www.siriusxm.com is live. Howard Stern sure to save SiriusXM

Howard Stern and Oprah...now really how can SiriusXm lose?
The two most powerful entertainers in history have joined forces, you can talk all you want about
business models and balance sheets. At the end of the day, Content is King and SiriusXM has the
KING of ALL MEDIA.

the newly combined SIRIUS XM Radio announced new channel lineups on both XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio. (Even though the companies merged in July, 2008, the new entity continues to operate the two services.)

By combining some channels to avoid redundancy between services, adding new channels, and renaming and/or moving others, SIRIUS XM has begun a process of maximizing the programming of both services while reducing the costs involved. (SIRIUS XM Radio just posted a 4.88 billion dollar loss in the third quarter of 2008.)

The company says the same amount of music and non-music channels will be available as before, there will be no increase in subscription fees and subscribers simply continue to use their existing hardware.

On the upside, subscribers of both services can now access programming and personalities that were previously only available on the competing service.

On the downside, listeners may have lost a some favorite channels. Here are a few comments posted at Radio.about.com concerning the recent changes:

XM Subscribers

Broadway writes: “X Country is gone. I listened to Outlaw Country this morning. It is OK but not as good as X Country.”

W.G. says: “...put Backspin 43 & 65 the rhyme back on please!!! you can’t take away my old skool!!!!

Tones writes: “What the!?!? ,,,thought my machine broke!”

t.rae says: “But what they didnt say was that they just comletely removed some channals all together! Its horrible…I going to HD radio!”

SIRIUS Subscribers

JK says: “my wife and i are very upset about sirius xm replacing kids stuff with xm kids programming and renaming the station...our kids loved that channel and now it’s been abruptly replaced with entirely different children programming that i don’t find compatible with our taste.”

From Jon: “I recently discovered a favorite Sirus channel that I enjoyed listening to during my daily commute to and from work. This morning I found that it was taken over by its XM counterpart. All the daily shows, etc., are now different. Not good.”

Kim writes: “I always listened to Sirius “60’s vibrations and Sirius Gold channels. They have been replaced with XM versions. I strongly dislike the XM versions. Completely different personalities...”

A spokesperson from SIRIUS thought it only fair to mention that there are those who do like the changes. A New Jersey subscriber wrote SIRIUS to say in part: "I wanted to commend your programming brain trust on the changes...Keep up the good work."

www.SiriusXM.com