XM gets "sirius"

[Joseph Pappalardo]

> Joe: Your condescending, cock-sure tone is just PERFECT for your
message...

Thank you.

> but what you wrote is simply not true. With 13,000+ radio signals in this
> country, the market is HIGHLY fragmented, except in small markets where
few
> signals are audible. It is NOT at all OBVIOUS that the most profitable
> strategy for all stations in medium and large markets is to cater to the
> lowest common denominator.

The term "Lowest Common Denominator" is euphemism.

The fact remains that the most profitable stations try to get the MOST
people listening for the LONGEST time possible.
(Add in the factor of advertisers wanting to reach "their" audience most
efficently...i.e...Beer for sports, tractors for Country, funriture for
people settling into a house.)

>  The proof is that in many medium and large
> markets "narrowcasting" to ethnic minorities yields owners of secondary
> signals (and in some cases MAJOR signals, such as WIND Chicago, WADO New
> York, and KHJ Los Angeles) much greater profits than are possible by
> attempting to split the majority audience with four or five competitors.

Whatever these stations are doing, they are doing it because they believe
this will give them the most audeince, for the longest time....and an
audience which advertisers want to reach.

> The reason that broadcasters are
> such copycats is that, as a group, they are greedy and stupid (which DOES
> NOT mean that there are no exceptions).

The reason radio broadcasters are such copycats, is because they do R & D,
much like any other business, to find out what works, and what their
listeners want.

Again, I point to your favorite target WCRB.  Highly sucessful, highly
profitable...more people are enjoying classical music in Boston now than
ever before.  But you are still not happy.

Oh, yes, Sumner Redstone, Mel Karmazin, etc.  Why, yes...these sre some of
the stupidest people on earth, right?

As far as "greedy"....this isn't a charity, hospital, or soup kitchen.  It's
a business, much like you expect your bank to give you the highest yeild on
your deposit as possible...and the lowest rate on your mortgage.

That's why an owner puts his money in radio...and not in a mattress.  Is
that greed?

> So much erroneous "conventional
> wisdom" floats around the industry that nearly everybody believes it.

You have yet to provide one peice of erroneous wisdom...

> And so
> we have a herd of sheep (with the intelligence of sheep) making format
> decisions--and what looks to me to be no chance of reversing the trend.

If your point is that you have more intelligence than a sheep....I suppose
if you were running WCRB, they would NOT be one of the most listened to
classical station in America, they would play ENTIRE LONG peices of music,
they would be LESS profitable, and fewer people would enjoy Classical music
in Boston.

But you would be happy, right?