The Demise of Satellite Radio
Last week I am traveling in my car listening to 20 on 20, one of my favorite stations on
XM/Sirius radio when I hear a group of overly enthusiastic disc-jockeys talking about whether it is rude to talk on the phone while taking a “doodie” on the toilet. Turns out that the powers-that-be at Sirius decided it would be a great idea to add a morning show to one of their most popular music channels. So, instead of listening to my favorite music, I was being subjected to a group of individuals laughing at each other’s toilet humor, all in an attempt to put on the same kind of crappy morning show that has plagued just about every FM station in America.
I should have seen something like this coming when XM was dissolved into Sirius at the end of 2008. The death of XM signaled the end of an opportunity to make satellite radio the giant entity it could have been.
By Ronald Epstein
I was on board with XM Radio shortly after its launch in 2001. The mere fact that I could have dozens of music channels catered to individual genres delivered to my radio was something I was very excited about. Furthermore, it was apparent that the people behind XM Radio had a
unique vision about the kind of music they would play. “Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM” became their mantra. These weren’t just words, mind you, but a philosophy towards their programming. XM programmers went out of their way not to replicate the evils ways of FM radio. For that reason, XM offered the most eclectic mix of music to be found anywhere. Playlists were long and repeats were few. This was the beginning of the end of FM radio!
Sirius had originally been the “underdog” of satellite radio, trailing vastly behind XM in subscriber numbers. They had a totally different philosophy about their music programming. Because it was run by the same people that worked in FM radio years before, it came as no surprise that the attitude was to replicate the FM experience by offering shorter playlists and a plethora
of DJ banter. “People want to get into their car and hear familiar songs,” stated an executive I spoke with back in 2005. For that reason, there was very little originality coming out of their airwaves. With the addition of Howard Stern in January 2006, the company quickly gained much needed market share enabling it to go head-to-head with XM.
OPINION
The fact that an eventual merger was pushed (and completed last year) should come as no surprise to anyone. You basically had two troubled companies that were overspending on talent and not recouping those costs via subscriber fees. Additionally, consumers were turning away from radio and to their iPods where they enjoyed more personalized music content delivered to their ears.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin promised that a single satellite service would not monopolize the industry. He also promised to increase programming choices and reduce costs to consumers. So much for promises. A mere few months into the merger SiriusXM is already announcing an increase in subscriber rates.
The most drastic after effects of the Sirius/XM merger became apparent shortly after Sirius merged most of their existing music channels into the former XM lineup. Suddenly, all my favorite music channels were littered with DJ rambling. It was as if I was suddenly listening to AM radio of years gone by when the radio banter and DJ personalities were more important than the music itself.
While I’ll admit that XM radio did have their share of on-air personalities, they never became the focal point of the music channel. On the new Sirius/XM, the decades channels are overrun with DJs talking over just about every other song offering corny jokes and senseless banter. Combine that with the endless amount of Sirius promotions and you have a music service that is anything but dedicated to music.
The last thing I want to do is to start a debate over Opie and Anthony vs. Howard Stern. While I have been a huge fan of O&A for the past 12 years, I have the utmost respect for Howard Stern, who I was an avid listener of years before that. It is important that
I bring up Opie and Anthony because they have
been carefully broadcasting their concerns about the way Sirius has been treating them since they recently joined the lineup. They describe their former relationship with XM as having parents that lovingly took care of them. Now their parents are dead and they have been adopted by step parents that don’t love them, have not proudly talked about them in their new home, and are constantly scolding them as if they were bastard children. The quickly derived opinion of that analogy is that Sirius is interfering with the creativity of their show, doing very little to promote them, and moving them from their brand-new spacious XM studio that allowed audience participation to closet space at Sirius which prohibits fans from being a part of the show.
CAN SATELLITE RADIO BE SAVED?
There will be some individuals who will point their finger at me and ask what qualifications I think I have to offer a fix for satellite radio? Actually, with SiriusXM stock at an all-time low and the company scrambling to find new cash by raising subscriber rates, I think it’s about time that the opinions of subscribers, rather than professional consultants, be given the utmost consideration.
It is my opinion that there are many problems with satellite radio that need to be considered. Certainly, these opinions will not be shared by all, but you must admit that perhaps it’s time to take a complete departure from the current company philosophy and take some chances that just might...might revitalize listenership.
SiriusXM needs to go back to basics. They need to go back to the original XM Radio mentality of 2001 that set to make satellite radio something better than FM. People who subscribe to satellite radio for their music listening pleasure don’t want babbling DJs. They want music -- and an assortment of it that doesn’t repeat upon itself day after day.
Why are subscribers paying $12 a month for the same sort of programming they can get on their FM radios? Why are senseless, moronic morning shows now becoming part of the music channels? With each growing day Sirius is replicating the same sort of programming that has been driving people away from FM radio towards their iPods.
You want to know how to make satellite radio appealing again? Give people CD quality music channels. This is something you can’t get with FM or HD Radio (without commercial interruption) and certainly not with the transfer loss you get with MP3 music on iPods. If you offer subscribers CD quality music in their cars and home, you will give them a reason to stay clear of their CD players.
Furthermore, leave your talent alone! The reason shock jocks have earned the loyalty of their fans and turned them into satellite radio subscribers is because they are able to push the limits of censorship. Why is the management as SiriusXM trying to censor the antics of their shock jocks while relocating them to a smaller studio that eliminates the inclusion of their fans and the ability to run the kind of shows that demanded the space they once had. Listen to your talent. They know how to run their show better than you do. You took on a successful formula and are now trying to mold it into something else. If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.
This isn’t rocket science, SiriusXM. The reason why you are failing as a satellite radio company is because instead of looking outside of the box, you continually try to replicate FM radio. Here’s a news flash -- FM is a dying breed. People don’t want goofy morning shows or radio personalities that like to talk up the music. People just want music -- and once you find a way to deliver it in quality that surpasses that of what is already available to them, you may find yourself succeeding in ways you never thought imaginable.