Satellite out of Love

Can satellite radio survive? DIYmedia reports that one of the two sky-radio companies, Sirius, is in serious trouble, and speculates that it may soon get out of the radio business even if it manages to stay alive. Rival XM is doing better, but it faces its own financial woes.

Comments

[The Meatriarchy]

This would be a shame. I had high hopes for being able to listen to the music format of my choice without the constant hammering of radio commercials.

I don't think it was ever available in Canada either.

Let's hope it manages to survive.

[Russell Whitaker]

Satellite radio is the only way to keep tuned to a single station across an American mountain range. If both companies go under, I'll really miss it on my travels through the Sierras.

[chug]

When I first heard about satellite radio, my initial thoughts were, "Stupid." "Stupid." and "Stupid."
Until my son convinced me to try XMRadio in my office. $10 per month is a bargain - I don't have to listen to any more screaming car ads, no more annoying outback steakhouse, no more pompous Sony movie or a certain No VA car dealer ads, and I don't hear the same classical playlist over and over on WGMS. Oh, and when I feel like jazz, or country, or bluegrass, a couple of clicks on the remote... I'm not going back.

[Casey Tompkins]

Hey, chug, it's called "burn your own .MP3s".

Buy a CD player that can read .MP3 files and you can drop a couple of hours of your favorite mix. By now they probably have "juke box" CD/MP3 players.

If they don't all you have to do is rip all your favorites to an el-cheapo Celeron PC that you feed into your office sound system with customized playlists.

[Scott Wood]

There's more to it than music. I opted for satellite radio to have consistent ESPN Radio and NPR when driving through the Berkshires. Since XM doesn't carry NPR (last I saw, anyway), I opted for Sirius, getting the added benefit of commercial free music.

Anyway, the reception is great. Satellite radio is the way to go for a lot of folks.

[Russell Whitaker]

Second to what Scott says: it's not just the music, but live talk stations like C|NET Radio which are syndicated by satellite as well as conventional terrestrial stations.

[Andrew Bongiorno]

Here's a lefty talking point for the '00s: The Media Access Gap between rich and poor Americans. The rich get cable TV, sattelite radio, and high speed internet access; while the poor get broadcast TV, local radio, (both controlled by a few corporations each) and low speed internet, if any.

If you want to include sports in Media, throw in variable ticket pricing (poor can see a Mets-Expos game at Shea, assuming they don't eat at the ballpark, while the rich can see Mets-Yankees).

This isn't a completely new complaint, and I certainly don't agree that the above represents a major societal problem, but we might as well get ready to hear this going forward...

[Steve]

(I'm gonna hear about this)

The lefties will lose that one, Andrew. The "poor" (and if you've been anywhere outside this country, you know we don't have any REAL poor) HAVE cable TV and high speed internet (I don't have either) at pretty much the same rate as the rest of us. I expect they will have satellite radio as well.