So, I've had Sirius for about five months now, and aside from recording and enjoying Howard Stern on my long-ass commute, I find myself, oddly enough, actually listening to the music, too. It's amazing how much commercials make listening to regular radio absolutely intolerable, and you don't really notice it until you've spent a good time listening to uncut radio with no interruptions.

As an aside, one of the cooler features of my radio is that if I hear a song I like, at any point during I can hit record, and it'll grab the entire thing, from start to finish. As lame as it sounds, last night, the missus and I listened to the 90's Alternative channel with no commercials or edits, no jabbering DJs or any bullshit like that. The guy was like, ;I got some Nirvana, some Pearl Jam, some Soundgarden, and some Cranberries up next,; and that's what played. No commercial breaks, no phony phone calls. And now I've got ;Zombie; stuck in my head (with their tanks/and their bombs/and their bombs/and their guns).

Point is, then, I was skeptic of Sirius when I got it, but it has converted me, and now I'm a lifer. I'll never listen to regular music on the radio if I can avoid it. Which brings us to all this jibba-jabba about the proposed merger between XM and Sirius. After giving it some thought, I decided that I'm all for it, because of the arguments of Sirius' CEO.

He asserts that Sirius and XM are not primary competitors. Rather, satellite radio is competing against regular and HD radio, as well as internet radio, ipods, CDs, and basically any other type of audio content provider. A single satellite radio provider would allow them to better compete with these other media, and, since they're cutting overhead, the new company would rapidly become profitable.

Further, I also think that worries about possible price gouging are unfounded, because there are crappy, but free alternatives out there, such as regular or HD radio. As it is now, they would still have to convince people that their service is worth paying 12 bucks a month for. Increasing that price only hurts them by making their service less attractive to prospective and current users of the service.

So, if the merger were to go through, I'd be be happy as a pig in shit, because not only would I have all the stuff I like on Sirius, I'd get O&A, baseball, and XM's music (which, I admit, kicks a lot more ass than Sirius' music) for no extra cost.

So, my piece has been spoken. Anyone else think the merger is a good/bad thing, or are you too poor to care?

Karnaj fucked around with this message on 04-09-2007 at 04:55 PM.

I tried to listen to O&A and enjoy it. It's more often than not a complete waste of time.

I had XM for a long time and enjoyed it a lot. I never listened to any of the talk stuff and just loved listening to the music with no commercials.

Even though I don't have it anymore I'm all for this merger. If people want to pay a premium for not having commercials or retarded call in shit, more power to them.

I had Sirius briefly when my truck was being used for a business vehicle. I rather liked it, but I haven't picked it up personally, because my commutes are so short now.

We got XM with the new Saturn, and while it's enjoyed, there's just not quite enough variety. We really listen to a rather narrow section of what they have available, and we've actually started talking about utilizing the MP3 capabilities of the radio.

Anyways, for the merger.

I had XM for awhile and loved it. Then I changed cars and didn't want to go through installing it in the new car, so I dropped my subscription. The argument that XM is competing against all the non premium content is very much true. They basically have to convince you that not having commercials is actually worth $12/month. If they charge too much people will just say screw it and go back to normal radio, simple as that.

I don't have either, but some of my coworkers have one, and some of them have the other. Personally, if I ever were to get one, which I've considered from time to time, I would choose XM and I am against the merger. Why? Because I hate Stern and refuse to support him and all his imitators (Bubba the love sponge). With the merger going through I no longer have an option to choose satellite radio without supporting Stern.

And it's all well and good for the CEO to say its satellite vs free, but that doesn't make it true. They are/were competitors. I'm not worried about price gouging so much as a total lack of options now.

Merger hearings like this are generally determined by the side with the deeper pockets.

The arguments for this merger are identical to those of the Echostar CEO when they were considering merging with DirecTV, and it was shot down anyways... because collectively, cable companies simply had more legal buying power with which to lobby and press the issue.

Sirius is something I plan to get when I finaly get my first paycheck (Next year.. grr) However, I am for the merger.