Program Permissions

Here at KDX I have worked out a system for using all available program material, with and without streaming permission, in a completely legal way.

Here at KDX I have worked out a system for using all available program material, with and without streaming permission, in a completely legal way.

It is a fact that all audio material that is openly posted online for free download is offered with some kind of terms and conditions, the most limiting form being “permission for individual use.” Let’s use CNN News as an example.

Every morning I like to hear one currently updated newscast, and the RSS feed for CNN News is posted online, but KDX does not have permission to stream CNN online or on a public radio broadcast, but CNN posts the newscasts for download and listening by individuals. For such programs KDX operates an sstran.com AMT3000 transmitter at 1550kHz with a limited signal only heard within our building, allowing me the opportunity to hear CNN as an individual listener. The newscast does not get streamed online nor sent to our “public” transmitters.

This same “private listening” applies when listening to the NY Times Frontpage Podcast and the Alex Jones Show, which are not available (at this time) for public broadcast.

On a miniature scale this is comparable to what shortwave stations have down in the past, namely directing some transmissions toward one set of listeners on a particular continent, and other transmissions to listeners at a different time and continent.

Fortunately there are more and more radio programs becoming available for free use, for non-commercial use under Creative Commons, and in the public domain, which form our online streaming schedule and that for the AMT5000 at 1680kHz and Big Talker shortwave transmission at 13.560mHz.

Here’s another “sales tip” for securing broadcast permissions…. some of the program sources that turned me down on the first try changed their mind and granted permission the second time I asked, several months later.