Thursday, December 15, 2005

Satellite radio, part 3

Yesterday morning I was listening to a local sportstalk show (no I haven't ditched terrestrial radio entirely, nor will I) and heard a hilarious spot stating that "some things should remain free, and radio is one of them." The announcement was "brought to you by the 11,000 radio broadcasters of America."

It was so cheesey my words cannot do it justice. But hearing this on terrestrial radio does give credence to my belief that satellite radio will continue to increase in subscribers and popularity.

Radio station owners/managers are worried, with good reason.
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Freedom of choice

I remember when one of my friends, some years ago, said he was disconnecting his cable TV and getting a satellite dish. On my first visit to his home after he made the switch it was easy for me to see why he arrived at that decision. The local cable company had around 50 channels. Not only was there a superior picture quality on the satellite service, but it also provided MANY more channels. Newer networks such as the Game Show Network, Noggin, PBS Kids, and the Discovery Health Channel were available, as was just about every cable TV channel in operation. I remember thinking to myself, “This is wonderful. People don’t have to be at the mercy of their local cable providers, who tend to add and delete channels as they please.” Plus, if you could see the southern sky, you could install a dish and receive their service. The local cable company no longer had a monopoly on service. Since I believe in capitalism, it follows that I also believe competition is a very healthy thing for the consumer.

This concept is also applicable to the medium of radio. I reside in the Phoenix metropolitan area which is a top 20 market. Even with that ranking, there seems to be a lack of diversity on the radio dial. If I want to hear classic country, acoustic jazz, or Jack FM, I’m out of luck, even though these formats exist on terrestrial radio in various other markets. However, with my Sirius system, I can tune into whatever type of music suits my mood at the time. Commercial-free music is just icing on the cake. If I want to listen to adult standards with no top-of-the-hour news breaks, I just tune to stream #75 (Standard Time). If I want classic country, I listen to The Roadhouse or WSM on Sirius, or Hank’s Place or America on XM. Bottom line, if I want it, I’ve got it. Even the most diverse musical tastes can find what they want on either service. Everyone who listens to satellite radio is no longer at the mercy of the program directors of their local terrestrial radio stations. And talk radio? Take the names I listed in an earlier post and add numerous other voices from the political left and right, plus different experts in home improvement, advice, electronics, podcasting, and many other areas of interest. Then throw in a mix of world news from overseas sources and I challenge you to ever be bored with the programming on either satellite service.

Do I listen to the above, or do I stick with terrestrial radio and suffer through infomercials for the duration of a weekend?

The presence and availability of satellite radio may even have the reaction effect of local program directors being more thorough with programming terrestrial stations. A potential win-win for the listeners would be for the larger broadcasting companies to eliminate their “cookie-cutter” programming.

Next: The "forgotten" listeners of smaller markets and the folks who make their living on the road.

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