XM

“Do We Need to Break?” “No, We’re Good.” Why I Love Satellite Radio

I love music. My Mom was a child prodigy on the piano who went to Julliard and chose Bryn Mawr over a concert career because she was burned out by age 17. She still plays now in her late 70s, doing concerts for her friends on her terms. She gave us all the love of music but alas the talent part did not pass to her only son (though my only son sure has it). So I was always the music kid, played records over and over, loved the radio (any other David Bowie fans out there?).

So I joined the radio station in college and rose to Program Director my senior year. The guy who ran it with me became my partner about two years later when we bought a real radio station in Florida at the ripe old age of 23, while I was still in law school (he went down to run it). We sold it about 5 years later with enough to give investors money back but not much else. Learned a lot but that’s another story! But I do know a bit about the industry.

As a listener, I really hate commercials. Twelve minutes each hour I don’t get music. When I got my first satellite radio I couldn’t believe it. All the different genres covered each in one station, and no commercials! Yes there are a few on the talk channels (hence the title above), but very few indeed. And I love the fact that the words we all say every day are allowed without censorship. And I love getting the TV news channels’ audio feed in my car. And now there’s even a portable device to take anywhere.

Yes I do own a tiny amount of Sirius XM stock but seriously tiny. The growing company has a lot of debt which it took on to do the satellites and so on.  Most analysts say hold the stock, so that’s what I’m doing. Will it replace “terrestrial” radio? No more so than cable TV replaced the broadcast channels. But cable continues to eat away at broadcast’s market share, and hopefully Sirius XM (and whatever other competitors come along) will bring down their debt, survive and prosper.