Tariff a strip off campus radio

Jaela Bernstien, UWO Gazette (University of Western Ontario)

LONDON, ONT. (CUP) — A new tariff introduced at the dawn of the Internet could ruin campus radio stations across the country.

The Copyright Board of Canada has certified Tariff 22, a new fee that charges royalties to broadcasters who play Canadian music across the Internet.

The decision was based on a proposal from the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), an organization that collects royalties from music providers and distributes the fees to the writers and publishers it represents.

It has been lobbying for the new tariff since 1996.

It is yet undecided if the tariff will apply to commercial broadcasters, the CBC, or community broadcasters.

Online music services, such as ITunes and Puretracks, will certainly fall under the tariff’s terms.

If community radio does fall under the tariff, it will be applied retroactively, potentially bankrupting some broadcasters.

Campus radio stations that broadcast SOCAN’s music online would be forced to pay at least $1,080 for each year they have had music online since 1996.

Anne Godbout, director of legal services at SOCAN, thinks the new tariffs could be beneficial for some music providers.

“It makes it easy for people who are building a business to see what the cost is going to be,” she said.

Tristis Ward is a member of the National Campus and Community Radio Association’s advisory board and the station manager at the University of New Brunswick’s CHSR radio station.

“If the Copyright Board agrees with [SOCAN], that could certainly cause some radio stations to go bankrupt,” Ward said.

Ward said that SOCAN’s proposal groups together many non-commercial broadcasters with commercial music providers.

“We behave very close to how a charity behaves. We’re not in here to make any money, and that is completely ignored,” he said.

“They think about the commercial sector and forget about the little guys,” said Candace Mooers, president of NCRA.

Campus radio stations currently pay SOCAN 1.9 per cent of their gross operating costs per year for their FM broadcasts.

Since any music campus radio stations stream their broadcasts through their websites, Ward feels the tariff would be charging them twice for the same thing.

He hopes the Copyright Board will decide that the tariff does not apply to them.

Mooers said he doubts the results will be favourable.

“[The Copyright Board] seems to have sided with SOCAN against virtually every other argument,” she said.

The University of Western Ontario’s 94.9 FM CHRW is a member of the NCRA, but Alicks Girowski, the station’s music and promotions director, sees the logic behind SOCAN’s proposal.

“The Internet is a different media . . . it expands the artist’s representation outside our [FM] broadcast range.

“Why wouldn’t we want the artists to get paid if we’re playing their music online?” said Girowski.

Girowski acknowledged that CHRW is in a better financial position than many campus radio stations, saying, “It’ll affect us, but maybe not as much as other radio stations that have a smaller budget.”