The Manic Mechanic

I am a fan of satellite radio. I was skeptical at first when XM first hit the airwaves and ushered in the first nationwide 'pay radio' service. Formed by the same people who created Clear Channel Communications, otherwise known as The Bastards That Ruined Radio Forever, I could not see spending money to basically receive the same commercial-laden stuff that could be found for free all over the place. Then another player calling themselves Sirius came into the picture. Slightly more expensive, their music channels were delightfully free of commercials, and they even touted a GLBT-focused channel. I eventually took the bait and been a faithful subscriber for at least six years now. XM, forced to play catch-up, removed commercials from most of their music channels.

A bit over a year ago, I bought a new truck that came with an XM receiver. After the 3 free months I paid for a year just to have something different. Life was mostly good. Neither service, despite millions of subscribers was truly a profitable venture. Sirius, in all their wrongheaded stupidity (IMO) lured shock-jock Howard Stern to their service, for an insane 500 million dollars. While this did create a big increases in subscriptions for the Sirius service, it was also a huge financial noose for the service. Eventually, or should I say inevitably, the two operations floated the idea of a merger. Somehow they managed to convince regulatory agencies that this would not constitute a monopoly, that the merged entities would be good for the consumer, prices would not rise, and all the other typical lies. The merger happened, and this past Wednesday, the fruits of the merger were finally foisted onto the faithful listeners.

Needless to say, I was not happy.

The music channels, once independent to each, were combined across both services, with portions of XM's selections joining those from Sirius and removing redundant channels. Other 'exclusive' content remained on each other's respective service as a way to have people sign up for more content at additional costs. The music lineup originally hosted by Sirius was now diluted and actually less varied.

My subscription to XM was up in about a week, so I called to cancel it. Of course, I was subjected to the retention spiels offering the service at half price, etc. When asked why I was canceling, I told the dutiful phone jockey over in India that I was no longer getting anything I cared for via XM that I was now getting through Sirius.

Jeff went through the revised music channel lineup on his Sirius radio and decided it was no longer worth it and canceled his subscription today. I will give a bit of time to see how the new lineup pans out on my remaining Sirius subscription, but I have a feeling I will be tossing that as well. We both have a lot of money invested in receivers and accessories between us (Jeff has two, I have three) and it'd be a shame to toss it all. Many of the benefits I had with Sirius at the outset have evaporated. The once vibrant OutQ gay channel has become tedious for the most part, Larry Flick (lfkbear) rose to new heights of arrogance and pomposity (especially after Hillary Clinton lost the primary election, whereupon he used his morning show as a bully pulpit to remind us how upset he was time after time). The weekends, once used for music and other personalities were relegated to reruns of weekly shows. Most of what I would listen to is played while I am at work. So this no longer is of interest.

Here's my prediction of what will happen to the new merged SiriusXM service: Prices will rise. That's a given. Commercials will slowly infect the service at increasing rates until they invade the music channels. And if any new channels are added, they will be of no interest to me. By that time, I will have canceled it all for good and tossed out my hardware. At this point, really, I couldn't care less if SiriusXM remains a viable business entity. They are pissing off subscribers, and they are leaving. At least the satellites themselves can be used for celestial target practice.

Several years ago if one were to ask my opinion on it, I would have said I'd never pay for 'radio'. Meaning, I would not pay for the priviledge of listening to radio via satellite as long as there was good terrestrial radio around. Well, thanks to Clear Channels, SInclair Broadcasting and a couple other megaconglomerates buying up, homogenizing and ruining what remained of 'conventional' broadcast FM radio (AM had long since degenerated into Jesus-spitting, drooling rightwing jawboneing EMI a long time ago), I bit the bullet and signed up for Sirius satellite. It's been a welcome respite from the tyrrany of broadcast for me going on 5 years now.

And now something looms on the horizon with the potential to ruin that for me.

It seems that the longtime rumblings of the two major players in satellite radio broadcasting, XM and Sirius, merging into one company is gaining momentum. As with any sort of merger such as this, the benefit is for the companies and their shareholders. And, as history has always shown, the customers end up with the short end of the deal, with higher prices, less compelling content, poorer service and the like. Mark my words, if this merger happens, subscriber rates will go up, commercials will invade the currently commercial-free music channels like a cancer and I will kiss the service goodbye. I'll miss lfkbear's wonderful morning show, the music channels I've come to appreciate on long trips and such. But if my doomsday scenario starts becoming reality, I'm voting with my dollars and conscience.

Federal regulators recently put the kibosh on a merger of the two big DBS television providers DirecTV and Dish Network (I subscribe to the latter), so there is some hope that the same will hold true for the radio services. If any of the past reading I have done about this merger holds true, there are somehow fewer roadblocks to the XM/Sirius deal to overcome and are more likely to pass.

At least there is still 'net radio. Or will there be?