Thousands of online radio stations are planning to participate in a National Day of Silence on Tuesday to protest new royalty rate increases that threaten the future of many Internet radio stations. As part of the protest, many radio stations — including Pacifica Radio’s KPFA — plan to shut off their Internet streams for the day. In March the Copyright Royalty Board ordered online radio stations — including non-commercial stations — to pay drastically increased royalty rates for every song. The new rates go into effect July 15th. Some stations will see their rates increase by 1,200 percent. Last week members of the Save Net Radio Coalition urged Congress to pass the Internet Radio Equality Act which would vacate the rate increase and set the royalty rate at the same level paid by satellite radio services.