Thursday, May 24, 2007

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Is there an ill-wind blowing in the Sirius-XM merger???

There isn't any empirical evidence to indicate that the proposed merger between the 2 satellite companies won't happen but I just sense that opposition to the deal is growing. Just yesterday, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee sent letters to the Justice Department and the FCC. Kohl's letter was not about the prospects of his Green Bay Packers for this season or how they can beat the pants off of the Redskins...

In his letter Kohl urged regulators to block the proposed deal saying the merger will hurt consumers. Kohl wrote that the merger "would cause substantial harm to competition and consumers, would be contrary to antitrust law and not in the public interest, and therefore should be blocked by your agencies." There was more but that was the gist of the letter...

There's something else happening that doesn't have anything to do with the subcommittee and it's this: satellite radio is showing a slow growth rate - it's penetration is only 5% of the market now while Internet radio use continues to rise and there's more: 15% of households have more than one MP3 player and combined, there are more than 90 million units of iPods and MP3 players in use. A further breakdown (using Bridge Ratings) shows that 93.5% of Americans listen to terrestrial or what I like to call - free radio for at least 5 minutes or more, MP3's reach 30% of the population and satellite radio with its 5% leads only HD radio which reaches 450,000 weekly listeners...

Think what you will about research and its numbers but none of this portends a promising future for satellite. I should also make it clear that I have no axe to grind and believe that if people want to pay for radio usage they should whether it's one company or two. It's their right to do so. I am neither for nor opposed to the merger but whether there's one or two satellite companies, there sure are lots of other options aren't there???

10 Timeline Memories...
  1. 1844] Debuted on this date: Samuel Morse transmits the message: "What hath God wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore as he opens America's 1st telegraph line. His assistant, Alfred Vail who receives the message says: "Huh?"...1878] The 1st American bike race in Beacon Park, Boston is won by Harvard student C.A. Parker...1883] The Brooklyn Bridge opens to the public...1985] "View To A Kill", a James Bond movie premieres...1989] "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" premieres...
  2. 1935] Let there be light: Cincinnati and Philadelphia play the 1st major league night game with the Reds on top 2-1. FDR pushes a button in Washington to turn the lights on...
  3. 1958] Wedding Bells: UPI is formed by a merger of United Press and the International News Service...
  4. 1974] The curtain comes down: The last "Dean Martin Show" airs on NBC-TV after a run of 9 years...1993] The final episode of "Designing Women" starring Delta Burke and Dixie Carter is aired. The show ran for 7 years...1999] The final episode of "Mad About You" starring Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt is run after 7 seasons...
  5. 1974] "Happy Trails": Jazz great Duke Ellington passes away from pneumonia and lung cancer. Sir Duke was 75...
  6. 1980] Isle be seeing you: The Islanders win their 1st Stanley Cup over the Flyers in 6 games. This is the 1st of 4 consecutive titles for the Isles...
  7. 1987] Like father, like son: Al Unser Sr. wins his 4th Indy 500 at the age of 47...1992] Al Unser Jr. becomes the 1st, second-generation winner of the Indy 500...
  8. 1988] Recordbreakingtalk: John Moschittasetsarecordforfasttalkingwith586wordsperminute...
  9. 1994] Guilty as charged: Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in 1993. Each receives a sentence of 240 years in prison and a free ticket to burn in hell...
  10. 2000] Slaughter House: Five are killed, two wounded when 2 gunmen enter a Wendy's in Flushing. The gunmen tie up the victims in the basement and shoot them. This was one of the most heinous crimes in New York City history...

Music Memories:

[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in each timeline]...

Commentary...

I've added a new link which I think you'll enjoy: John Gorman's Media Blog, which you'll find in the right hand column. John is a very savvy programmer, consultant and talent coach who made his mark at WMMS in Cleveland were he was program director/operations mgr. of The Buzzard for many years. Today John offers his commentary on Google and radio's relationship or lack thereof...

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":

Rich Appel (50), Roseanne Cash (52), Priscilla Presley (62), Patti LaBelle a.k.a. Patricia Holt (63), Gary ('Radar' of *M*A*S*H) Burghoff (64), Bob Dylan (66) and Tommy Chong (69)...

Timeline Countdown: 4 days until Memorial Day and 16 days until the Belmont Stakes...

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