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NY foramt changes, O & A, XM / Sirius merger and more

R

Red_Bull_Ed

This was forwarded to me, spelling is not very good, but i figured I'd post a copy of it anyway


Here's the real deal for those of you outside the radio business.

Opie & Anthony got suspended for 1 month from CBS radio and XM. Not for the unfunny stupid skip about rapeing and beating up Mrs. Bush and Ms. Rice.

CBS Radio is changing formats on all FREE FM stations around the country. The ratings suck and no one is listening. O & A have already been droped from 4 markets. JV and Elvis (10am to 2pm show) have already been fired. This gives CBS an excuse to fire them next month.

Why?

92.3 FREE FM in New York and 94.1 FREE FM in Philadelphia will change formats on July 1, 2007 to all music stations. No talk, all music to try to bring up ratings and compete with Sirius and XM Satlite radios.

More people in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia have Sirius and XM satlite radios than any other part of the country. Sirius has almost 1 million of its 7 million subscribers in NY, NJ, and PA alone.

Now for the XM / Sirius side. Congress will approve the XM / Sirius merger in mid-June. Sirius's lineup is stronger than XM and the Sirius stations will stay. 75 commicerial free music, Howard Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge, Jay Thomas, Dee Shinder, Andy Dick, Scott Ferell, Martha Stewart, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, NASCAR, ect. MLB will be on Sirius by the end of the year.

Sirius will most likly drop XM's Opie & Anthony from it's lineup becuase of Howard Stern and his power.

The wheels have been set in motion for this all to happend. Don't believe all the BS you hear. You'll see by the end of the summer.

- A Radio Insider
 
While this "radio insider" speaks like an O and A listener he/she is also greatly exaggerating the impact of satellite radio. No one is doing anything to "compete" with Satellite radio as it has turned out to not be any real threat to terrestrial radio and the fact that XM would allow O and A to come back to terrestrial radio should be proof enough of that. IF formats get flipped it will be because of ratings and cost but will have nothing to do with Satellite radio or competing with it.

The sirius/XM merger:

Radio insider says Congress will approve the merger. There is of course no way for anyone in radio to know what Congress, a solemn elected body will do. Even if Congress approves it there is still the SEC, the DOJ, the FCC, that have to approve it before anything happens. Basically Congress is the least of the issue and anyone actually in radio would know this. SO as interesting as his/her thoughts were there is nothing to them that is rooted in fact or any kind of inside information.
 
Red Bull Ed said:
This was forwarded to me, spelling is not very good, but i figured I'd post a copy of it anyway


Here's the real deal for those of you outside the radio business.

Opie & Anthony got suspended for 1 month from CBS radio and XM. Not for the unfunny stupid skip about rapeing and beating up Mrs. Bush and Ms. Rice.

CBS Radio is changing formats on all FREE FM stations around the country. The ratings suck and no one is listening. O & A have already been droped from 4 markets. JV and Elvis (10am to 2pm show) have already been fired. This gives CBS an excuse to fire them next month.
Click to expand...

That radio insider really knows his stuff.

JV and Elvis 10a-2p....all the outsiders think they were on 9a-noon.
Opie and Anthony suspended for a month from CBS? No kidding. Most people seem to think they heard them live this morning on CBS. Fools.
Even the Daily News thinks that O&A were suspended from XM for the rape bit. I guess they're wrong.
 
I'd have to disagree with the statement that satellite is not a threat or should I say perceived as a threat by terrestrial radio. In my work with a number of markets and a number of people from major terrestrial companies, satellite is a serious issue that they are trying to deal with as it is cutting into listeners, especially on the east coast. It's the reason the NAB is the dog sent out to stop the intruder.

Look at is as what happened to AM stations when FM started to become popular. But there is one dilemma in the quest to compete with satellite. One station is not going to take away the success of satellite, or should I say Sirius. As I said in another thread XM made bad decisions from the get go up until there most recent blunder, paying $50 mill to have less than an hour of Oprah Winfrey a week.

Rather than build a brand XM simply took what was called Music Choice and made it into XM meaning they took a bunch of nameless music channels, called them funny names and started to make deals with car manufacturers thinking it was about simply making music something you paid for.

Sirius did the right thing. The music was easy but that it was personalities that would make it what it was.They were right. I'm not going to mention Stern because I don't think Stern was the force in Sirius' growth as he would like to think he is. Sure he had something to do with some purchases, but he did more to get in the paper and spark peoples interest in Sirius as a whole than to get people to buy because they wanted ot listen to him.

I would say Mel was the genius that really did it. Look at the northeast corridor, take all the personalities that everyone in fours states knew well, recreate what the structure of radio was twenty years ago and you've got what Sirius is, a radio band of great music choices and great personality's. If you know both satellite companies programming then you know how much better the programing is on Sirius (of course that's an opinion but just yesterday the classic rock channel played 14 songs in a row that rocked my world). How good has Sirius done? Show me a company that has a 61% customer growth in a years time and a 68% improved net loss from only one year ago. Imagine some of the great names you know such as Pat St. John, Larry the Duck, Pete Fornatale, Cousin Brucie, Carrol Miller, JJ Walker, Jay Thomas, etc. now marry that with a mix of 99x, WPLJ, WPLJ, KTU, WABC, WPIX, Y97, WCBS and all the other great NY stations and soundalikes in many east coast markets and you've got a new radio band that those who have money want to hear. I say "money" because of all 'subs' (subscriptions after trials) it's the folks who have greater income that make the purchase overall.

And here is the problem. One station on terrestrial radio in one market is not going to put a dent on that even though they will steal some names to try. And it's not just individual subscriptions that show the potential, it's the growing family subscriptions for Sirius that are at about 16% now and growing. What is the importance? It means one radio isn't enough in one household. It's very important number for the growth of satellite. XM hasn't had as much luck. Call XM and try to cancel your service and you'll learn what the industry term of "block and tackle means". In fact last year XM was offering customers that wanted to churn $4 a month service to stay. They needed Sirius to make this deal in a bad way. And now they have it.

Save my post. Sirius and XM (a new name will rise from a merger that Mel is orchestrating well) will happen. And terrestrial radio, even with all the money they are giving the NAB to stop it will fail, and we will have a new and significant competitor in radio. And terrestrial radio just might end up being what AM is now. Okay not that bad, but I do believe sat radio will have serious implications. Did I mention CBS selling the radio unit?

Or as I said in another post, if 30 years ago you told me I'd be paying to watch TV, I'd laugh. If ten years ago you told me I'd be paying for radio, I'd laugh. I'm not laughing anymore. It's here and it's growing and will continue to saturate like cable TV did. And yes O&A will not be part of the new merger. But some other surprises will.
 
Good observations by Walter Graff, but I’m not so sure the merger is a done deal. The FCC specifically forbids it in the regs to prevent a monopoly.

The attempted merger of Dish Network and DirecTV was not approved even though they had a good plan showing the merged company could offer local channels and Internet service using the bandwidth saved by eliminating duplicate programming.
 
Red Bull Ed said:
92.3 FREE FM in New York and 94.1 FREE FM in Philadelphia will change formats on July 1, 2007 to all music stations. No talk, all music to try to bring up ratings and compete with Sirius and XM Satlite radios.

More people in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia have Sirius and XM satlite radios than any other part of the country. Sirius has almost 1 million of its 7 million subscribers in NY, NJ, and PA alone.
Click to expand...

Anyone else see a subliminal message in that email?
 
"The FCC specifically forbids it in the regs to prevent a monopoly. "

I've heard this before and the comparison to Direct TV but it is not the same type of merger at all. Because of what is available and how it is available everywhere (with the satellite TV merger it was that some places could only receive satellite and had no cable and it really became about monopoly) this case is really not like the Direct TV merger at all. Hey, want to know an even bigger threat to it all, the fact that next year more than 80% of auto manufacturers will offer radios with Ipod JACKS. No, I didn't say Jack FM, just what JACK FM wanted to be.

http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/xm/sirius-merger-is-not-like-echostar/directv-and-heres-why.html
 
Red Bull Ed said:
Here's the real deal for those of you outside the radio business.
Click to expand...

Wow - amazing! Not only do we have a broadcast industry insider, but also a "satlite" radio insider and a congressional/FCC insider, too! This has gotta be 100% accurate!!

This guy is so inside he can't even spell satellite!
 
I told you the spelling was bad. I just copy and post. I don't know how true and of the info is or if it's just talk. Only time will tell and I thought I would share it with you. At least it opens up the debate.

Personally, I drive a Chevy Trailblazer with both XM and Sirius Satellite radios in it. (It came with XM and I told them to put Sirius in it to close the deal.) I let the XM free trial run out and I pay for Sirius. I think its a better product and has better music and on-air talent. I also have a home Sirius unit and put it in my company car. That part of the post made sense to me. Next, FM talk radio failed with 102.7 WNEW years ago, Y did they think it would work with FREE FM now? AM is for talk. FM is for music. Common Sense? So the format change to music makes sense.

Next, for the white suburban communting male age 18 to 45, there is nothing but crap on New York radio. No New Rock station, No New Country Station, No uncensored talk like Howard Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge, O & A (XM part of show), that's not FREE radios fault, blame the FCC for that, but the end result is regular radio is just not good any more. Nothing but Rap, Hip-Hop, R&B, Dance, and Spanish stations serving the black and latino population. What's the white guy sitting in traffic on the Turnpike or Parkway suppose listen to? Driving up Route 78 or 80 everyday back to PA, not moving on the LIE heading out onto Long Island? The Average salary in NJ is $57,600 a year. I'm sure NYC, LI, and CT people make a good living too so, what's 12 bucks a month for Sirius or XM? No commericals and good music seems mighty attractive to most young professional white guys. I dont know what FM radio should do, I'm not in the business anymore and I'm by nomeans an expert, but they need to come up with something to compete with Ipods, CDs, Sirius, XM, internet radio, ect. More chocie for people with money for their listening enjoyment.
 
What's the white guy sitting in traffic on the Turnpike or Parkway suppose listen to? Driving up Route 78 or 80 everyday back to PA, not moving on the LIE heading out onto Long Island?

Im speechless. ??? ::)

So where did this non spelling "radio insider" manifesto come from in the first place? who sent it to you?

Thanks.
 
But if 92.3FM loses the Talk Format on Weekdays then it goes back to Rock Music by 24/7 in all Rock.
 
I got XM about 2 weeks ago.... I have not listened to terrestrial radio since....not once.....will never go back.....
 
I had both Xm and Sirius and junked the XM because I honestly think it's boring. Sirius at least has jocks on their streams, Xm has only a few by comparison.
 
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