XM gets 'sirius'

[SteveOrdinetz]

Joe P. wrote...
> Radio isn't an IPOD, or CD burning...it's not your personal music
> station. It's part of a show...when you are at a concert, the band will
> play some songs you like, some you don't...but you understand that there
> are 30,000 other people at the stadium.   People have forgotten that's
> what radio does, broadcast to a stadium at all times.

Interesting how you brought up a concert.  What gets the best response
when a band or artist is doing a concert?  Their -HITS-!  That's what
people go to hear, not some obscure track off the band's third album.

> HOWEVER, there IS one point that is valid.  Time Spent Listening (TSL)
> seems to be going down slowly nationwide year after year.  I think radio
> is becoming MORE trivial by the minute because it is so focused on
> itself, its revenues
> and its profits.  "Listener focus" at the top....is history.  The whole
> notion of connecting  with intensity to listeners one at a time is
> regarded is an anachronism.  Not a pretty picture.

But is it because radio is doing such a lousy job, or just that there are
more choices today.  You mentioned Ipods, & custom CDs.  Just like in the
60s & 70s CBS, ABC & NBC were pretty much your only choices for tv.  Now
look at the sheer number of "cable" channels available, yet tv viewership
is dropping too.  Is it any wonder any one source's numbers are being
watered down?  Do newspapers suck more today than they did in 1975?  If
you go by circulation figures, they must.  Radio isn't the only choice
these days for entertainment or information.  Need the weather, wanna know
the score or an update on a news story?  It's a lot faster to just look it
up online.  Radio doesn't have the monopoly it once did...it's old media
and "wonderful eclectic formats" aren't gonna change that.