"I will never vote for a Democrat again."

[swardboy]

Howard Stern gets a wake-up call....FCC decision on Sirius/XM merger:

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=138263

[GrapevineSooner]

Good for him.

And shame on anyone in the FCC who votes this deal down. The radio waves belong to the public, not them.

[mdklatt]

The Democrats are to blame for a Republican-run FCC? :confused:

[Sooner_Havok]

The Democrats are to blame for a Republican-run FCC? :confused:

They voted to block the merger.

[mdklatt]

They voted to block the merger.

Merger of what?

[picasso]

looking in the mirror every morning should be a wakeup call for Sternzie.

[Sooner_Havok]

Merger of what?

The only two satellite radio companies, XM & Sirius.

[SoonerStormchaser]

Yah...I kinda thought it was gonna end up like this...

[Sooner_Havok]

Yah...I kinda thought it was gonna end up like this...

Eh, I knew it would pass so I really didn't care.

[badger]

I think the major difference here is over airwave regulation versus satellite airwave regulation.

Radio stations are subject to FCC regulation. No swearing, commercial stations have to run federal political candidate advertisements, they have to be able (financial means, etc) to stay on the airwaves for a consecutive 24 hours, that type of stuff.

Sirius and XM are not subject to that type of regulation. That's why Howard Stern can say the F-word over and over. That's why he's on Sirius now instead of regular radio or whatever.

For that reason, they probably shouldn't be blocking this. I think Sirius and XM are both losing money right now. It would be good for both of them and for for satellite radio customers to merge.

[swardboy]

The Democrats are to blame for a Republican-run FCC? :confused:

As I understand it, there are 5 FCC commissioners: 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats. The Demos were staunchly against the merger, which is what ticked Stern off.

And I ain't no Howard Stern fan...

[Sooner_Havok]

I think the major difference here is over airwave regulation versus satellite airwave regulation.

Radio stations are subject to FCC regulation. No swearing, commercial stations have to run federal political candidate advertisements, they have to be able (financial means, etc) to stay on the airwaves for a consecutive 24 hours, that type of stuff.

Sirius and XM are not subject to that type of regulation. That's why Howard Stern can say the F-word over and over. That's why he's on Sirius now instead of regular radio or whatever.

For that reason, they probably shouldn't be blocking this. I think Sirius and XM are both losing money right now. It would be good for both of them and for for satellite radio customers to merge.

Yeah, I think the merger is a good thing. They have so many other forms of entertainment distributors to deal with, this is hardly monopoly.

[Sooner_Havok]

For the record though, this deal would have passed with 3 donks and 2 pubs.

The donks knew it was gonna pass, so they decided to show their "loyalty" to the party by "trying" to bust up this evil "monopoly"

:pop:

[Curly Bill]

Democrats = Communists

Yup, I've know this for some time now. Glad Howard caught on too.

[Curly Bill]

For the record though, this deal would have passed with 3 donks and 2 pubs.

The donks knew it was gonna pass, so they decided to show their "loyalty" to the Communist party by "trying" to bust up this evil "monopoly"

:pop:

FIXED :D

[yermom]

i love Howard Stern's fight with the FCC, i hate those bastards

i'm not sure i agree with him on this one

i like competition. what else makes companies try to improve and keep prices down?

[mdklatt]

i love Howard Stern's fight with the FCC, i hate those bastards

i'm not sure i agree with him on this one

i like competition. what else makes companies try to improve and keep prices down?

Anybody is free to save up some cash, launch their own satellite constellation, and start their own radio network. It's the American Dream! :D

[Sooner_Havok]

i love Howard Stern's fight with the FCC, i hate those bastards

i'm not sure i agree with him on this one

i like competition. what else makes companies try to improve and keep prices down?

The fact that people can listen to regular radio, & HD radio for free, or listen to their iPods.

[Mixer!]

Oh well, both companies will go tits up, and then Uncle Charlie won't have to worry about the problem anymore.
:gary:

[yermom]

The fact that people can listen to regular radio, & HD radio for free, or listen to their iPods.

yeah, but competition is still good

i'm not too thrilled about different hardware though

one standard platform that could subscribe to either service would be nice

[Sooner_Havok]

yeah, but competition is still good

i'm not too thrilled about different hardware though

one standard platform that could subscribe to either service would be nice

There are a few models available now that can do this already. Sirius also launched a satellite that can send both XM and Sirius frequencies, so I am betting that later on the Sirius band will become the standard.

But I see where you are coming from. WWF started sucking bad after they bought WCW :(

[Frozen Sooner]

One standard platform that consistently worked in Alaska would be phenomenal. Damn it.

[Sooner_Havok]

One standard platform that consistently worked in Alaska would be phenomenal. Damn it.

Can't you pick up Sirius Canada :D

[yermom]

One standard platform that consistently worked in Alaska would be phenomenal. Damn it.

move out of the sticks, gentlemen

[Sooner24]

One standard platform that consistently worked in Alaska would be phenomenal. Damn it.

Anything that consistently worked in Alaska would probably be phenomenal.

[mdklatt]

One standard platform that consistently worked in Alaska would be phenomenal. Damn it.

Why do you think they have to pay people to live there?

[texas bandman]

Sorry Howard...God is a Democrat. :D

[Ike]

I think the specter of monopoly is a bit of a paper tiger with respect to a merger of sirius and XM. In a monopoly, one company controls an entire market. Just because these are the only two satellite radio companies, they hardly control the entire radio market. They still have to compete with many free forms of audio entertainment...and that in and of itself will be the thing that drives cost down for the consumer, and forces them to produce a better product, whether they merge or not. As it stands, with them competing over the satellite market, all it does is lead to frustration for consumers because they have to wind up going with one or the other, and if they want to go with both, (maybe because one does a better job of content type a and the other with content type b in the eyes of someone else), then they have to futz around with two different devices.

Merging them into one, the consumer only has to have one device, one subscription for all the content he wants. And if they get too monopolistic (jacking up prices, putting out crappy content), he has an easy choice. Don't renew. Listen to the stuff you can get for free anyway.