{"id":301,"date":"2007-02-21T09:41:52","date_gmt":"2007-02-21T14:41:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-11-09T10:54:45","modified_gmt":"2009-11-09T10:54:45","slug":"xm-sirius-merger-one-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/xm-sirius-merger-one-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"XM-Sirius Merger: One Satellite?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From The New York Times<\/a><\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if the deal does not face resistance from the F.C.C., it is likely to encounter opposition elsewhere. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade association for television and radio stations, is already speaking out against a merger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn coming weeks, policymakers will have to weigh whether an industry that makes Howard Stern<\/strong> its poster child should be rewarded with a monopoly platform for offensive programming,\u201d the group said. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that this anticonsumer proposal will be rejected.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where does a music fan who’s befuddled by the would-be phenomenon of satellite radio find a reason to care about the proposed merger of XM and Sirius<\/strong>? Is this merger not inevitable? Does it not reflect all that’s wrong with satellite radio in the first place: the tightly preselected formats and playlists, the final eradication of regional tastes, the take-it-or-leave-it stance of multimedia conglomerates…<\/p>\n

And what’s with this article’s ultimate focus on Howard Stern and issues of morality? The New York Times<\/em> piece begins with the lovely cheesecake shot<\/strong> we’ve copied here and ends with concerns about “a monopoly platform for offensive programming.” Is that the only monopoly the National Association for Broadcasters should be concerned about?<\/p>\n

I’ve long had only one opinion about this whole matter: Enable me to have an Internet hookup in my car so that I can tune into the thousands of free college and indie stations that broadcast over the Web. I don’t need Howard Stern or Bob Dylan<\/strong> as my host. I don’t need some safe, segmented programming with an LCD display of the song and artist playing. I want to hear music with personality, including the personality of sometimes stumbling college DJs. Satellite radio can continue to kiss my grits!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The New York Times: Even if the deal does not face resistance from the F.C.C., it is likely to encounter opposition elsewhere. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade association for television and radio stations, is already speaking out against a merger. \u201cIn coming weeks, policymakers will have to weigh whether an industry that […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[208],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}