Posted on 12/10/2005 7:49:34 PM PST by nickcarraway
IN the early 1990's, when the pioneers of satellite radio raised the first of the billions they needed to get their ventures aloft, the premise was fairly simple: create services that would be to old-fashioned radio what cable television was to broadcast TV. That meant providing scores of niche radio channels with high-quality signals in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. By blanketing the nation with signals beamed from on high, there would be no need for all those transmitting towers, no utter dependence on advertising and no pesky etiquette rules from the Federal Communications Commission to observe. And, the early prospectuses argued, there was a huge, natural market of people who spend hours in their vehicles, often bored out of their skulls.
Skeptics - let me raise a hand - observed that in most cities, there were many more channels of radio available free over the air than there were TV stations when cable came on the scene. Moreover, if the objective was to provide entertainment choices to the millions of commuters and professional drivers on the open road, there was already a popular alternative to listening to the radio or singing show tunes out loud: playing CD's and cassettes in car stereos.
Today, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, which went public in 1994 and 1999, respectively, have yet to make a penny in profit but together are approaching 10 million subscribers, most paying nearly $13 a month. Doubters, deal with it: Satellite radio looks as if it is here to stay.
A landmark event in the industry's evolution is approaching in January, when the radio jock Howard Stern moves from his longtime home at Infinity Broadcasting, now part of the Viacom monolith, to Sirius.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And we use it at home...since Fox News Cable is broadcast 24/ 7 ( as are CNN, MSNBC, etc...ick), we can hear the shows which is all I want to do anyway....saves a big cable bill each month!
Stern could move anywhere he wants and I still wouldn't listen to him..he just doesn't interest me..give me jazz any day of the week and I'm happy..
I have enjoyed Sirius for a year or so but just cancelled my subscription. I am going to lay low until Spring Training and come back and go with XM. The difference, to me, is the MLB contract.
Mike Church
Same reason I went to XM. Unfortunately after 2006 my other favorite sport, NASCAR, will be exclusive to Sirius.
XM cross country, is where country music is going!
I dunno. The smart money is on this simply because it's New. But I'm thinking about Divx or whatever it was called. People forget how sleepy radio was till Stern and Rush shook things up. Now that he won't have anything constraining him, Stern will become even more boring than he did after Jackie left and Howard got divorced, when he became unlistenable to THIS former fan. I don't know if he has the fan base to sustain him, but he might. It seems funny, though, how we live in this supposedly barren economy, how we keep coming up with new things to spend money on, when we're all living so close to the bone.
I love my XM! Haven't listened to terrestrial radio in over a year. And Opie&Anthony beat Stern every time.
XM is worth every penny. Better variety of music, better talk stations (yes, I love the "Opie and Anthony" station on XM- deal with it), and a better future as a company than Sirius.
I hear ya. That being said, every MBL regular season game is just too enticing to me!
You can get even more music and talk channels on the internet than on sattelite radio. When moblie internet connections become common why would anyon pay another fee for sattelite radio? Gee, that would be too bad if Stern and Sirius bit the dust. Haven't made a penny yet and they may never. This kind of reminds me of the USFL trying to compete with the NFL by signing guys to huge contracts. They didn't last long.
I guess their could be a competing handheld wireless device that would play internet radio feeds.
The gentle comedy stylings of Norton & Friends.
O&A Party Rock.
And dont forget the jazz channels and of course Fungus 53.
XM Rules.
Opie and Anthony are GREAT....
We have Sirius radios in our cars and get free Sirius music subscriptions on our computers. Is it worth it? Heck, yes! We never listen to regular radio any longer.
Don't have it yet but will get it from whichever one decides to carry Rush.
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