Sirius and XM to Merge

[Frogacuda]

Ron and Fez are better on XM.

No doubt, but I do have to admit, Ronny's live reads on FreeFM are fucking hysterical, and both shows are really good.

I didn't even know they were on terrestrial. When did that happen?

Like a month ago. It's a weird arrangement. They do two completely different shows, one exclusive to XM at 12-3, and then another exclusive to FreeFM at 6-9. They call the 3 hours in-between "the slowest walkover."

[haohmaru]

Unfortunately I don't get that out here in Jersey I should have specified NYC stations sorry.

They used to be out of Garden City, you might've had a shot then.

[Saint of Killers]

This isn't a monopoly situation because it doesn't prevent outside competition and both parties provide their own content.

Actually it is a monopoly situation because as of right now both the FCC and the SEC will block the merger. As a previous poster said they will take months and possibly years to approve specifically because of the monopoly situation.

[Schlep]

Ethel blows. It has for I guess a year now, whenever they brought in that chimp from FM to be program director and he changed it to every other alt station in the country, except the fact that there were no commercials made it worse.

The only good that can come from this is if they let Sirius program the hits channels, XM program the channels that aren't supposed to be hits (Ethel, for example, is not supposed to be hits even though it is), and combine the bandwidth of both companies. They need to drop at least 50 channels between the two of them.

XM's sound quality was never "CD Quality" as they advertised in the beginning, but it sure used to sound a hell of a lot better than this internet streaming bullshit.

[Frogacuda]

Steve Kingston's changes to the music channels definitely pissed me off. But they satiated a lot of other people that freak out when they hear something new.

[SpoDaddy]

Actually it is a monopoly situation because as of right now both the FCC and the SEC will block the merger. As a previous poster said they will take months and possibly years to approve specifically because of the monopoly situation.

It will take a long time because palms need to be greased (the FCC hasn't followed it's original mandate in over 20 years), not because it's actually a monopoly.

[K3V]

I was just flipping through the Sirius channels and noticed that Maxim now has a video game talk show called Level Up. They were just talking to one of the creators of Crackdown, and from the 5 mins or so I heard it sounds decent.

Here's the show's website, though there isn't much to it yet: http://www.levelupradio.net/

They've got a myspace too, of course: www.myspace.com/levelupradio

The show airs Tuesdays at 2 pm ET. Replays at 11 pm ET and throughout the weekend.

EDIT: Wait, now they're playing music. WTF.

[sphere79]

XM and Sirius are trying to say that their customers can simply go back to FM radio or use an MP3 player instead so they'll still have "competition" and therefore won't be a monopoly. While it's true that yes I could stream audio over my PDA through my cell phone it's not really a replacement for satellite radio. Not only does it cost alot more but it's also probably a bit complicated for Joe average. Terrestrial, ad-driven AM/FM radio isn't the same either because it's censored, regional and riddled with commercials.

This merger will end badly for consumers, I do not support it and will cancel my 4 radios THE MINUTE it gets approved - if it does. When the FCC officially begins the hearings I'll be writing to the appropriate people.

http://www.c3sr.org

[Gooch]

This isn't a monopoly situation because it doesn't prevent outside competition and both parties provide their own content.

You are correct.

[Cowdisease]

Here's an interesting article that is in favor of the Sirius-XM merger. According to Orbitcast, it's written by Randolph J. May who

is a former Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the FCC, as well as the current President of The Free State Foundation. May has also held numerous leadership positions in bar associations, and is a past Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. Mr. May also served as Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.

http://freestatefoundation.blogspot....ite-radio.html

I haven't fully decided if the merger is a good idea, although I am leaning towards supporting the merger for selfish reasons.