National Public Radio filed a motion for rehearing with the CRB on behalf of its member stations. "The decision, unless modified, will have crippling effects on the availability of public radio to fulfill its mandate to serve the public interest," the document said.

The CRB-imposed minimum $500 annual fee per NPR station or channel is "arbitrary and insupportable" and makes the "erroneous and extremely prejudicial determination that many NPR stations should be treated no differently than commercial webcasting services."

The public radio community wants a rehearing so the three-judge panel can reconsider its "aggregate tuning hour threshold" (ATH) which, if surpassed by any NPR station, would trigger additional royalty payments on a per-performance basis. At a minimum, the CRB should stay the ATH threshold and per-performance aspects of the decision until NPR can file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

According to the document, the vast majority of NPR stations cannot track ATH in order to calculate the threshold nor can they keep tabs on the number of copyrighted sound recording performances in order to calculate payments due beyond the ATH threshold.

"The board's decision to dramatically raise public radio stations' rates was based on inaccurate assumptions and lack of understanding of the issues," NPR spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said in a statement. "The new rates inexplicably break with the longstanding tradition of recognizing public radio's noncommercial, nonprofit role."