WRKO bleeps out "Sirius XM" merger news

[TSBench]

XM  and  Sirius  are  the  wave  of  the  future,,

Actually, SatRad is done, without ever having made a dent in the media landscape. Hell, if their business plans hadn't tanked and they had to beg the government to bail them out, they wouldn't be getting any ink at all.

Who  in  their  right mind  would  listen  to  Terrestrial ,  12  commercials  and  2  songs!!!

Well, if terrestrial music radio actually was formatted to give you a 6 to 1 commercials/song ratio, you'd probably have a case. But, since it isn't, terrestrial radio, in the face of the real competition, digital audio, has held up pretty well.

At  XM  weve  got  Wolfman Jack,  Phlash  Phelps,  Pat  Clarke,and  Marty  with  the  party,, all  commercial  free,,at  Sirius  its  Mr  Music  Norm N  Nite,,,Cousin  Brucie,,and  Pat  St  John,, For  music  its  always  going  to  be  Satellite!!!!!!!!

That's nice. If they could have figured out a way to get folks to pay for it Sat Radio might have turned into something other than perpetual money burning machines. I got sIRIUS

4  XMs  since  05
3  Sirius since 05
Clear  Channel  worships  satan

[TSBench]

Let's try that again....

XM  and  Sirius  are  the  wave  of  the  future,,

Actually, SatRad is done, without ever having made a dent in the media landscape. Hell, if their business plans hadn't tanked and they had to beg the government to bail them out, they wouldn't be getting any ink at all.

Who  in  their  right mind  would  listen  to  Terrestrial ,  12  commercials  and  2  songs!!!

Well, if terrestrial music radio actually was formatted to give you a 6 to 1 commercials/song ratio, you'd probably have a case. But, since it isn't, terrestrial radio, in the face of the real competition, digital audio, has held up pretty well.

At  XM  weve  got  Wolfman Jack,  Phlash  Phelps,  Pat  Clarke,and  Marty  with  the  party,, all  commercial  free,,at  Sirius  its  Mr  Music  Norm N  Nite,,,Cousin  Brucie,,and  Pat  St  John,, For  music  its  always  going  to  be  Satellite!!!!!!!!

That's nice. If they could have figured out a way to get folks to pay for it Sat Radio might have turned into something other than perpetual money burning machines. And, as the result of the merger, if the combined companies go to ala carte pricing, you can bet that any programming that doesn't pay its own way is going to go away.

I got SIRIUS tossed in for free when I got my new Explorer, and I imagine if I listen long enough I might even find something I'd be willing to pay for. But, on the other hand, it does appear to be a cure for which there is no known disease. As for music, for the price of a Sat Radio sub I can OWN every song I've ever wanted to hear more than once and have it sitting in my Zune. The auto companies know this, and Digital Audio/radio interfaces will become standard equipment before sat receivers are. I didn't listen to Stern all that much when he was free, so I can't imagine listening more and paying for it. Sirius local traffic and weather reports sound like they are produced by some high school radio workshop, My Sirius comes with about a dozen news channels, mostly the audio tracks of cablecasts, but I can get terrestrial  all-news just about anywhere from Maine to Florida to California, and it comes with a local slant, and talk shows, the same ones as on Sat, litter the radio landscape. So what is the mass appeal that will make it work?

If I lived out in the boonies and could only get two radio stations, you could make a case for it, but how many people are in that boat? Not enough to make it viable. And, how big is the market for folks who want to drive coast to coast and listen to the same station for 3000 miles? I know more people, including me, who like to check out the local offerings during those kind of trips.

There is technology out there which has changed the media landscape. Cable television for one. Digital Audio for another. There have been around 200 million MP3 players sold, making for just about 100% penetration. Digital downloads have killed the CD business, which will eventually cease to exist. Digital video downloads will probably do the same for the DVD business. What has Sat Rad changed? If it goes away tomorrow, nobody would notice except those wondering what to do with the receivers.

I think that Sat Radio will just exist, in some diminished form, because of all the money poured into it, as a curiousity, sort of like satellite telephone service in backwaters without cell phone coverage. It never became anything, and it's too late for it to become something now, because life has passed it by.

Regards,
TSB

[TSBench]

Censored! Howie said a naughty word on the radio!

"Oh, breaking news--- Justice Dept. has approved the (silence). Oh that's good...(to producer)
Did you bleep that out? I can't report the news?"

Went to drudge: Sirius XM Merger Approved.
That's right folks: WRKO does not want you to hear the news.
(Similarly back when WTKK had Hannity and he had Opie and Anthony on as guests, WTKK
would not carry the hour. Promoting the competition.)

Well, it was kind of silly since it was a legit news story, but nothing new. Many stations had, and still do, rules against mentioning other stations' calls on their air, and I guess Sirius and XM could be considered in the same light.

Back when I worked at 'BZ, we had just started producing a string of clever TV commercials featuring Dave Maynard, and WCVB, alone amongst the television stations, refused to carry them, on either a paid or trade basis. They gave the reason as the WBZ radio calls were the same as the television station's, and they refused to promote another television station on their air. We countered that people identified radio stations by call letters, but television stations by channel numbers (4,5,7, 38, 56 etc.) They weren't buying it. Either we erased all visuals of the WBZ calls, and they were all over the spots, or no dice. WBZ passed, as they knew we would.

On the flip side, we used to carry a lot of movie business, mostly from Sack through Allied Advertising. Frank Dolan, at the time, was the film and theater critic for all-news WEEI, and many of the spots had blurbs citing  "Frank Dolan of WEEI Radio."  WBZ would edit those spots and change it to "CBS' Frank Dolan." Nobody really cared, but then, nobody had WBZ Radio Derangement Syndrome.

Of course, when something newsworthy happened at WBZ, such as talk host Dave Finnegan running for mayor or some talent of note dying, to the stations that covered it WBZ Radio became 'Westinghouse Broadcasting" or "Group W."

I believe some of those old house rules have probably eased up since then, but at the time nobody really gave it a second thought.

Regards,
TSB

[WLYNgm]

Eloquently put, TSB! Add to that the interruptions on satellite radio.
Yea, it may be for self promotion, but, the average listener does not
make the distinction between promotion, PSA's and "commercials".
It is merely another interruption. Satellite radio will maybe have a niche
audience of, say, long-haul truckers, and that will be all. Stick a fork in it -
it's done...

[ChrisNH]

Durble-you-bee-zee seems to have no problem mentioning "Sirius" and "XM."

WBZ is a legitimate news operation and a serious broadcaster.  Entercom is not.

That deserved a good bump.

[ChrisNH]

And let's not forget the kiss of death...Nobody's really there live.

So, basically, if a plane hit a skyscraper or a bomb blew up in a city, you would instead hear, "And here's the latest single from U2!!"?

[BRNout]

This sort of thing makes WRKO and Entercom Boston look absolutely ridiculous!  Sure, I see many explanations/justifications in this thread and some even make sense of the thought process leading up to the edits.  But what no explanation can change is just how dumb of a decision it was to do that.  They're not even directly competitive!  Totally different platform and business model.  And, it's general news that you can hear anywhere else.  Did they also bleep Michael Savage when he was discussing it on his show (carried on 680)?  Or was management already comatose by 8 pm?  I'd love to know that.   

This decision simply makes WRKO sound unprofessional and childish.  Which is nothing new when it comes to decisions made at that place.  Honestly, I can't believe what blockheads Entercom has entrusted with managing that station!  They can't seem to grasp the concept of deductive reasoning.  And, bleeping out Sirius and XM have now done far more damage to what little prestige WRKO has left than letting the story through unedited would have.  Like Howie, I would be mortified if I worked there.  Nice job guys (again)! 

[AllForADeuce]

I don't know anything for sure, but if it were me, I would be more worried about WiFi than satellite radio if I were terrestrial radio. Until satellite has a viable local sales machine and until they are far more pervasive in automobiles, they will not be a big threat. Research shows that people who have satellite radios spend more time listening to their terrestrial radios anyway. They can chip away from TSL somewhat, but as a reach medium they are nowhere. The only medium that can compete with radio is TV.

To Rac's point about bleeping merger news, that's just silly. Probably some producer reacting to an old edict not to allow discussion of XM and Sirius on the air. It probably originated before Stern departed. This is news for goodness sakes - can they really be that afraid that people are going to jump in their cars and go buy radios now that the DoJ has passed the merger?

WBCN allowed Stern's live XM Radio ad reads over the air.  Howard did say before he left that as sat. radio got bigger, his station turned away the advertiesements.  They also stopped allowing him to talk about SIRIUS when he said he was leaving terrestrial radio.  Mot likely because he was turning his show into a 4-hour SIRIUS commercial. 

As long as terrestrial radio keep their tail between their legs against the FCC, they will forever lose ground to sat. radio.  They can't keep allowing the FCC to be the brooding indecicive monster that it's become since Janet-gate.  Until then, radio will fall into oblivion.

[johnnyu]

You folks can all do what you want but I am not paying to listen to the radio.

[Neanderpaul]

I don't know anything for sure, but if it were me, I would be more worried about WiFi than satellite radio if I were terrestrial radio. Until satellite has a viable local sales machine and until they are far more pervasive in automobiles, they will not be a big threat. Research shows that people who have satellite radios spend more time listening to their terrestrial radios anyway. They can chip away from TSL somewhat, but as a reach medium they are nowhere. The only medium that can compete with radio is TV.

To Rac's point about bleeping merger news, that's just silly. Probably some producer reacting to an old edict not to allow discussion of XM and Sirius on the air. It probably originated before Stern departed. This is news for goodness sakes - can they really be that afraid that people are going to jump in their cars and go buy radios now that the DoJ has passed the merger?

WBCN allowed Stern's live XM Radio ad reads over the air.  Howard did say before he left that as sat. radio got bigger, his station turned away the advertiesements.  They also stopped allowing him to talk about SIRIUS when he said he was leaving terrestrial radio.  Mot likely because he was turning his show into a 4-hour SIRIUS commercial. 

As long as terrestrial radio keep their tail between their legs against the FCC, they will forever lose ground to sat. radio.  They can't keep allowing the FCC to be the brooding indecicive monster that it's become since Janet-gate.  Until then, radio will fall into oblivion.

That's all fine...but there's no evidence of this. Satellite growth peaked in the 6 months after Stern's departure. That was their "tipping point," and not enough people moved. Stern was on 52 stations at one time and exposed to tens of millions of people, possibly hundreds. How many went over with him after those months of prime time AM drive live spots?  About 600,000...

Failure.

Radio's tail isn't between their legs. We're profiting in a down economy. We make about 40 cents on the dollar. 40% profit margin for every dollar spent is fantastic. Probably only surpassed by the Pizza industry. There's a huge difference between making budget, and making money. Don't cry for radio. We're fine. We're just greedy and Wall St. wants more. Unrealistic goals. But even if we hit 75% of budgets, we're still making nice bank as an industry.

Satellite radio has never posted a profit.