Radio Station Pulls Plug on Webcasts

The first commercial radio station to make its broadcasts available over the Internet has suspended its Webcasts, saying it can’t afford new royalties.

KPIG, a 2,850-watt radio station based in Freedom, Calif., ended seven years of continuous Webcasting by signing off with the song “Happy Trails.”

Station management attributed the shutdown to recently imposed fees stations must pay recording studios for copyrighted music streamed over the Internet.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who oversees the U.S. Copyright Office, set the royalty standards last month, provoking protests from small Internet radio stations that said the fees would force them to stop Webcasts.

This week, a group of radio stations appealed the Webcasting royalties in a Philadelphia federal court.