Satellite radio, part 2

I will disclose that I am a subscriber to Sirius. I do have DirecTV at my house which also gives me the luxury of listening to XM's music streams. Why I chose Sirius over XM came down to just a few factors. I enjoy the NFL, and being able to listen to all the games for no extra charge was appealing to me. Add to that the availability of the Sirius NFL Channel (all NFL, all the time!) and my hook was baited. I also am a long-time listener of the Dave Ramsey show. Sirius was the first satellite provider to carry his show, and they always have made the three-hour program available in its entirety. XM did pick up the Ramsey show, but shortened it to either two hours or one hour for a time. (XM has since resumed carrying all three hours.) As it was evident Sirius was more committed to Ramsey's program, that was just another factor that swung me to Sirius. However I have nothing negative to say about XM and if they had the NFL, I may have chosen their service.

I also am not an employee of, nor an investor in, either service. (Not an investor as far as I know. I could look closely at my IRA funds and see whether either company shows up. However I think I have established my neutrality about the two companies.)

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Recently Geogal was listening to the Hugh Hewitt show. During one segment, Hewitt had a conversation in which he stated his belief that satellite radio would not catch on. (I must admit this is hearsay on my part. I did not hear the piece myself and I didn’t find any type of corroborating entry in Hewitt’s blog.) While I enjoy reading Hewitt’s blog and catch his show when I am able (more on that later), I have to disagree with his stance on satellite radio.

One only need look at the different names who are migrating to satellite radio. Howard Stern seems to be the first name many recall, but there are others. National Public Radio fans will always have fond memories of Bob Edwards from his “Morning Edition” days. Since his sacking by the NPR powers that be, Edwards now holds forth on XM. So for the listener who does not care for the replacement host(s) on “ME,” just purchase XM equipment and a subscription, and you can again enjoy Edwards’on-air style. Depending on your political persuasion, you will undoubtedly find several national gabbers with whom you will agree, regardless if you have Sirius or XM. A glance at the Sirius and XM programming lineup includes names such as: Tony Snow, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Phil Hendrie, Michael Reagan, and Dr. Laura. Granted, all of these talents are heard on terrestrial radio but they seem to have no difficulty or objection to also being available to satellite listeners.

The above names are all affiliated with large syndication companies. Evidently these different radio syndicators had no objection to adding their lineups and talent to the programming available on the two satellite providers. Hewitt’s show is also syndicated (by Salem Broadcasting). In contrast to Hewitt’s view, I believe that within the next year or two the entire Salem lineup will be on at least one of the satellite services.

In part 3, freedom of choice!