Hey, FCC. Let XM and Sirius dominate the entire satellite spectrum and I can enjoy a bunch of commercial… err… resistant programming for the low-low price of $6.99. That’s a whole handful of a la carte offerings for the price of two cups of coffee a month, right? Not a bad deal at all. Especially if I don’t have to hear Jolly Johnson screaming to me about used cars for the millionth time in a row. But forbid them their wishes, and we’ll be forced to suffer through $12.99 until the end of time!

Despite my cynicism, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the Sirius/XM merger. On one hand, I don’t really see anyone else coming in and jumping in the satellite band, so why care? It’s so ultra-expensive its impossible to imagine any “homegrown” media outlets taking to outer space, and besides, internet radio offers a great viable… oh, right. We’re trying to eradicate that, too.

What does alarm me, in a very personal way, is the recent decision to cut XM’s Sonic Theater over the weekends. I’ve been very close to buying an XM radio JUST to hear Sonic Theater, and now I hear 28% of its programming has been slashed. That includes dedicated ZBS stuff, and Joe Bevilacqua‘s Comedy-O-Rama show. Luckily, the weekday lineup still holds such gems as Harlequin Romance Radio.

Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure what the powers-that-be are trying to do other than help further the RIAA’s agenda and eliminate any chance of hearing something… I don’t know… different? With all of the amazing technology offered by the web, all we can seem to figure out is how to limit our options as much as possible, shush up the voice of emerging artists, and homogenize ourselves back into the same bland trash you hear on the 6 or so type of stations penetrating our brains from coast to coast.

Anyone want to chime in?

It’s easy to let political issues sort of simmer in the back burner while imminent daily things take over your life, and so it’s been with the Save Net Radio movement, which you’d think I’d be on the forefront of, until this morning, when I saw that WMPG had posted a bold warning that the Copyright Ruling Board’s fee hikes threaten to shut down their streaming service.

Suddenly, the apathy melted. Even in the greater Portland area, WMPG can have a shaky signal and the ability to offer a version streamed online helps hundreds if not thousands tune regularly into the station. This is also the way that I tune into the station a lot, since my FM radio at home stinks, and is also how I get to listen to my beloved WWOZ. After Katrina, I sobbed into many shots of bourbon while listening to the sweet sounds of New Orleans croon from my home thousands of miles away. I also stymied my sense of missing the party during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, when I could raise a glass from the privacy of my home yet still hear the pulse of the Crescent City.

I can’t quantify the loss I’d feel if that signal went silent, but it’d be a big one.

Likewise, though this issue doesn’t effect podcasting (yet!), I know this is how a lot of you hear the show, especially those who want to hear the live version, as rough-hewn and stumbling as it can sometimes be. And even though I don’t tend to listen to internet-only stations, I totally respect what the small-time webcasters have done for the millions of listeners out there, and the diversity of material they’re offering to the world. Taking this all away for the sake of pennies for the media monopolies is a nightmarish thought. We have to defend the places that haven’t yet turned into terrestrial commercial radio!

And so, as the deadline for the fee rollback looms — that’s THIS Sunday, July 15!!! — I urge you, yes you, to immediately contact all of your representatives and beg for them to stand up against the Copyright Ruling Board’s rate hikes by supporting the Internet Radio Equality Act. Even timid ol’ me found contacting Senator Collins, Senator Snowe, and Rep. Tom Allen a pretty painless experience… in fact, the person at Tom Allen’s office actually seemed interested and made me feel like my voice was heard and important. Pretty cool.

Thanks to Save Net Radio, WMPG, and the cool jazz of WWOZ for waking me up to this… And hey, ol’ NPR for their mighty efforts to get these fees revoked as well.

It was pretty cool to stumble across this article in the Guardian Arts Blog which talks about the future of the audio theater, and features some of my opinions on the sad yet hopeful state of affairs (yes, me, quoted in a real newspaper!). I think one of the toughest things radio drama is facing right now is people not realizing its existence. So articles like this that raise awareness are incredibly appreciated!

There’s also an interesting discussion of devices to put “visual’ in the radio… which while they sound interesting, I can’t help but wonder, isn’t the joy of radio is that the only visuals are the ones in your mind?

Anyways, a really great article overall and worth a read, and maybe a comment?

Taking off the radio drama hat for a second, this morning I was writing an article for my company’s Internet Marketing Blog on Building Community for your Blog (yeah, it’s the job that actually pays). A couple of interesting things crossed my mind while writing on this subject and especially about building up liberal linking habits.

The importance of linking to other authors first hit me while working on the supporting materials for Day of the Dead.? One of my essays — the New Orleans one, I think — received a whole slew of red ink from my instructors after they read probably three to four pages of scholarship with limited citations.

Having spent five years in university, you’d think I’d have taken care of this poor habit (in my defense, it was a draft), but the tricky part with this essay is that I was writing from common knowledge. Or, at least what I thought was common knowledge (based on chatting with any number of locals in French Quarter dive bars for the past couple years).

While most of what I wrote turned out to be close to true, it was still important to be able to validate my assertions beyond just “I told you so.” This probably induces a “Well duh” from you, but the point is that linking to other websites is the equivalent technique in Internet terms. Besides providing evidence that you’ve read about the subject (or at least spent a few minutes Googling it), links make it easier for people to sniff out your trail and follow it to distant reaches of the Internet.

And since a lot of these radio drama sites aren’t terribly, er, optimized for maximum search engine performance, linking is ever so much more important for us to keep interested listeners tuned in to the great diversity of producers that are actually out there.

So, inasmuch as I can, I hope to link here to all of the dramatists whose work I find inspiring, and words I find insightful.