If XM/Sirius fails will HD radio benefit?

[MHB]

This question seems deserving of its own thread, something I've been wondering about too:

Has anyone thought that it is possible tht XM/Sirius with billions of dollars in debt could go under? If that happens will HD radio get a boost?

Suppose a few years from now XM/Sirius is gone.

Would a lot of the former subscribers turn to HD radio as a close alternative (music formats, digital, low cost) or would they turn to other "new generation radio" (possibly things that are more "high-tech")? I wonder and really don't know.

Anyone care to speculate?

Thanks in advance.

 

[KB1OKL]

A major selling point for XM-Sirius is the fact that you can receive them in 99.9% of the US and Canada. That and the content is what I like about my Satrad receiver. What does HD offer besides drop outs, artifacts and dead air and I'm talking about in my own home, would I want that in my car where those problems will be compounded? Not on your life and I'm betting most consumers feel the same way. It also seems most salesmen are now hip to the fact that it doesn't work well and are not shy about passing that on to potential customers, after all they don't make money on returns do they? Perhaps a few shysters would "forget" to mention that the demo radios are hooked to massive tuned Yagis on the roof and sell a few but that would soon backfire as the unsuspecting customer brought them home, hooked up the dipole and watched the dial go 'round and 'round like a merry go round. If Satellite fails I doubt very much many customers will "downgrade" to HD. I'll use my analog AM-FM like I still do sometimes. You also can't compare the content on secondary HD channels to Satrad stations, the HD channels are run like repositories for failed formats and the Satrad channels are programmed and have live DJ's like they are really trying to win customers.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Suppose a few years from now XM/Sirius is gone.

The infrastructure will remain- and somebody will step in and utilize it after the bankruptcy. It is too valuable of a concept and has too many subscribers to simply disappear and leave orphan receivers. It may be ad based, it may go for free - but something will be on the bird for the receivers to pick up. My guess is ad based and free, because the model is successful for over the air radio.

 

[clouseau]

The infrastructure will remain- and somebody will step in and utilize it after the bankruptcy. It is too valuable of a concept and has too many subscribers to simply disappear and leave orphan receivers. It may be ad based, it may go for free - but something will be on the bird for the receivers to pick up. My guess is ad based and free, because the model is successful for over the air radio.

Agreed wholeheartedly. Just dump all the debt and program it like you had to make a profit and SatRad is actually a pretty good idea.

However to answer the question, NO, I do not think Terrestrial or HD will benefit from the end of SatRad. In fact just the opposite, IMHO. If there was 100% SatRad penetration, would terrestrial fold up and go home? No way. SatRad forces terrestrial to do what they do best... Local radio. It's your "Jack" ,"Jake", "Tom", "Mike", "Bob", "Oldies 104.3", "Best mix of the 70's 80's and today with no rap and no sleepy elevator music", "Kid Kraddock in the morning and your favorite music all day", "Always at least 10 songs in a row" jukebox stations who will suffer under SatRad penetration. The actual "Radio Stations" will still do fine.

It's always been my opinion that SatRad is a "Low Hanging Fruit" provider. They will alsways have a better national music mix than a local station. They can have the best mix money can buy. A local station OTOH can be local. The next time Xm talks about the forcast, The Cheapo Gas on the West Side of town, or the kids winning state will be the first. They're basically I-Pod competitors. (Stern and sports Excepted).

IMHO, SatRad is good for terrestrial radio. It keeps them a little more honest. BTW There are a couple of local owners here who agree with that. They, however, still wish it would just go away.

Clouseau

 

[Savage]

I agree wholehartedly with the Inspector and rbruce. There's no way satrad is going to fold up and disappear. The real bad news lurking here will be for XM-Siruis' unsecured creditors. You unfortunates may be feeling "kinda Madoff" sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Remember your Marshall McLuhan. As new media technologies emerge they almost never supplant existing ones. They supplement, so long as the new entries offer something the consumer wants. That's why FM didn't eliminate AM, TV didn't kill radio, and the internet hasn't killed radio, TV, cable or satellite. OTOH Quad-Stereo and AM stereo were duds because nobody needed them.

 

[pocket-radio]

I bet Mel is hoping sat radio will end up bankrupt. The courts will allow the company to discharge debt,
and the company will reemerge stronger with their debt reorganized.

It's not going away. It's ok, it helps to keep everyone on their toes and listeners benefit from stronger brands. Brands that can't or won't change will die.

 

[clouseau]

I bet Mel is hoping sat radio will end up bankrupt. The courts will allow the company to discharge debt,
and the company will reemerge stronger with their debt reorganized.

I'll bet he's not because I believe a lot of his compensation is stock related. And I hope the courts "DON'T" allow debt discharge. Give the stockholders what theiir shares are worth. NOTHING. Allow creditors to take over and make them as whole as possible. Then operate it or sell it to new investors.
[/quote]
It's not going away. [/quote]

No Doubt

Clouseau

 

[pocket-radio]

You're right I'm sure Mel doesn't want to lose his shares.
Going bankrupt is like a free pass to start over, and they'll be allowed to ditch some debt and start over again. Congress wanted the us auto manufactures to claim bankrupt for the same reason.

 

[clouseau]

You're right I'm sure Mel doesn't want to lose his shares.
Going bankrupt is like a free pass to start over, and they'll be allowed to ditch some debt and start over again. Congress wanted the us auto manufactures to claim bankrupt for the same reason.

I don't want to start a political discussion, but I'll bet the primary reason for a Detroit BK would be to void the labor contracts and bail on a lot of the "Non Active" labor compensation. But I digress.

Detroit "IS" a lot like Sirius/XM. Fundamentally it works, but BAD management has made it NOT work.

Hard for me to believe Sirius/XM will ever go bust. If they could monetize their subscriber base *Which they apparently CAN'T" they should be making 18 million subs at 12.95 each = a little over $233 MILLION a MONTH!! If you can't get by on that, then as Ron White would say "You can't fix Stupid".

Clouseau

 

[pocket-radio]

You're correct sir..

 

[Mike Walker]

I'm actually of the opinion that competion is GOOD for local (terrestrial) radio. National competitors SHOULD force stations to concentrate on what satellite (internet, etc) can never do...SERVE THEIR COMMUNITIES! It's what's beautiful about local radio...a "beauty" that's faded quite a bit in recent years, but certainly not "faded away".

Satellite radio, meanwhile, seems frozen at about 19 million subscribers. That may well be the number of people willing to pay for radio! It may be the ceiling, or close to it.

 

[LasVegasRadioJunky]

FlyCast’s Apple-sanctioned downloadable application lets iPhone users listen to terrestrial radio stations, as well as “rewind” live radio to hear portions of a show they've missed.

 

[scanman1]

"If XM/Sirius fails will HD radio benefit?"

I say no. Even post-merger, XM is still offering program choices superior to anything I was getting on the HD-2 and beyond channels. If satellite fails, most folks will either return to traditional analog radio or move on to streaming audio stations from the internet.

 

[Mike Walker]

You're right about that, Scanman. It's all about PROGRAMMING! We're debating technology, which is beside the point. If stations use HD to provide compelling PROGRAMMING not available anywhere else, it will really take off. If it's just quieter reception and lower distortion (plus better stereo) of the same programming, only geeks like me will care.

Having said that, I'm fortunate that there ARE some things that I LOVE in my area on HD that aren't available on the "main channel". Fulltime classical music, "Adult Alternative" ("X-Ponential Radio"), "Eclectic", etc. But if your local stations don't offer anything that you can't already get (that you care about), then frankly you shouldn't rush out to buy and HD Radio. An internet radio would be a far better choice (for home listening, useless for travel). I have the Revo Blik, and love the freakin' thing! Great audio through the RCA outputs, lousy speaker, and surprisingly inadequate headphone output! Don't even think about plugging headphones into the thing...use an external amplifier, and plug headphones into THAT. These caveats aside, it's a WONDERFUL toy for radio program listeners, AND geeks!

 

[Chuck]

<snip> An internet radio would be a far better choice (for home listening, useless for travel). I have the Revo Blik, and love the freakin' thing! Great audio through the RCA outputs, lousy speaker, and surprisingly inadequate headphone output! Don't even think about plugging headphones into the thing...use an external amplifier, and plug headphones into THAT. These caveats aside, it's a WONDERFUL toy for radio program listeners, AND geeks!

I dunno, Mike. I have a Nokia device that is a portable Internet radio. It is about the size of a standard ipod and runs continuously 6-8 hours on a battery charge when listening to an audio stream and several days between charges in standby. I listen to it in hotels, airports and just about anywhere that has free Wi-Fi. Even many McDonalds restaurants have it. Since it is also a pocket sized Linux based computer, it even works for a quick email or for checking in to see what outlandish claims are being posted on this Board.

I'd hardly say that it is useless for travel. That is actually what it was designed for. It even has a built in alarm clock, so you don’t have to trust the hotel for a wake up call. It should work fine in the new Chryslers that are equipped with full time Wi-Fi. I can't say that I've tried it, but the technology exists, and will only grow more prevalent.

Even more interesting (at least to me) is recently I've been getting emails at the station from people who tell me they are listening to us in Wisconsin (or some distant location) on their cell phones, which they have plugged into the Aux audio input on their car radio. They tell me it works just fine.

Given that many HD-2 channels are also available on the Internet, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they have more listeners through broadband than they have off the air.

 

[Mike Walker]

Good points Chuck. I think you must be talking about the Nokia NS810 (I think that's the model number)(?) I looked at it briefly before I decided to go for an Asus EEEPC as my portable device for internet radio...primarily because I could do a little bit of actual work on it (mine runs Windows XP) while on vacation. With my EEEEPC, in addition to the Reciva website, I also use the Aluratek Internet radio USB device. Still, having all the functionality in an actual RADIO has drastically increased the amount of time I spend listening to radio on the 'net.

 

[Chuck]

Good points Chuck. I think you must be talking about the Nokia NS810 (I think that's the model number)(?) I looked at it briefly before I decided to go for an Asus EEEPC as my portable device for internet radio...primarily because I could do a little bit of actual work on it (mine runs Windows XP) while on vacation. With my EEEEPC, in addition to the Reciva website, I also use the Aluratek Internet radio USB device. Still, having all the functionality in an actual RADIO has drastically increased the amount of time I spend listening to radio on the 'net.

Yes, that's the one. I forgot to mention that it is also a fairly acceptable analog FM radio. It is stereo, and sound fine. It also works as an MP3 player, reproducing whatever I load into a cheap SD memory card.

The point being that there are lots of alternatives to HD radio, and their growth seems to be much faster than HD. Sorry. Truth be known, I think a few HD-2 stations are quite good. Of course, I can also get them on the Internet too, so I just do what is easiest. That is usually listen on the 'net. I don’t need an outside antenna and a rotor to do that.