I took a brief vacation last week in an attempt to recharge my batteries (though, I think I'm more exhausted now than when I left). And while I tried to post at least a couple entries while I was gone, here's a few more items of interest that were missed:
- "Why Satellite Radio Will Fail" - The Fool lives up to its name. (warning: highly opinionated, and lame, article ahead) [Motley Fool]
- Survey: iPhone awareness is huge, but desire to buy is little (yes, price matters) [MobileMag]
- DirecTV ships their portable receiver: DirecTV Sat-Go (pretty cool, though highly niche) [TWICE]
- DIYMedia rants about XM's repeaters (paints an uber-bleak picture) [DIYMedia.net]
- Westwood One soon to be on the auction block (food for thought: what's the difference between national syndication and national broadcasting?) [NY Post]
That Motley Fool article is REALLY annoying. Pure opinion piece that, frankly, is highly inaccurate....
My beef is that he's basing it on Sirius and not XM. I've heard that they handle music differently, so if he gets his whole picture from Sirius he might misjudge both.
That's the main thing I fear about this merger. If Sirius does a lot of repetition I don't want XM to become Clear Channel 2.0.
sat. radio is great weather you have xm or sirius
and when my radio drops out in my car its for a second
and it not a problem.
I almost was going to dedicate a post to that Motley Fool article, but after a second thought - it really didn't deserve one.
I like the reasoning: Satellite Radio will fail because... "it sucks."
Yeah, wait, what?
Way to go Fool. You just told 14.5 million people that they're all idiots for paying for their service. Now who's really the fool?
I sent feedback to that "Fool". What a one sided argument. Because he is a Stern fan and fell into shit all of satellite radio should suffer? Palllease.
Well, I have not listened extensively to XM. As far as Sirius - I would not say sucks - I would say the playlists are quite repetitive. I live in an area with many commercial stations. So, do I buy equipment and pay a monthly fee to avoid commercials? Or do I just surf in my car to another station when a commercial comes on - and pay nothing..
I read the Fool article and am considering dropping this guy a quick email...He seems like he's not too terribly bright. Yes, XM's hits channels, and even Highway 16, do repeat a lot...But that's the audience they're aiming at. I can't remember where I saw it, it may have been the FMQB interview with Jon Zellner a year or two ago, but he said that in the surveys they've done, those hits-based channels are some of their most popular with listeners, just as they are on FM...But they still have deeper playlists than their FM counterparts, and of course, no commercials. With Deep Tracks, Boneyard, Squizz, America, and even Top Tracks, I rarely hear frequent repeats. Maybe Sirius is less deep; I don't know...But for this guy to say satrad will fail because "it sucks" just shows ignorance on his part.
Ryan wrote: I almost was going to dedicate a post to that Motley Fool article, but after a second thought - it really didn't deserve one.
I like the reasoning: Satellite Radio will fail because... "it sucks."
Yeah, wait, what?
Way to go Fool. You just told 14.5 million people that they're all idiots for paying for their service. Now who's really the fool?
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I chuckled as well. Remember when the Fool went crazy on their recommendation on the stocks because it was "cool"? Talk about an about-face!
The "Fool" is actually a bunch of independent writers, who don't always agree.
Rick Munarriz, another Fool, wrote a rebuttal to the previous one. TMF does have contradictory articles at times because they don't all speak with one unified soul. So don't be quick to discredit the whole organization based on one person's statement.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/05/09/why-satellite-radio-will-succeed.aspx