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Hello and happy Tuesday.  I am pleased to announce that today's Fuzzy Road radio show will be live-hosted.  I'm not pleased to announce that today's  Fuzzy Road radio show is possibly our final live-hosted show ever.

New royalty rates covering the next few years were recently announced.  Those rates, which small webcasters cannot possibly afford, take effect on 1/1/16.  Unless SoundExchange, which negotiates these rates on behalf of rights holders (usually record labels), extends a side agreement which for years has allowed small webcasters to pay a percentage of revenue model instead of the crippling statutory rates, most if not all small webcasters (including SomaFM) will have three choices: make direct deals with copyright holders (nearly impossible for stations that play as many different artists as BAGeL Radio), block streams to U.S. listeners, or shut down operations entirely.

Thanks to the late (and still incomplete) announcement of the new royalties we find ourselves on this date, December 29th, not knowing our fate.

We have been asked why we don't continue to broadcast as we have in the hopes that a settlement is reached, but there is great risk involved -- if we do and the agreement is not extended we could find ourselves on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties before the 2016 baseball season even starts.

But enough about IndependentInternetRadio-ageddon, let's talk music -- today's all-new  Fuzzy Road radio show starts at 2:50 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time, so please tune in for your weekly fix of psych and garage rock.  Hopefully we will be back broadcasting to all of our loyal listeners before too many pages of the 2016 calendar are lost and gone forever.

The show is live-hosted on Tuesday afternoons, with re-broadcasts beginning at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday and 4:50 a.m. Wednesday -- don't miss  Fuzzy #84.