In spring/early-summer, XM Satellite Radio was supposed to include six additional regional news & talk channels (XM 134 - XM 139) provided by Clear Channel. Now it seems that these channels will not be included in the lineup, but not because XM decided against it, but because Clear Channel has.
This information comes from Jon Zellner, Senior VP of Music Programming at XM, in a letter that was posted on XM Fan. For a while now, the channel lineup PDF hasn't included these regional channels, spawning speculation that they were getting the axe, this now just seals the deal.
You can also read the letter after the jump...
Thanks Nelson!
--snip--
Thanks for your e-mail regarding the regional news and talk channels that were scheduled to begin airing on XM this summer.
These channels were going to be operated by one of our content partners, Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel has the contractual right to create certain programming for XM. Over the past few months, Clear Channel decided not to move forward with this programming.
You can contact Clear Channel directly as to why they made this decision. They have not determined the alternate programming for this bandwidth and XM has no plans to replace these channels.
Thank you again for your inquiry and for being an XM subscriber.
Best regards,
Jon
Jon Zellner
Senior Vice President/Music Programming
XM Satellite Radio
1500 Eckington Place NE
--snip--
IMO, this is a shame- not that I was a big listener of the channels, but I always thought it was the direction sat. radio should have been taking to appeal to the local markets.
They should really add a 'local news' feature for ALL the major cities, whether it's a whole new channel or simply make it part of the weather/traffic stations...
That's actually a good point about local news stations (and ONLY local news, as all the other stations offer nothing that can't be done better on satellite). It would only help their marketing efforts if either satrad dedicated 20 channels to local news in the 20 biggest markets.
The issue, I would think, is simulcasting testical-owned news-radio stations (as I don't think either service would want to start up 20 news depts around the country). For example, all news 1010 WINS, here in NYC, has no reason to license their signal to the competition. They're already the most profitable station in the US. I suppose it might be different in other cities, but I wonder how much...
I think it would be possible to simply pick up the local feed (on satellite) at the top of the hour, when most news stations do their updates - then they could spend the rest of the time doing traffic, weather, etc. with the usual satellite personnel...
But like you said, if it's an issue with the licenses, it shant be happening any time soon...
Top of the hour and whenever they do their 'general' updates, that is...
Of course, this would also eliminate any news stations around the country owned by Clear Channel...