If you're a radio geek like myself, there are a few crucial links you ought to have stashed away in your special bookmarks folder titled "Nerd Alert!" It's how I stay so up-to-date on current events in the radio industry, and it's also how I got this hot ass.
First, of course, is FMQB. I first discovered this site the morning Jamie called me in a panic early one morning in February 2005 to tell me that Y-100 was going to flip formats that day and that she had been maced and drug out of the studio by Radio One riot police along with the rest of the interns. I read updates on that site for the rest of the day and have been hooked on it for industry news ever since. One of their feature articles today, FCC Opens Commenting On XM/Sirius Merger, deals with a topic we've touched on here at Open All Night a couple of times, and is worth checking out.
The second link was relayed to me by one Dany Sloan and is called Arcane Radio Trivia. It can be a bit dry at times but for the most part it's filled with interesting, uh, trivia. What did you expect?
The last link is one I found while trolling around the internet looking for dirt on a former employer that fired me some years ago (not obsessing, I swear - just bored). The search was sparked by a link Bob sent me regarding a station I've applied for work with on more than one occasion and it ultimately led me to this message board: Radio-info.com. Here is the Philadelphia sub-forum, where people call each other names, geeks with delusions of grandeur claim to have inside information, and radio snobs quietly peck at each and every change or rumored change in the #7 market. It is here that I have delightedly taken to trolling the folks that claim that the Kidd Chris show is the zenith of talk radio, or that contestant callers on Power 99 are to blame for the skyrocketing murder rate in Philadelphia. (It's pronounced "Sep-tem-BER" not "Sep-tem-BAH"! If those black folks would only talk right, we might see an end to the violence around here! )
Speaking of racism and radio, check out this commercial for WHIT - Power 102FM if you haven't already.
Link - [FMQB]
Link - [Arcane Radio Trivia]
Link - [Radio-info.com]
Showing posts with label xm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xm. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
A Poor Idea: XM & Sirius Merge
I wrote about this one about a month ago, and apparently the deal itself has been in the works since November.
From Yahoo:
The companies are bragging "Greater Programming and Content Choices", "Accelerated Technological Innovation", and "Enhanced Financial Performance". They're only serious about one of those, and you can guess which one that is. Besides the only obvious programming benefit of having all the major sports licenses with one company now (and the Howard Stern / Opie & Anthony shock jocks, if that's how you roll), there will be no better, more diverse programming. Duplicate format stations will get the axe across the board, and without the competition, you can bet there won't be any innovating sounds ready to replace them. This new XM/Sirius monster won't be having the sort of internal competition that makes stations really great, like you would have in a relatively free market like the FM airwaves. The same tenets apply to the technology -- without the other company around to up the ante, satellite radio now has zero initiative to improve it's current product.
Like I said before, this is only a hiccup on the way to the next generation of radio technologies, in much the same way DirecTV was for television. We'll be looking back on this merger as the "beginning of the end" of satellite radio, years from now, when Internet radio and hovering skateboards rule the landscape.
Link via [Yahoo!]
From Yahoo:
WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement, under which the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion.
The companies are bragging "Greater Programming and Content Choices", "Accelerated Technological Innovation", and "Enhanced Financial Performance". They're only serious about one of those, and you can guess which one that is. Besides the only obvious programming benefit of having all the major sports licenses with one company now (and the Howard Stern / Opie & Anthony shock jocks, if that's how you roll), there will be no better, more diverse programming. Duplicate format stations will get the axe across the board, and without the competition, you can bet there won't be any innovating sounds ready to replace them. This new XM/Sirius monster won't be having the sort of internal competition that makes stations really great, like you would have in a relatively free market like the FM airwaves. The same tenets apply to the technology -- without the other company around to up the ante, satellite radio now has zero initiative to improve it's current product.
Like I said before, this is only a hiccup on the way to the next generation of radio technologies, in much the same way DirecTV was for television. We'll be looking back on this merger as the "beginning of the end" of satellite radio, years from now, when Internet radio and hovering skateboards rule the landscape.
Link via [Yahoo!]
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
XM / Sirius merger coming?
from Stereogum:
The fact that these companies are considering a merger less than a decade after both services were launched is a clear indicator that subscription-based audio content, no matter how it's delivered, will not work as long as there are free alternatives. A merger between XM and Sirius will mean more content for listeners, but at what price? Will fees go up, or will the new Frankenstein service insert ads to create what will effectively be a CD-quality radio dial with more stations?
Why were radio executives ever under the impression that people will pay for radio? Listenership on FM and AM has been in steady decline for years -- so why would people want more of the same (even at a much higher quality) and want to pay good money for it? It's a wonder that both companies still exist here in 2007.
Speculation of a Satellite Radio merger is nothing new, but an increasing number of pundits are weighing in with scenarios of how the possible transaction would play out, and whether it'll benefit anyone (aside from Mel Karmazin).With only about 13 million subscribers between the two major providers, XM and Sirius, satellite radio isn't reaching nearly the amount of ear-holes that radio big-wigs thought they would be at this juncture. A lot of folks I've spoken to see the service as a high-priced stop-gap between the old technology (the FM dial) and the new one coming down the pike (wireless internet radio). In fact, satellite radio could be jumping the shark faster than satellite television did while bridging between old basic cable and services like Verizon's fiber-optic TV.
The fact that these companies are considering a merger less than a decade after both services were launched is a clear indicator that subscription-based audio content, no matter how it's delivered, will not work as long as there are free alternatives. A merger between XM and Sirius will mean more content for listeners, but at what price? Will fees go up, or will the new Frankenstein service insert ads to create what will effectively be a CD-quality radio dial with more stations?
Why were radio executives ever under the impression that people will pay for radio? Listenership on FM and AM has been in steady decline for years -- so why would people want more of the same (even at a much higher quality) and want to pay good money for it? It's a wonder that both companies still exist here in 2007.
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