Local radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications have pulled the e-plug on Web broadcasts because of a national union agreement that brings higher fees to people who create commercials.

        The Clear Channel decision to kill Web broadcasts — called audio streaming — went into effect April 9, Darryl Parks, director of AM operations for Clear Channel, said. Clear Channel AM stations in the region with Web sites are WLW, WKRC, WCKY and WSAI.

        “We were looking at increased fees,” he said. “It's not a problem in Cincinnati because we're not a union shop, but in some of the bigger markets like Los Angeles and New York, you have union talent.”

        Under a 1999 contract with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, people who made voice-over commercials got 300 percent more with Internet play.

        Instead of paying, Clear Channel killed Webcasts. That strategy could hurt some stations trying to recover from a dip in advertising from dying dot-com firms.

        WOXY.com, an alternative rock station in Oxford that has an international listenership because of the Internet, has no intention of killing Webcasts, said Bryan J. Miller, director of Internet development for WOXY-FM.

        “The majority of our (advertising spots) are produced by us so those aren't affected. As of now, we are still live,” he said.

        Fans of the Cincinnati Reds were among the first to notice at WLW, Mr. Parks said. It also hurt a new daytime audience: Web surfers in downtown offices. “It's hard to pick up AM radio stations from a glass and steel building,” he said.

        Despite the lack of audio, page views have not suffered. WLW.com received 500,000 to 600,000 page views a month when it was Webcasting. This month, the station is on target for 625,000 page views.“That's a real surprise to me,” Mr. Parks said. “All we've done is taken away a listening convenience for a proportion of our audience.”

        At other Clear Channel stations, WEBN-FM, WVMX-FM, WKFS-FM and WOFX-FM, Webcasts have also been suspended. The company policy has not, apparently, hurt WEBN's Web site, said Michael Walter, program director at WEBN.

        It received 6,500 visitor sessions on a typical Wednesday in March. Wednesday, April 11, the site received 6,700 visits.

        “People outside the signal pattern are upset. I've gotten e-mails from people as far as Italy who are bummed out,” he said.

        George T. Bundy, chief executive of BRS Media Inc., a San Francisco-based company that tracks radio Web use, predicted that Web surfers will soon find something else to do with their time.

        “Just like regular radio, you will have a certain number of people click through. But if it's down a month or so, will people stop coming back? Probably,” he said.

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