INTERNET MAY COST RADIO COMPANIES MORE

Infinity, Clear Channel and other radio groups may face new fees for playing music over the Internet, pending a decision by the United States Copyright Office, which could come as early as this week.

The copyright office is weighing whether stations must pay record companies when they put their music programs on the Internet, and whether surveys of customers' musical tastes make a broadcaster using the Internet subject to additional fees, reports Bloomberg Business News.

Radio stations contend that existing exemptions from royalties for over-the-air broadcasts also cover the Internet. About 4,000 of the nation's 14,000 radio stations already transmit programs over the Internet.

"What the music industry is trying to do is saddle broadcasters with new fees that Congress has always exempted us from paying," said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters. "It could cost broadcasters millions of dollars and would probably cripple or seriously impair the streaming of radio signals over the Internet."