New congressional legislation has yanked many college radio stations off the Web, including SMU’s KPNI.

As of June 2002, noncommercial radio stations, including college stations, that have simultaneous radio Web casts were required to pay two-hundredths of a cent per listener per song for every song played on the Internet, with a minimum annual payment of $500 per station.

According to Esau Geoffrey Williams, manager of KPNI radio, SMU quit Web casting following the Library of Congress decision in June on the recommendation of the office of legal affairs.

“Until the congressional people can clean things out …we’re off [the air],” Williams said.

In addition to payments, the proposal requires that while a song is being broadcast online, the station must display online the song name, artist, and album title, as well as maintain a “listener log” that would include the date and time each listener logged in and out of the broadcast.

For many college stations, the biggest fear is that the new fees will drive radio stations away from broadcasting on the Internet.

“We’re hoping the folks trying to convince the Librarian of Congress that these fees are bad policy will succeed,” said Richard Lytle, executive director of Student Media Company Inc. “We’re on record as supporting that effort.”

Decisions to maintain a KPNI Web cast will have to be postponed until the beginning of the second semester, when the radio station makes a permanent jump to the Journalism division and the new Umphrey Lee studio.

“It will be up to Journalism at that time to decide whether it wants to proceed with Web casting, high copyright fees or no,” Lytle said.

Any funding for KPNI comes from non-profit underwriting and mobile DJ gigs, as well from other SMC subsidiaries, including The Daily Campus, Rotunda and the SMU Directory of students, staff and faculty.