For those who haven’t used the (free) site, Pandora basically works like this - you create a “station” by entering an artist or a song you like.  The site, taking advantage of the Music Genome Project, streams random tracks that share similar qualities to your selection.  As each song plays, you can issue a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”, and that further fine-tunes what you hear.

It’s a fantastic idea, and as I said I’ve found a lot of great stuff using it.  But its existence is now threatened, thanks to a 2007 ruling from the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board.  That ruling more than doubles by 2010 the royalties that internet-based radio stations must pay to stream music.  The problem is that while a terrestrial radio station only plays one song at a time, internet radio can play multiple ones at the same time (in Pandora’s case, they can serve thousands of songs at any moment).  Since most of these outlets are struggling for revenue as it is, the future of internet radio is very dark indeed.

Negotiations are underway to bring some sanity to the issue, but from reading the public comments by Pandora founder Tim Westergren I don’t hold out a lot of hope.  It sounds more like a matter of when than if.

While Pandora would be far from the only casualty here, they would be one of the more notable ones.  And with their demise, the music industry would have once again shot themselves in their already bullet-riddled foot.  A truly innovative way for artists to get their music heard would be sealed off due to the short-sighted pursuit of the dollar.

Your U.S. Copyright Royalty Board - Thanks, assholes!

I’m certainly not suggesting that Pandora be allowed to play songs for free, but my mind reels when I try to think of a good reason for allowing this potentially beneficial avenue for music promotion to die on the vine without finding some sort of mutually beneficial compromise.  I guess the music industry feels that 100% of nothing is better than 1% of something.

Luckily there are still other viable alternatives for discovering and exploring music, like last.fm.  But I have to think that even their future would be called into question at some point.

• Two-hour segments on what Bill Parcells had for lunch, what color underwear Bill Parcells is wearing, and what Bill Parcells thinks of Francesa.
• All on-location shows to be held at Belmont Park.
• Francesa will have to quiz himself on the weekend’s sports TV ratings, leading to the debut of his colorful cast of voice characters.
• Callers will be cut off in mid-sentence so Francesa can explore the lyrics to obscure Bruce Springsteen songs.
• With no more tennis coverage or discussion, there will finally be some time to talk about baseball!

My prediction is that Russo finds moderate success in his satellite radio role, while Francesa is either forced to take a new partner within a year or is out of the afternoon slot.

I can’t believe I missed this while I was away, but apparently last week it was announced that WCBS-FM, the long-running New York oldies station, will be returning to the airwaves this week. This is great news not only for oldies fans (of which I am one), but also for listeners who felt shafted by WCBS’s unceremonious departure in June 2005. The details of the switch from oldies to Jack FM are chronicled here, but here’s the short version - After 33 years as an oldies station (and with still healthy ratings), WCBS was yanked off the air with no notice and replaced by the Jack FM format. Local institutions like Cousin Brucie Morrow were dumped after decades of service, and loyal listeners were left in the lurch.

The change was a slap in the face to fans of the station, and epitomized one of the main failings of modern corporate thought - years of loyalty meant nothing, for once it was determined that their longtime employees and listeners were not the right breed, they were cut off like a wart. This short-sighted approach automatically doomed Jack FM, regardless of how good the format might have been.

Speaking of which - why would I want to listen to a commercial radio station’s attempt at replicating an iPod playlist when I have my own damn iPod? This is the part of the prepackaged radio station format (like Jack FM) that I could never fathom. The oldies format may be predictable, but it’s comforting like an old pair of jeans. And it usually ensures that there will be a consistently high quality of music.

I’m not too keen on the resurrected station’s plans to focus mainly on post-1964 music, as I think there’s a lot of great stuff from before then that will be missed. But on the whole, this is still a most welcome development. So welcome back WCBS, you were missed!

The bottom line is that although CBS was perfectly within their rights to fire him, they did so not because of any sense of moral outrage.  So when any suit at CBS claims they were concerned about the impact Imus’s words had on society or race relations or blah blah blah, you better believe it’s so much bovine feces.  No, this firing happened simply because Don Imus became bad for business, thanks mostly to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two of the most shameless race-baiting opportunists ever.  Had they not raised holy hell over the last week or so, CBS would’ve been perfectly content to look the other way.  Well, at least we can rest easy in the knowledge that a crotchety and irrelevant radio jock was fired so that racial harmony could finally be attained.