Washington - Organizers of yesterday's national Web radio Day of Silence -- observed by more than 14,000 webcasters to protest higher royalty rates -- said on Thursday that nearly 400,000 phone calls were placed to members of Congress on Wednesday, calling on them to support legislation that would vacate the new royalty rates.

In addition, organizers said their SaveNetRadio.org website drew more than 14 million hits yesterday.

To date, the group estimates that more than 400,000 e-mails and letters have been sent to Capitol Hill by supporters of Internet radio, and an estimated half-million phone calls have been made to individual offices.

The House Small Business Committee held a hearing on Thursday to assess the impact of the Copyright Royalty Board's hiking of webcasting rates, at which testimony from musicians and webcasters including NPR was heard.

"We hope that today's hearing will lead the House -- and Congress as a whole -- to act swiftly to save Internet radio by passing the Internet Radio Equality Act before webcasters are forced to turn off the music for good," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, which represents large webcasters.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/yq3a5t

http://www.savenetradio.org