Satillite Radio

[MickeyD]

I agree with many of the posters. Satellite radio is a fad that will pass like "Phone Call - Greeting Cards".

What is the big hype with Satellite?.... "No commercials is their claim to fame"... I lived through the advent of Cable television and heard that same pitch as a young lad in his twenties... Turn on cable now and you can't get away from commercials. I dropped our satellite tv and now watch tv using a simple that antenna picks up digital tv with better quality than cable offers .. I've got a weather channel, sports, QUBO for the kids, and more.. best of all .. it's free.

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking. There are a ton of radio station to choose from already and that number will nearly triple.. What will make satellite unique? .. I didn't even bring up the idea of internet radio in cars but that will be a reality soon to be found in your local neighborhood vehicles.
jb

[\quote]

Not sure about the future of HD radio the amount of power radio stations are putting out on their HD signal isn't cutting it. They are studying increasing the power 10 DB (or ten times ). They have an idea that it will cause interference to adjacent channels but the only way to find out is to fire up the 10DB increase and see if it jams up analog FM. With the FM radio band so crowded, I tend to agree that the power increase will cause interference.

Not sure that HD has a future if they don't increase power and not sure if it will work if they do increase the power.

 

[MikeVicksDog]

I've worked in radio for 15 years, and I own a Sirius Radio. I don't know if Sirius is gonna ever catch on, but I can say that it outperforms most of what I hear locally. My opinions:

"People won't pay for radio, when there's plenty for free"

While consumers may indeed go that way, I don't feel that's a valid to base your whole argument on. You can still get the network TV stations for free, but folks decided to pay for cable and dishes to get more choices. So a model exists for this kind of thing.

"99% Of Satellite Stations Are Jock Free"

I didn't do well in math but I'd say that...what's the word I'm looking for....wrong. In fact, the jocks on the stations I listen to (Deep tracks, classic vinyl, coffee house, the loft) are fantastic. They are personable, affable, funny. They make the kind of connections to the audience that made me fall in love with radio.

And, admittedly, I love listening to Howard Stern. Some folks hate him...I get that. But it's honest, offensive, and almost always entertaining (to me).

"You Can't Get Local On Satellite"

That's true...when you want local, you switch off the receiver and go to your favorite local station for news. Unfortunately you can count on one hand the number of stations actually have a local news station with actual reporters in the field. Or you can just go online for local news. Both points are clear indicators as to why people feel less and less compelled to depend on radio. People used to depend on it. I don't think people rush to the radio to see what they missed anymore. Some of that is technology....info is online in seconds. Since many radio stations have no real news department they are just giving second hand information that's already stale.


"Radio is dying a slow death"

Let's just say it's on life-support. Do people still listen to radio? Sure, as long as they shot out of mama sometime before about 1985. I happen to live on a college campus (where my wife works). One day we were with some of her students and we started talking about music, entertainment, blah, blah. I asked them what radio stations they listen to. None of them, repeat NONE OF THEM said they listen to radio on a regular basis. In fact one of them said, "The only time I listen to the radio is in my parents or grandparents car."

That conversation punched me right in the face. There was a time when everyone had a favorite radio station (or in my case a few). To think that this industry is so irrelevant to so many is sobering. We can live in this dream world of ours if we want, but that conversation scared the shit out of me. This industry better figure out a way to relate to these folks or it is over soon.

 

[MickeyD]

I've worked in radio for 15 years, and I own a Sirius Radio. I don't know if Sirius is gonna ever catch on, but I can say that it outperforms most of what I hear locally. My opinions:

"People won't pay for radio, when there's plenty for free"

While consumers may indeed go that way, I don't feel that's a valid to base your whole argument on. You can still get the network TV stations for free, but folks decided to pay for cable and dishes to get more choices. So a model exists for this kind of thing.

"99% Of Satellite Stations Are Jock Free"

I didn't do well in math but I'd say that...what's the word I'm looking for....wrong. In fact, the jocks on the stations I listen to (Deep tracks, classic vinyl, coffee house, the loft) are fantastic. They are personable, affable, funny. They make the kind of connections to the audience that made me fall in love with radio.

And, admittedly, I love listening to Howard Stern. Some folks hate him...I get that. But it's honest, offensive, and almost always entertaining (to me).

"You Can't Get Local On Satellite"

That's true...when you want local, you switch off the receiver and go to your favorite local station for news. Unfortunately you can count on one hand the number of stations actually have a local news station with actual reporters in the field. Or you can just go online for local news. Both points are clear indicators as to why people feel less and less compelled to depend on radio. People used to depend on it. I don't think people rush to the radio to see what they missed anymore. Some of that is technology....info is online in seconds. Since many radio stations have no real news department they are just giving second hand information that's already stale.


"Radio is dying a slow death"

Let's just say it's on life-support. Do people still listen to radio? Sure, as long as they shot out of mama sometime before about 1985. I happen to live on a college campus (where my wife works). One day we were with some of her students and we started talking about music, entertainment, blah, blah. I asked them what radio stations they listen to. None of them, repeat NONE OF THEM said they listen to radio on a regular basis. In fact one of them said, "The only time I listen to the radio is in my parents or grandparents car."

That conversation punched me right in the face. There was a time when everyone had a favorite radio station (or in my case a few). To think that this industry is so irrelevant to so many is sobering. We can live in this dream world of ours if we want, but that conversation scared the shit out of me. This industry better figure out a way to relate to these folks or it is over soon.

We are talking about two different business models. One is advertiser supported and the other you pay for. As long as the economy and unemployment are in the sewer both business models will suffer. We are experiencing a "jobless recovery" which means people out of work will have less discretionary spending for things such as pay radio and depending upon how long it lasts will directly affect satellite radio. Their stock is a little over fifty-cents, they are deeply in debt, and will soon have to replace their aging spacecraft.

One of the main reasons radio sucks today is because group owners run their stations like a McDonalds franchise. Throw a bunch of music together, give it what they think is a catchy name, and then program it on each station in each of the markets you have a radio station. Do this a few more times and there you go.

Until the economy, if ever, starts producing jobs it will eventually come down to a personal music player or plain radio. As younger people I have asked have told me that radio is for poor people.

I have been in the radio and TV business for over 35+ years and recessions were the time when TV networks would develop an audience because people stayed home to watch it. Radio could be using the same approach but they haven't any money because the meatheads at the top decided to overpay for their radio stations. Hopefully a few of them will file bankruptcy and the prices of stations will fall to a level where you can actually make money with them.

 

[necrat123]

My worthless $0.002 on it.

I had XM for one year, it was the year that Sirius took over XM. Prior to the takeover..er merger., the music selection on XM was decent, and the channel variety was good too. The one thing that made me choose XM or Sirius was the audio quality of XM was superior to Sirius. While it wasn't even close to being the audio quality of HD radio, it wasn't horrible either. After Sirius took over and did their changes, not only did the music and selection quality drop, the audio quality did too. So much so that it was very tiring to try to listen to. I finally gave up on it, and when my subscription came up for renewal I just cancelled it. I wanted XM, not Sirius.

 

[MickeyD]

My worthless $0.002 on it.

I had XM for one year, it was the year that Sirius took over XM. Prior to the takeover..er merger., the music selection on XM was decent, and the channel variety was good too. The one thing that made me choose XM or Sirius was the audio quality of XM was superior to Sirius. While it wasn't even close to being the audio quality of HD radio, it wasn't horrible either. After Sirius took over and did their changes, not only did the music and selection quality drop, the audio quality did too. So much so that it was very tiring to try to listen to. I finally gave up on it, and when my subscription came up for renewal I just cancelled it. I wanted XM, not Sirius.

When it was free on AOL I used to listen to the 60's, 70's, 80's, and the British Invasion channels. I though for certain when the merger took place the stock would increase man was I was very, very wrong!

 

[thirdendorsed]

Bingo! The kids have no favorite radio stations, they listen to no radio except when they're in mom and dad's car. The trouble with satellite is the buffoon who ruined much of terrestrial radio had now worked his magic on the satellite band. XM used to be fantastic, until Karmazin's company took it over and turned its pop stations.such as 70s, into focus-grouped blather with playlist selection based on how well the hook from a song does in call-out research.

How much did Karmazin wreck XM?

They dumped the Trella Hart jingles from the 70s channel. That's all you need to know

 

[KB1OKL]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

Where is the LOL icon when you need it?

 

[MickeyD]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

Where is the LOL icon when you need it?

NPR is planning on increasing the power on IBOC only 6DB instead of the proposed 10 Db but even they say it will cause interference to analog FM. Well I will say this might be what they need to make people go back to AM. Digital carrier over an analog signal is like an AM station during an oncoming thunderstorm.

 

[Skynet74]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

When the Moon crashes into the Earth, the party will be over too. But doubtful anyone currently alive is ever going to see it happen. Same goes for HD radio taking over. So I think you must be Siriusly joking.

 

[Don Juan]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

HD isn't going to "take over". It doesn't have to.

HD is just going to be an added enhancement that brings a few added features to the listener.

It doesn't have to "take over" to be successful.

 

[MickeyD]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

HD isn't going to "take over". It doesn't have to.

HD is just going to be an added enhancement that brings a few added features to the listener.

It doesn't have to "take over" to be successful.

Yes but it doesn't work. They don't put out enough power and increasing the power to make it work will cause interference with analog FM stations. Any Fm station that does increase it's power and it interferes with the adjacent analog FM, will either have to reduce the power to where it was prior to the digital power increase, the power level where it didn't work, or just turn it off.

 

[Don Juan]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

HD isn't going to "take over". It doesn't have to.

HD is just going to be an added enhancement that brings a few added features to the listener.

It doesn't have to "take over" to be successful.

Yes but it doesn't work.

Many people enjoy it every day...so it works fine....and will only get better.

And with the power increase will broaden the audience even more.

The digital world is here....and theres no going back.

 

[MickeyD]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

HD isn't going to "take over". It doesn't have to.

HD is just going to be an added enhancement that brings a few added features to the listener.

It doesn't have to "take over" to be successful.

Yes but it doesn't work.

Many people enjoy it every day...so it works fine....and will only get better.

And with the power increase will broaden the audience even more.

The digital world is here....and theres no going back.

I take it you are not a technical guy.

 

[Don Juan]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

HD isn't going to "take over". It doesn't have to.

HD is just going to be an added enhancement that brings a few added features to the listener.

It doesn't have to "take over" to be successful.

Yes but it doesn't work.

Many people enjoy it every day...so it works fine....and will only get better.

And with the power increase will broaden the audience even more.

The digital world is here....and theres no going back.

I take it you are not a technical guy.

I am a "whole picture" guy....technical, financial, marketing, listener, owner, programmer, researcher, etc.

I also have an HD radio in my car and it works fine.

And with the power increase, it will each more people.

 

[mcamp]

If anything is killing radio, it's MP3 players...all newer cars are set up for them, kids all own them.
As for satellite radio, my feeling is that it's mainly for music junkies...the rest of the lemmings are satisfied with "Sweet Home Alabama" , and the lastest song du jour. As much as "we" all would love something to shake up the business model of commercial radio, it ain't happenin'.

 

[MickeyD]

When HD Radio takes over, the party will be over Siriusly speaking.

HD isn't going to "take over". It doesn't have to.

HD is just going to be an added enhancement that brings a few added features to the listener.

It doesn't have to "take over" to be successful.

Yes but it doesn't work.

Many people enjoy it every day...so it works fine....and will only get better.

And with the power increase will broaden the audience even more.

The digital world is here....and theres no going back.

I take it you are not a technical guy.

I am a "whole picture" guy....technical, financial, marketing, listener, owner, programmer, researcher, etc.

I also have an HD radio in my car and it works fine.

And with the power increase, it will each more people.

I'm a technical whole picture guy. Cranking up digital power doesn't help the situation if there is an analog station being interfered with and vice versa. Digital and analog are different animals too much power at a digital receiver is as bad as not enough and when there is another carrier the digital signal will be in and out. The radios are not selling and it is doubtful that cash strapped radio stations will be spending money upgrading a serice that nobody, well except you, listens too.

If you think about it, any station that actually does spend money on the upgrade and then powers up and interferes with an adjacent analog FM station will have to either reduce it to the power it was or just turn it off. That is the reality of it.

Now, there are a few proposals in front of teh FCC to open up TV channels 5 and 6 and use that bandwidth to extend the FM band and two of the proposals are to make all stations that apply to transmit on that end of the band STRICTLY digital.

 

[Don Juan]

I take it you are not a technical guy.

I am a "whole picture" guy....technical, financial, marketing, listener, owner, programmer, researcher, etc.

I also have an HD radio in my car and it works fine.

And with the power increase, it will each more people.

I'm a technical whole picture guy. Cranking up digital power doesn't help the situation if there is an analog station being interfered with and vice versa. Digital and analog are different animals too much power at a digital receiver is as bad as not enough and when there is another carrier the digital signal will be in and out.

So, all of the stations, all of the engineers, and all of the owners and managers are asking for power increases that (according to MickyD) don't work. They just can't wait to spend their money on things that won't work. They are waiting with baited breath so all their signal can be degraded with interference.

NPR's engineers (with the most to lose) are encouraging a 6 fold increase because they are dying for their smaller signal; stations to get trampled upon.

Maybe they didn't get the memo you sent them MickeyD telling them how it won't work.

Again, we can go back to the engineers in the 60's who didn't want to turn on the stereo pilot because it reduced the coverage area. There were puristsa then that complained that there was nothing wrong with good monaural radio...and that stereo is simply a a gimmick.

any station that actually does spend money on the upgrade and then powers up and interferes with an adjacent analog FM station will have to either reduce it to the power it was or just turn it off. That is the reality of it.

That's part of the NPR proposal, the FCC has not ruled that. If that were the case WYSL in Avon, NY...would be able to order WBZ to end their IBOC.

Now, there are a few proposals in front of teh FCC to open up TV channels 5 and 6 and use that bandwidth to extend the FM band and two of the proposals are to make all stations that apply to transmit on that end of the band STRICTLY digital.

And those proposals aren't going anywhere.

HD is here to stay, get used to it.

The radios are not selling and it is doubtful that cash strapped radio stations will be spending money upgrading a serice that nobody, well except you, listens too.

Cash strapped stations are all spending money on upgrading. They can't afford not to.

Like FM, as the programming content gets better, more people will discover it. Like FM, it didn't happen overnight.

 

[CTListener]

I take it you are not a technical guy.

I am a "whole picture" guy....technical, financial, marketing, listener, owner, programmer, researcher, etc.

I also have an HD radio in my car and it works fine.

And with the power increase, it will each more people.

I'm a technical whole picture guy. Cranking up digital power doesn't help the situation if there is an analog station being interfered with and vice versa. Digital and analog are different animals too much power at a digital receiver is as bad as not enough and when there is another carrier the digital signal will be in and out.

So, all of the stations, all of the engineers, and all of the owners and managers are asking for power increases that (according to MickyD) don't work. They just can't wait to spend their money on things that won't work. They are waiting with baited breath so all their signal can be degraded with interference.

NPR's engineers (with the most to lose) are encouraging a 6 fold increase because they are dying for their smaller signal; stations to get trampled upon.

Maybe they didn't get the memo you sent them MickeyD telling them how it won't work.

Again, we can go back to the engineers in the 60's who didn't want to turn on the stereo pilot because it reduced the coverage area. There were puristsa then that complained that there was nothing wrong with good monaural radio...and that stereo is simply a a gimmick.

any station that actually does spend money on the upgrade and then powers up and interferes with an adjacent analog FM station will have to either reduce it to the power it was or just turn it off. That is the reality of it.

That's part of the NPR proposal, the FCC has not ruled that. If that were the case WYSL in Avon, NY...would be able to order WBZ to end their IBOC.

Now, there are a few proposals in front of teh FCC to open up TV channels 5 and 6 and use that bandwidth to extend the FM band and two of the proposals are to make all stations that apply to transmit on that end of the band STRICTLY digital.

And those proposals aren't going anywhere.

HD is here to stay, get used to it.

The radios are not selling and it is doubtful that cash strapped radio stations will be spending money upgrading a serice that nobody, well except you, listens too.

Cash strapped stations are all spending money on upgrading. They can't afford not to.

Like FM, as the programming content gets better, more people will discover it. Like FM, it didn't happen overnight.

FWIW, two Connecticut stations have abandoned HD this year alone -- WMRQ, which ran HD-1 and HD-2 under Clear Channel ownership, runs neither under its new, smaller, ownership, and WCCC, which also ran both, shut its HD streams down this summer, citing financial hardship. Additionally, Clear Channel's WWYZ, which ran a classic country stream on HD-2, took it down a couple of months ago and has yet to bring it back up, and WKCI, another Clear Channel property, took down its dance-format HD-2 last week.

I'd love to see HD expand its reach -- at least on FM; I still like to DX on AM -- and its offerings. I think it has tons of potential. But these are not hopeful signs.

 

[MickeyD]

I take it you are not a technical guy.

I am a "whole picture" guy....technical, financial, marketing, listener, owner, programmer, researcher, etc.

I also have an HD radio in my car and it works fine.

And with the power increase, it will each more people.

I'm a technical whole picture guy. Cranking up digital power doesn't help the situation if there is an analog station being interfered with and vice versa. Digital and analog are different animals too much power at a digital receiver is as bad as not enough and when there is another carrier the digital signal will be in and out.

So, all of the stations, all of the engineers, and all of the owners and managers are asking for power increases that (according to MickyD) don't work. They just can't wait to spend their money on things that won't work. They are waiting with baited breath so all their signal can be degraded with interference.

NPR's engineers (with the most to lose) are encouraging a 6 fold increase because they are dying for their smaller signal; stations to get trampled upon.

Maybe they didn't get the memo you sent them MickeyD telling them how it won't work.

Again, we can go back to the engineers in the 60's who didn't want to turn on the stereo pilot because it reduced the coverage area. There were puristsa then that complained that there was nothing wrong with good monaural radio...and that stereo is simply a a gimmick.

any station that actually does spend money on the upgrade and then powers up and interferes with an adjacent analog FM station will have to either reduce it to the power it was or just turn it off. That is the reality of it.

That's part of the NPR proposal, the FCC has not ruled that. If that were the case WYSL in Avon, NY...would be able to order WBZ to end their IBOC.

Now, there are a few proposals in front of teh FCC to open up TV channels 5 and 6 and use that bandwidth to extend the FM band and two of the proposals are to make all stations that apply to transmit on that end of the band STRICTLY digital.

And those proposals aren't going anywhere.

HD is here to stay, get used to it.

The radios are not selling and it is doubtful that cash strapped radio stations will be spending money upgrading a serice that nobody, well except you, listens too.

Cash strapped stations are all spending money on upgrading. They can't afford not to.

Like FM, as the programming content gets better, more people will discover it. Like FM, it didn't happen overnight.

I have been an engineer for over thirty-five years. YOu have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[Don Juan]

I have been an engineer for over thirty-five years. You have no idea what you are talking about.

I've hired more engineers than you can imagine.

Like I said, I had engineers trying to tell me not to flip to stereo because the coverage would be reduced.

And we can see why engineers don't run radio stations.