Satellite radio is altering the airwaves

The new medium of satellite radio is fast emerging as an alternative, and broadcasters are fighting back.
The New York Times

The story "Satellite radio is altering the airwaves" published April 4, 2005 at 9:30 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[vox365]

Satellite Radio Is A Dinosaur - in Disguise

Satellite Radio can only survive over the long term if it embraces the Internet, which has already proven that both [audio] radio and [video] tv is deliverable at a fraction of the operational costs. And it is easily deliverable to the entire world instantaneously and simultaneously without the cumbersome overhead associated with Satellite. Proof of all this can be had by reviewing the technology being readied by Intel, Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft and a myriad of forward-thinking, well-heeled technology companies, none of which are betting their bankrolls on Satellite delivery systems. Most are betting their futures on Podcasting, Vlogging, Gaming and other multi-media content to the only logical device, the hand-held. Even if Satellite Radio delivers much more to some sort of hand-held radio device, it is still burdened by humongous ongoing overhead and technological expenses. what you don't see is the money-trail following Sirius or XM. Theirs is all out-go for the foreseeable future. Expensive talent, expensive programming alliances and expensive executives. You can extrapolate the rest!!! And let us not forget the King of All Media, Howard Stern, who has already handed in his resignation giving a one year notice. Common sense would dictate that as an obviously intelligent man he may not last out the 2005 year where he is, but yet the scorching advance of Internet technology might possibly render him impotent before he starts in 2006.

[Stating]

re: Satellite Radio

Actually, both XM and Sirius offer subscriptions to listen to their channels over the Internet. It's a few bucks less a month than the satellite subscription.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://xmro.xmradio.com/xstream/index.jsp" target="_newWindow">http://xmro.xmradio.com/xstream/index.jsp</a>
"With XM Radio Online you'll get unlimited access to over 75 channels of amazing programming including:

* All of XM's 100% commercial-free music channels
* XM's exclusive music series Artist Confidential" * Online-exclusive channels, including XM Liquid * The Bob Edwards Show, from XM's Public Radio * Uncensored comedy including the outrageous"


Keith
www.techcando.com

[201293546946733175101343322673]

Bob's "Commen Sense" is different from Ours

Bob seriously believe the Internet will kill satellite radio. Well, guess what? Few years ago people believe selling dog foods online will make a fortune :)

[jpeshek]

11 minutes of commercials per hour?

"But commercial radio has begun to change. Radio stations in the Top 10 markets played, on average, 11 minutes of commercials an hour during daytime broadcasts in February, down from 11.7 in October, when Leland Westerfield, a media analyst at Harris Nesbitt, began tracking spots."

BALONEY

This doesn't take into account how many minutes MUSIC isn't playing! DJ's seem to think you've tuned in to listen to them, and they do their own plugging of products, events, and endless repeating of the station ID you are listening to.

I have Sirius and couldn't go back to commercial radio.

[201293546946733175101343322673]

11.7 -> 11. Big Deal.

What about DJs chatting on the show, trying to sell concert tickets, and promote other sponsored services? I guess that is not considered ad time, huh? :)

[Stating]

People are emotionally involved with local radio

Yeah, I'm emotionally attached to San Francisco local radio. I hate it! Let me count the ways. Twenty minutes of loud, blasting cranked up audio commercials per hour. Matthew Lesko, Bomardier, violent movie and TV detective trailers, hyped up moronic "Raymond" previews. After the warm-up, I am treated to several more minutes of ads for every imaginable scam and con. Ads for male enhancement products, weight loss, multi-level marketing, memory enhancers, mood enhancers, and mortgage refis.

This article portrays the battle between local and satellite radio. It's a much bigger battle than that, and local radio will lose. One word. Ipod. All those people you see on the street, in cars, on trains, jogging, AREN'T listing to local radio. They are listening to the ultimate narrowcast. They are their own radio station.

[Remo_Williams]

Clearly correct.

The Infinity quote is wishful thinking. No one can compete with 1010 WINS in NYC, because it is all news, all the time. That's the extent of being locally connected in radio. Everything else is utterly independent of the station location, because Led Zep in Chicago is no different than Led Zep in your hometown, which is precisely the point: you hear the same five Zep songs in every damn market because programming sucks, period.

No matter what study they throw at us, no matter how they rationalize it, all commercial radio is fueled by a form of payola. It's the only explanation for shoving such mediocrity down our throats; it's the only explanation why all good music is broken in college radio stations months before it ever hits your local Zoo.

-R

[201293546946733175101343322673]

Totally Agree

"Emotionally attached to local radio station"? They must be joking :) Now XM even has local traffic and weather report, I don't even need AM/FM to tell me about traffic situations anymore.

BTW, why should I emotionally attached to DJs who do nothing but trying to sell me something every 5 minutes? :)

[Bob_Barker]

The Switch has Begun

6 days ago a major Chicago radio station switched formats. (Q101) Their DJ's insist that the switch was a bright idea that surfaced there in the office. Ha! Now their song database is from a hundred songs to a thousand and it's supposedly all request of anything "alternative". I think their commercials have slightly decreased as well.

It's all too little too late though. I've already ripped my CD collection onto my MP3 player. I am my own station like the guy above put it.

[truegenius]

Oh, so NOW they care...

Well, commercial radio titans like Clear Channel are finally shaking in their San Antonio-based boots. And it's about time. Clear Channel never bothered listening to the grumblings of millions of listeners nor the rise of the MP3 download phenomenon, so now they're doing damage control before it hits their bottom line - being reactive rather than pro-active.

I rarely listen to Clear Channel stations, and I live in Texas. Most of the time my radio stays tuned to a local college station, or an Infinity smooth jazz station (say what you want about Infinity; they're still not as onerous as Clear Channel which owns 1,200 stations nationwide).

I am definitely a fan of local radio as a concept - I like hearing local flavor with DJ's that live where I live. But commercial behemoths like Clear Channel just don't get it - run your station EXCLUSIVELY as a profit machine and eventually folks will stop listening.

Give 'em hell, XM and Sirius! I want to read the ousters of dead wood like Clear Channel's CEO Lowry Mays in the business pages.

[zeroplane]

Forget Radio haven't listened for 7 years

After I got a reciever that would play MP3 data cd-roms I have a jukebox in my car of over 5000 songs. Why would I listen to the radio, most of it is filled with commercials and blabbing morons who lower the collective IQ of the listening populous through low-brow humor and instant gradification values that our corporate drones love so much.

I find new music listening to internet streams, find something new of interest and then hunt it down online. Get a album or two of the artist, burn it to a data CD and listen to it everywhere.

Radio has been dead to me for over 5 to 7 years. After clear channel made everything vannila I lost interest.