Year-over-year retail sales fell 28% in March (up from the 33% drop in February, 44% drop in January and a whoppin' 46% drop in December). We're slowing crawling out of the "Stern Effect" comparison bubble, so this is going to continue to get easier from this point forward.

The Quick Glance:

• Sirius March 2007 Retail Sales:
  Down 31% YoY
• XM March 2007 Retail Sales:
  Down 23% YoY

For the full quarter:

• Sirius 1Q07 Retail Sales: -40% YoY
• XM 1Q07 Retail Sales: -29% YoY
  

Marketshare:

• Sirius Mar '07 Retail Marketshare: 53%
• XM Mar '07 Retail Marketshare: 47%

XM is finally making a bit of a comeback in retail, gaining 3 percentage points against Sirius, and climbing up from a 35% YoY decline last month (though Sirius still beats XM in retail marketshare). Sirius also continues to show a bit of a comeback from a 33% drop last month, and the dismal earlier months.

Still, a decline is a decline, so don't go popping the champaign just yet guys.

I think it's time to get more creative with retail. Father's Day is looming and we need to see some new products, as well as some more aggressive marketing efforts. Mergers are distracting, (that's a fact) but if you want Wall Street to stop pummeling you... well, you need to show growth. Simple right? (Well, no not really, but we've got some ideas.)

Sirius Satellite Radio has scheduled their earnings call for Tuesday, May 1 at 8am ET to announce and discuss their first quarter 2007 financial results.

To listen to the conference call, you can listen to the webcast here, or tune in on Sirius Channel 122.

(As usual, for those who are not able to listen in, I'll be live-blogging both the XMSR and SIRI conference calls - you can just check here for updates. But you knew that already.)