Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Sirius + XM Radio = Dumb

Have you subscribed? Hope not. The future of broadcasting may be satellite radio - but not yet - not by a long shot. Both Sirius & XM are being touted as the answer to your entertainment prayers. You'll hear endless commercial free music. You have over 100 channels to choose from. Sounds good - right? What are you thinking? YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. You own a CD burner, hell - you've had a cassette recorder for 25 years. You had the option of playing endless commercial free music in your car - or anywhere - for years - but chose not to. Why? Those "mix" tapes & CD's of yours are pretty good. They're tailored just for you. You like every single song - but still they got old. You may have 50 of these CD's. You don't listen to them anymore. Why?
Because even you don't know what you want. You found that even your own CD's bore you. I've listened to radio focus groups complain for years about the state of commercial radio. People like you say they want fewer commercials and fewer babbling DJ's. Radio companies then responded with formats that delivered fewer commercials and fewer babbling DJ's. No one listened. The stations with real personality always win. Listeners are drawn to broadcasts & broadcasters they can identify with. Sirius & XM deliver neither. Sure, there are some talk channels. Sure, there are some decent personalities on there - BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. I keep coming back to that. Your radio has OVER 100 channels to choose from right now. No matter what genre of music or format you prefer, America's over 10,000 radio stations deliver everyday - absolutely free. Howard Stern has really made the leap of faith. His show is just one of the 100 and looks to have a national audience equal to that of just a single broadcast station. He got big bucks though. The satellite companies needed him alot more than Howard needed them - and he made them pay.

There was a time years ago, some said cable TV would be the end of over the air television. It never happened. The TV networks simply embraced the technology and got their own cable channels. Radio is in the process of doing the same thing. Soon, every FM station will be several stations rolled into one. HD radio - is on the horizon. Soon you'll have thousands of radio choices at work, home & in the car - AND IT WILL BE FREE.

I worked satellite radio for ABC Radio several years ago - and it was the most miserable experience of my life. I'll take radio the way it is right now - me and my little 50,000 watts - and my audience that actually rivals Howard Stern. You don't have to pay a thing - because I make less than $100 million a year.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Satellite Radio really worth it? I could see truckers driving a long distance liking it since they don't have to tune in to different radio stations, but I don't see any use beyond that.

It's about $100+ (depending on contract) per year to listen to the radio. I don't listen to MLB, NHL, NBA, or Nascar - and I rarely listen to the NFL on the radio. These are reasons I pay for TV, so I can watch these things.

I seem to get along fine with my iPod and regular radio. I listen to Howard every once in a while, but not enough to justify the price. Can anyone explain to me why these services are worth it to the ordinary person?

Anonymous said...

I use XM and most of the time it sucks ass.

They are not commercial free as advertised.
If I hear one more GO2MYPC.COM commercial, I'm gonna throw the XM receiver out the window.

Listening to XM is like a DJ from hell. They play one or two really great songs to get you going and then one really shitty song that nobody could possibly want to hear.

Case in point- Earlier today I was listening to Top Tracks. I was doing some work outside and cranked the volume because they were cranking out the hits. Pink Floyd, Rush, Bad Company. All of the sudden something weird starts playing. Oh Jesus, it's Meatloaf. Not only Meatloaf, but Meatloaf's longest song. I wanted to vomit. How exactly does that fat talentless bastard qualify as a "Top Track"?

Anonymous said...

My boyfriend's brother has Sirius radio and the only reason he got it was because the radio in his car is older than poop. Regardless...when we were driving to Wisconsin a couple weeks ago, I found it amazing that even with 100 channels, there wasn't ONE song on the radio worth listening to! Not only that, but when we got into the "boonies", the signal went out and we had to wait till we got back to Milwaukee to listen again. L-A-M-E if you ask me.