrow. So make sure that you let Washington know how you feel.

UPDATE

Please check out this link to Rusty On Radio. It is pretty much what I thought above. There is no settlement, and perhaps Sound Exchange is trying to do an end around. Typical corporate BS. Muddle the truth, pretend to negotiate in good faith, and then when they have enough politicians, and the public on their side, pull the rug.

I will add Rusty On Radio to the link lists.

Fight For Internet Radio Not Over Yet

Here is another article on the current state of Internet radio. This comes from Great Reporter. Once again it makes the point that independent artists, and small Ma, and Pa internet radio stations will disappear if Sound Exchange gets its way. I think a great example of the future of internet radio, can be shown by looking at commercial radio today. How many stations in your town,(US) are locally owned and operated. I am not talking about small wattage community stations, I am talking about commercial radio stations. If you have one it is a miracle. even up here in the boondocks, we have no local radio stations. Last summer a typical summer thunderstorm came rolling through NW Iowa. The electricity was out, and I was tying to find a local radio station to find out if anything severe was coming through. Amazingly all the stations in town were automated and run by computers, no weather warnings, no live people, just a computer playing music, and commercials. I was finally lucky enough to find a live person broadcasting 40 miles north of me, and he had RADAR! Only through him did I find out that A severe thunderstorm was rolling through my area! What if it had been a tornado?? My only hope would have been to hear the sirens, or the tornado!

This is why commercial radio has been ruined. No local control, and corporations deciding what I get to listen to. No DJs, no request line, no people! This is why it is important to save internet radio since it still has the local flavor that is long gone from commercial radio. Plus internet radio will play music from me and other unsigned and indie musicians.

If you haven't done it yet, go to the bottom of the blog and click on the save internet radio banner, and see what you can do to save the music.

Internet Radio In Trouble In England

I don't know how many of you read the comment from Mike in the previous post. He is one of those famous "Off Shore" broadcasters in England, who in the bad old days gave people something good to listen to because the BBC wasn't. He is a legit Internet radio broadcaster, but he informed me that just like here in the US, the UK is raising rates on Internet broadcasters.


Mike Said

As an artist the record companies have screwed you guys for years with contracts that allow them to keep your royalties.
But now the royalty set for internet radio in the UK is 9 yes NINE times higher than the highest rate in the USA check out http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2129109,00.html

The link leads to an article from the Guardian, which details what is going on in both the US, and UK. Here is the part that I wasn't aware of dealing with England.

From the Guardian:

But the UK ruling, announced on Monday and effective from July 1, creates a new problem. In addition to a percentage of total revenue, for every track they play webcasters will have to pay a minimum charge which is nine times higher than the US royalty board's projected per-track rate for 2010.

The terms were originally agreed last September, in a royalty settlement between record companies and parties including mobile phone operators, music download companies and the MCPS-PRS Alliance, which collects music royalties for publishers. Three webcasters - AOL, Real Networks and Yahoo! - failed to settle.

Now, webcasters face a war with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Very large webcasters may be able to stomach the fees, but Pandora is preparing to shut its service in the UK - the only country served outside the US - as early as this week, says international managing director Paul Brown. The service, which had been offered informally while Pandora negotiated UK music licensing deals, was to formally launch by the end of the year, but it could never be profitable under the new rules, he says.

"We want to bring this good service to the UK, but it has to be on an economic base and if you're losing money for every hour then there's no business there," laments Brown. For Pandora UK at least, it turns out that Monday really was the day the music died.

Amazingly the rate charged to British Internet stations are NINE TIMES higher than the highest rate in the US would be in 2010!! I think this just shows that the power of the corporation is no longer just a regional or national phenomenon, but it is truly a global power. Once again it is the little guys, who will be put out of business, sure, Yahoo, Real, and Aol, will whine and cry about it, but in the end they will put up the money and the rest of us small fries, will be out of business.

I will keep you posted, and I will keep all the links to save internet radio up for now. I also am including mikes blog, The Thunder to the links section.

Internet Radio

Here is a letter from the CEO of Live 365 one of the internet radio websites that provides space and bandwith to small time internet radios stations.

Thanks to you, we're still on the air! With the deadline upon Internet radio to pay the new royalty rate, Congress weighed in at the last minute to break the logjam in royalty rate negotiations and successfully pressured SoundExchange to give webcasters more time to negotiate. SoundExchange promised Congress that it would not initiate enforcement actions on July 15th provided that webcasters continued good faith negotiations. You can count on Live365 to stay at the negotiating table until this is finished! Your calls and letters to Congress are making a huge difference! Thank you! We'll keep you posted on the progress. Thank You,

N. Mark Lam CEO of Live365

So it isn't a done deal, and until it is I am going to sit on the sideline before I put some money into an internet blues radio station. If they can come up with a deal, then the Iowa Blues Showcase will go on the air.

Reprevie For Internet Radio

I just found this article in both the New York Times, and Salon,(plus a ton of others just Google internet radio and click on the news search) I usually don't print an article verbatim, but both the Times, and Salon are members only. I have membership so this time I will post it for you. However, do yourself a favor and sign up since it is free. The links above will take you to either news source.

Here is the Salon article

Web radio stations win a last-minute stay of execution

Wired's indispensable digital-music maven Eliot Van Buskirk reports some good breaking news: Internet radio stations will not shut down this Sunday.

Many Web radio outfits feared closure as their legal fight against staggering new music royalty rates met failure this week. On Thursday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block the new rates, which are scheduled to go into effect Sunday. But as a result of public outcry -- which, in turn, sparked congressional outcry -- SoundExchange, the recording-industry group that collects royalties, has agreed not to immediately enforce the rates, pending negotiations with webcasters.

I just spoke to Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, the hugely popular Internet radio station that allows people to create personalized music channels. I asked Westergren if Pandora will shut down Sunday: "No, we won't," he said.

On Thursday, the House Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, convened an emergency round-table meeting between both sides in the royalty dispute. At the meeting, SoundExchange agreed to cap the $500-per-channel fee that had threatened to wipe out Pandora and other stations that let people tailor radio channels to their taste. Westergren says the cap "was a precursor to any kind of negotiation, because that fee was so absurd. It was like a billion dollars for us and other large webcasters put together every year." Now, stations like Pandora will pay $500 for each radio channel they send out, with a maximum of $50,000.

Besides the per-channel fee, Internet radio stations also face a new per-stream fee that applies retroactively to 2006, and rises each year until 2010. The new schedule charges webcasters $0.00076 per listener per song for 2006; $.0011 for 2007; $.0014 for 2008; and $.0018 and $.0019 for 2009 and 2010. The rates are far more onerous than those imposed on satellite systems -- which pay a share of their revenue -- and for traditional "terrestrial" AM and FM radio stations, which pay no performance royalties for the music they play. (The music industry, though, is trying to change that.)

The negotiations between SoundExchange and the webcasters now center on these rates -- and they're taking place, Westergren notes, "under the watchful eye of Congress." And that, he says, is the main news today. "The reason this deal is happening is because of congressional pressure, and congressional pressure is happening because of people calling in. Everybody needs to know that. A million people in the last three months have called Congress about this. And Congress has said, Look, if you don't solve this, we will. That's very explicit."

I don't know if this will be the end of it, or just a brief time out. SoundExchange has played hardball through out the negotiations. I understand from an artists perspective the importance of getting paid, but these fees pay bureaucrats and other paper shufflers, while most hard working artists get pennies.

Last Internet Radio Blues Show???????

Well kids, this is it. Today is the 14th of July, and the new fees take effect Monday just 28 hours from now. I do not know what will happen Monday morning, but if you haven't contacted your representative please do! Just click on the save internet radio banner at the bottom of the blog. Tonights internet radio show is Blues Train. According to the website it features guitar blues. To listen to the show click here. Then click on the yellow circle with the speaker in it.

Since tomorrow is the possibly the last night for small time internet broadcasters, I will feature another blues show tomorrow night.

UPDATE

From what I am reading on the net the rate change takes place tomorrow. If that is the case then Internet radio will be gone at midnight. I don't know why a rate change would take place on a Sunday night, but I will monitor the situation tonight and will report here at the Blues Historian. As Edward R Murrow once said, " Good night, and Good Luck."

SAVE INTERNET RADIO JULY 15 THE END OF THE ROAD

Just received this email from the save the internet campaign. They ARE NOT asking for money. All they want is for you to call your congress person TODAY!! I have contacted all three of my representatives from Iowa. Harkin has not replied. Grassley and King said they would look into it. They Are more likely to look into if they get a lot of phone calls and emails.


here is the email from Savenetradio

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED FOR THURSDAY, JULY 12TH

Greetings,

Time and options are running out for Internet Radio. Late this afternoon, the court DENIED the emergency stay sought on behalf of webcasters, millions of listeners and the artists and music they support.

UNLESS CONGRESS ACTS BY JULY 15th, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Sunday, threatening the future of all internet radio.

We are appealing to the millions of Internet radio listeners out there, the webcasters they support and the artists and labels we treasure to rise up and make your voices heard again before this vibrant medium is silenced. Even if you have already called, we need you to call again.

The situation is grave, but that makes the message all the simpler and more serious.

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES RIGHT AWAY and urge them to support the Internet Equality Act. Go to http://www.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/alert_9738601.html to find the phone numbers of your Senators and Representative.

If they've already co-sponsored, thank them and tell them to fight to bring the bill to the floor for an immediate vote. If the line is busy, please call back. Call until you know your voice has been heard.

Your voices are what have gotten us this far - Congress has listened. Now, they are our only hope.

We are outmatched by lobbying power and money but we are NOT outmatched by facts and passion and the power of our voices.

Again, please go to http://www.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/alert_9738601.html to find the necessary phone numbers and make the call today.

Thank you,

The SaveNetRadio Campaign

Saturday Night Fish Fry: Blues Grove

Blues Grove internet radio comes from Australia. The owner of the internet station is an actual DJ in Australia where she has been playing the blues for years. To listen to Blues Grove Click here. To check out her myspace page go HERE.

Remember that internet radio will go away soon. Only a few more weeks before the door closes on internet streaming. This also may affect podcasts so if you haven't contacted your congress person do so now! Just click on the banner at the bottom of the page to save internet radio!

Thanks!

Saturday Night Fish Fry: CF Radio Blues

Tonights internet radio station is CF Blues Radio. I don't know much about CF Blues Radio, but I know that they have several internet stations covering all types of music. As always click on the above link, and then click on the yellow circle with the speaker, that should automatically load your media player of choice and start the music! Also remember that the deadline is coming quick to stop the music from playing on the internet. July 26th is the day that the music will die if you don't contact your congress person. I have received letters from Senator Grassley, and Congressman King. Neither comes across as very committed to the issue, which is bad news! So please write to these people and let them know that Internet radio is important to you!!!!!!!!! If you need help contacting someone then click on my Internet radio banner at the bottom of the blog.

Saturday Night Fish Fry: Shades Of Blue Internet Radio

The Saturday Night special Internet radio station is Shades Of Blues. I don't have much information about the station or who runs it, but I believe it has some connection with the Zero Hour Network. Click Here and then click on the yellow button on the webpage to access the music.