With Web radio broadcasts around the country going silent at college stations this fall, UW-Eau Claire’s Student Radio Initiative is hoping to keep broadcasting the music.

In June, the U.S. Copyright Office issued rates that webcasters must pay to record companies and musicians for music played on their stations. The resulting costs have put many college stations out of business.

Erik Hendrickson, associate professor of physics and astronomy and faculty adviser for SRI, said the station, which broadcasts only on the Internet, must pay a $500 fee as a result of the new rates.

Senior Bridget Dillon, the advertising director and acting general manager of SRI, said the $500 payment shouldn’t be a problem for the station in this year’s budget.

The station had budgeted money this semester for equipment, such as turntables, Dillon said. If SRI has to pay the $500 fee this semester, the station would just have to hold off on getting the equipment, she said.

However, the copyright office said the fees were retroactive to 1998, when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed. Because of this, SRI would have to pay $500 for every year that it has been broadcasting on the Internet, which Dillon said has been two years.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was designed to keep people from copying music that is streamed through the Internet, Hendrickson said. The fees established by the U.S. Copyright Office were set at .017 cents per song per listener.

Hendrickson estimated SRI averages between 10 and 20 listeners at any time. That number, and the fact SRI is not on the air during the summer, means the station’s fees would be less than $500. But the Copyright Office set the minimum station fee at $500, which SRI must pay.

The fees established by the Copyright Office, especially the retroactive fees, have caused many college radio stations to cancel their Web broadcasts. More than 200 college Web broadcasts already have had to shut down since the Copyright Office set the rates in June.

“It’s a battle between the big labels and the little radio stations,” Hendrickson said. “The smaller stations shouldn’t be censored like that.”

Hendrickson said he agreed with some parts of the Digital Millennium Act, but that the $500 fee isn’t fair to the little group of radio stations.

“I see our station as free advertising for the big labels,” he said. “People hear songs here first, and if they like them, they’re going to call up the bigger radio stations and request those songs.”

For now, there are still some unanswered questions for SRI, including when and to whom to pay the fees. Until then, SRI will continue to stay on the air.

“No matter what,” Hendrickson said, “we’re going to try to keep being able to play.”