What to do, what to do?

It's nearly time to go back to producing my radio shows. When I finished before Christmas, I was looking forward to the break, but little did I know what was coming. 

Because of the new ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board on December 16th, my radio operation has been torn to shreds and seven years of hard work has been decimated. 

Rewind Central will close down at the end of New Year's Eve and on top of that, I've lost 65% of the stations taking my shows due to the new ruling, as they too have decided it's no longer viable to carry on.

As I said, I will be continuing the shows in the short term while I decide whether to carry on doing them over the long run, or call it a day and find something new to do.

The obvious situation is that I can't afford to carry on for any amount of time following a self-funding plan. It's just too expensive. Approaching stations isn't really the way to go, as I come from a point of weakness.

The majority of smaller stations these days are only willing to take on new shows if they don't have to pay for them. It's not the way forward for me as I still need to eat each week. Having a station on my CV doesn't feed me too well! Some however, do pay and they generally contact me.

I've already had a few listeners say I should try and monetize my shows via listeners. And it may come down to the fact that if listeners want me to carry on, they will have to pay a small weekly donation in order for me to continue.

It's a plan I'll have to look at, and it means that after 7 years, I will no longer be allowing the shows to be freely downloaded. The way to hear my shows will be that you'll have to either listen to them via one of the stations that still takes them, or pay a small amount and get a link to them from me.

So, how much would I be talking about via ongoing weekly donation? Probably less than the price of a coffee from one of our big coffee shops on the high street. And that would get you the current week's shows. However I would need enough listeners willing to do that.

Someone pointed out that people are willing to pay for Spotify and other streaming sites on a monthly basis, and that my shows were worthy of being paid for in the same way. Time will tell.

I've made no decisions as yet. But one thing's for sure. The events of the 16th December in America have affected what I do. And I fear that narrower playlists and less choice for listeners is going to be around the corner if webcast stations are killed off as they appear to be trying to do.