Many internet radio broadcasters are participating in a day of musical silence today.

Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. If left unchanged by congress, fees will immediately and retroactively (for 18 months) be assessed that far and above exceed even the gross revenue of nearly every internet music provider in existence today.

This matters to us a folk music fans because the internet has become the haven for the music we love. When is the last time you heard dulcimer music on commercial radio?

A bill called the "Internet Radio Equality Act" has already been introduced in both the Senate (S. 1353) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2060) to fix the problem and save Internet radio from obliteration.

I'd like to ask you to call your Congressional representatives today and ask them to become co-sponsors of the bill. It will only take a few minutes and you can find your Congresspersons and their phone numbers by entering your zip code here.

Your opinion matters to your representatives - so please take a moment to call. You can get your representative's phone number by visiting www.savenetradio.org.

If you have access to itunes, there's a very informative discussion going on today at the public radio feed of KCRW. Look in the 'Public' folder in the Radio section of iTunes. It is an hour long feed that is being repeated througout the day today.