So..if Sirius Radio goes bankrupt...

[Princeton78]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 8:00pm

.....what will happen to the Satellite radio that came with my new car? Will it be defunct?
Grrrr.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 9:02pm

It will still be cool to look at, hope that helps.

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 9:36pm

I will cry.

[skb2010]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 10:04pm

To quote the main board, "I'll cut a b*tch."

[winston89]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 11:16pm

I would be upset. I do think that both Sirius and XM made a bad business move when they decided to merge. However, I am not really so sure that it would have mattered. I feel that even if they were their own companies that if one folded then the demise of the other one wouldn't be too far behind. I do love having Sirius/XM and almost never listen to regular radio. I just feel that there are too many FCC restrictions on regular radio for what you can and cannot play.

I love classic rock, but it is because of these restrictions that New York City's classic rock station, Q104.3 ends up playing what feels like the same 50 songs in a constant random playlist.

[winston89]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 11:19pm

I would be upset. I do think that both Sirius and XM made a bad business move when they decided to merge. However, I am not really so sure that it would have mattered. I feel that even if they were their own companies that if one folded then the demise of the other one wouldn't be too far behind. I do love having Sirius/XM and almost never listen to regular radio. I just feel that there are too many FCC restrictions on regular radio for what you can and cannot play.

I love classic rock, but it is because of these restrictions that New York City's classic rock station, Q104.3 ends up playing what feels like the same 50 songs in a constant random playlist.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/9/09 at 11:54pm

It's not the FCC. It's consultants and market research and corporate-driven playlists. It is, to coin a phrase, radio gaga.

But satellite radio is, to coin a phrase, radio nowhere.

[winston89]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 12:09am

Yes, but with regular radio they try to censor things to the extreme. For example, any radio station that is owned by clear channel (which is a vast majority of them in the country) created a do not play list of songs that a station can't play. This list came to be after 9/11. For example, you can't play I Am The Walrus because of the line "Stupid Bloody Tuesday." You can't play Ironic by Alanis Morissette because there is a verse in the song that talks about how there is a guy that was waiting his whole life to get on one flight and it ends up crashing. Regular radio takes things to an extreme degree.

However, the one reason why Sirius/XM isn't working is that they haven't done a good job in convincing people why they should pay for something that they can get for free. HBO does a good job of doing things like that because they offer popular shows that are only available if the customer pays extra to their cable bill to get these shows.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 2:46am

Yeah, I agree that I sometimes can't stand mainstream radio, but you are wrong about the do not play list. Maybe it was in affect right after 9/11, but I hear "Ironic" all the time.

[danmag]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 7:13am

I recently went from having had Sirius for the past 3 years to going back to regular radio (for some reason it couldn't be installed in my new car????), and I have to say it sucks. I've been listening to a lot of Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus (*slits throat*)

[StockardFan]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 7:23am

I still hear Ironic on the radio? Which is unfortunate, since I can't stand Alanis Morrisette.

Posted: 2/10/09 at 10:55am

Winston, Clear Channel is a poor excuse for a radio network, but they didn't "Ban" any songs. Central programmers took certain songs out of rotation immediately following 9/11 that might have taken on unintended meanings after the terrorist attack (Like "Learn to Fly") but even if a station refrained from playing EVERY song on the list (still) it would cover less that 1/100th of 1 percent of all available songs. They play the same 50 songs because that's what their research says YOU want.

PS I am the Walrus wasn't one of the songs.
9/11 Wiki

[Pippin]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 11:19am

That list is just ridiculous.

I mean, I can see why some of those songs would have been a bad choice to play in late 2001-2002, but c'mon!! "Morning has Broken"? "Bridge over Troubled Water"? "99 Luftballoons"?

insanity.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 12:04pm

please, people. winston cannot be bothered with facts. he knows the score, man! y'all just don't get it!! yer sheep waiting for the slaughter at the hands of the man!

[Marianne2]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 1:13pm

Yeah, that list is really dumb. I mean, Benny and the Jetts is so bothersome that I laughed until I cried during a movie that featured it.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 1:13pm

Yeah, that list is really dumb. I mean, Benny and the Jetts is so bothersome that I laughed until I cried during a movie that featured it.

[skb2010]

Posted: 2/10/09 at 9:58pm

NOOO.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090211/bs_nm/us_siriusxm

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 12:07am

It'll be really hard to go back to commercial-free music and life without Howard Stern would be a shock to the system. I can tell you I won't go back to regular radio, it's all about internet radio and my iPod if Sirius XM goes under.

I blame the FCC for this, personally. It took them 16 months to allow for the merger to happen, and in the meantime consumers didn't know which system to invest in, if at all, and any momentum Howard brought to the table withered away.

[faithzilla]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 10:47am

Well that sucks. I was hoping to get Sirius in the near future!
Do you think that they could be bought out or they will just completely tank?

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 11:38am

Sirius isn't the future anymore. That's the problem.

Radio stations around the globe can now be streamed live via the Internet. AM and FM. THAT's the future. Wi-fi radio connectivity in cars. You live in L.A. but like a radio station in Japan, or Topeka, or someone's home radio station with your taste in music "broadcasting" via Winamp? No prob. If you have the Internet, you have access to all these stations. Many are commercial-free, so why pay for commercial-free radio? Most people won't do it. That's why it's not catching on the way they'd hoped. Their projections for subscribers were way off. Plus (it sounds like) mismanagement.

The power of radio lies in the size of the listening audience. That's what attracts advertisers. Asking people to pay for something that's been "free" for over 80 years doesn't make sense to most people.

Regardless, look to the Internet for the future (and the present) for radio broadcasting.

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 11:50am

Well. Sh*t. Though, the only thing that I'd truly miss is Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on the Martha Stewart channel.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 12:05pm

I dropped Sirius back in the summer when I bought a small car and just didn't want one more gadget after my gps and ipod. I didn't think I missed anything but the occasional Howard Stern show. I listened to him in a friend's car for 5 minutes yesterday and realized I didn't really miss it at all.

[Hank]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 4:42pm

I love my Sirius, and would hate very much to see its demise. Although I enjoy Howard Stern, I think he is being paid too much and the company should be able to renegotiate his deal, just as happened to me lately and to countless others in this day and age.

I virtually never listen to fm anymore, and tune in am only for news and sports. The comment above about our classic rock station in New York concerning their playlist is just one of many gripes I have about fm. They keep on changing formats all the time, and there are just about as many commercials as music.

Classic rock fans should check out "the loft" with radio personalitie Meg Griffin, Pete Fornatel, and others. To me it's worth the $150 a year or so alone. But more than anything else, being that we here are all musical theatre fans (I assume), How are we gonna live without our Seth Radetsky?

[faithzilla]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 5:18pm

I'd thought about Seth Rudetsky, also! I check his blog sometimes and I think he's hilarious. He was one of the perks I thought about when deciding I wanted Sirius. However, I've heard from some people that it's impossible to understand him because he talks so fast, which I can imagine is difficult without lip-reading! Ah, well, I'll survive.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 2/11/09 at 9:01pm

Mandi Moo, don't forget Whatever, Martha is on the Fine Living Network (yes, it exists), so at this they will have some life beyond Sirius, should it go under...fingers still crossed it won't.