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● Introduction & Index ● What is PR ● Job Expectations ● Types of Media ● Building Relationships ● Media, Hams & FCC Rules ● The Basic News Release ● Interviews and Live ● Making your own show ● Easy P.R. ● Public Service Events ● Piggy-back to Events ● Pictures NOW! ● P.R. Research Aids ● Making Friends ● ARES® PIO ● Final Exam Information Next Page

Getting PSAs onto “streaming radio” Many radio stations are now not only sending their programs out over the air, but also out onto the Web by providing a place on their websites you can click and listen in “live” to their shows from your computer. This is streaming radio. When the ruling was made that additional fees were to be paid to regional and national advertisers when their ads were streamed on the Internet, many smaller stations suspended the practice of “streaming audio” with commercials. This payment goes to the talent and to the music rights holders -- which may or may not be owned by the advertiser. The advertiser almost always only pays the rights fees for on-air use. Now, depending on the advertiser, the station may cut the audio stream, or fill the slot with their own staff’s commercials, promotional announcements and PSAs. Since stations loathe "dead-air," this looks to be a situation tailor-made for PIOs to get the word out. Here's some background on how radio station streaming works -- from the business perspective. Many stations that stream their over-the-air signals "fill" advertising "breaks with locally produced announcements or Public Service Announcements which grant streaming rights in order for the station to avoid having to pay royalties for streaming use of the commercial announcements advertisers place on their stations. Current AFTRA and SAG contracts, among others, provide that "talent" must be paid for on-air use. Additional payment is required for streaming use of the talent's voice(s). Non-commercial educational stations typically don't have this problem. To the extent that they carry community announcements, the announcements are usually "voiced" by the station’s own staff members, hence there is no performance royalty to be paid. Many larger stations (and some of the smaller ones) make deals with Internet service companies. The Internet streaming company may insert its own commercials in the stations' streams, may insert selected commercials the station sells to advertisers as "Internet Only" advertising, and/or may let selected stations' commercials "go through" if the station wishes. In this competitive arena, every station is looking for "non-traditional revenue" to make up for a shrinking traditional advertising dollar marketplace. So they will sell the advertiser space if it is profitable and covers the “talent fees.” But if not, most would prefer good PSAs over “dead air.” You can get ready-made PSA’s direct from www.arrl.org/pio .