XM/Sirius should have remained a primarily music/news/traffic focused service and not a behemoth of a media empire. What they failed to realize is that while there is competition (and opportunity) for music and news over the radio, the local flare of sports and regional talk radio cannot be nationalized. XM/Sirius completely won in the battle for my FM listening time but will never win the battle for AM listening time. I believe this company will not succeed in the short run but hopefully will comeback streamlined, free of capital intensive contracts and agile enough for the next decade and beyond.

As an XM subscriber I’m getting ready to cancel my subscription. They way they handled the merger was terrible…no warning at all, and most of the XM channels have been converted to Sirus programming, which, in a word, is horrible. If I wanted all of those commercials I wouldn’t be paying for the service, I’d just listen to FM.

The stock, well, as a shareholder that bought my stock at $8.35 a share, I’m ready to take a bloodbath, and I’m certainly not going to reinvest in the Titanic.

They made a critical mistake: picking the wrong customers and channels. Car-buying consumers and automakers are a toxic combo, and they have been for years. It would have been better to develop a general-purpose radio that anyone could use anywhere: cheaper and more useful = bigger, more profitable market.

The mistake that they continue to make is to not (down)size their business to their profitable core of customers.

Even in a recession/depression, a company should strive to satisfy all customers, prioritizing those who have cash and (preferably) cash flow, in order to survive the recession/depression to enjoy the recovery on the other side.

Seriously though, why would I want to pay to listen to the radio.

Besides, the fact that they paid people like Howard Stearn excessive salaries had DEPERATE written all over it.

I believe the integration of Sirius into the XM service is an insult to all parties involved, but especially to its listeners. Personally, as a long-time XM subscriber, I believe the integrity and ingenuity of some of the XM concepts have been terribly compromised; the XM service has lost the vitality, variety and value provided when originally conceived and offered to subscribers. And I am under the impression that subscribers who preferred and originally chose Sirius also feel that some of the compromises made by the merger lack the original expected standards promised to them when they originally signed up with the Sirius service.

What will happen to Sirius if subscribers become as disenchanted as their stockholders have already become and do not renew their subscriptions? Will the service need to be offered to listeners at no charge and be completely advertiser-supported? Can Sirius afford and support such a model?

If XM or Sirius subscribers had wanted standard broadcast radio formats, they possibly would not have subscribed to XM or Sirius in the first place. I subscribed to XM after being disappointed and dissatisfied with how CBS/Infinity led by Mel Karmazin (now CEO of Sirius XM Radio) was compromising the resources and programming offered by their radio stations which for the most part had previously offered superior content, better execution, respect for their audiences and consistent results for their advertisers.

I suggest Sirius learn from the mistakes made by CBS/Infinity during Karmazin’s tenure. I suggest Sirius not repeat the same types of strategies and tactics implemented by Karmazin which seem to disregard what is best for listeners, advertisers and stockholders. I believe CBS might still be trying to catch up due to mistakes made during Karmazin’s tenure at their company; trying to catch up on quality of product, competitive position, revenue, value of equity and overall profitability.

I understand the need to eliminate redundancy. I do not understand anyone (including the FCC) tolerating Sirius’ complete disrespect of subscription contracts. Maybe the current leadership is making the same type of mistakes they made in the past. Now that’s the type of redundancy that should not be tolerable to anyone, especially to Sirius stockholders.

Maybe Sirius needs to bring back some of the original XM Radio management and eliminate the current leadership. Not all of the previous XM management led with integrity or honesty; but a new board of directors could be careful and perform their proper due diligence and assemble a team of managers, programmers and talent along with sales and marketing personnel to rebuild a superior product.

The unfortunate truth to Mr. Karmazin and his stockholders is that listeners and advertisers could all live without XM or Sirius, unless of course the product is made to be unique and relevant, and therefore possibly irreplaceable.

Clearly it was caused by the government (at the financial urging of the National Association of Broadcasters) delaying the merger for a year and a half. If the merger was completed and SiriusXM was able to restructure a year ago, they would be in great shape.

It’s sad to see that the government has no interest in encouraging struggling upstart businesses like this one when a Corprate Giant like Old Fashioned Radio has a marketshare at stake. OFR will probably be in trouble soon also, but I’m sure our tax money will be used to bail them out.

XM is a wonderful product. I think if they can restructure their debt, they can be profitable. Satellite radio is the future of radio.

I agree with earlier comments on dumping Howard Stern. That’s a very high priced contract that can go away. It’s going to be the first dumped in a bankruptcy.

But whether it will survive as Siruis XM or not is a different issue. In fact, I think it may be up for debate about it surviving as an “entertainment”. At least exclusively.

At .17, if I had a small pile of money I could afford to lose, I’d probably buy some stock. Probably win big if it survived.

1) an overpayed clown, stern, as their main entertainment asset

(if that didn’t tell any investors that this company was doomed to fail, i don’t know what could have)

2) offering a product that you have to pay for when 100s of airwave radio stations are available for free

(anyone still remember satellite tv…WOW how that’s changed how we watch entertainment…NOT)

3) management that i wouldn’t have trusted enough to put in charge of my kids lemonade stand

*** note: drug testing not required. i know of many HUGE successful companies that don’t drug test.

4) it wasn’t the lack of drug testing that was a problem, it was a lack of capable leadership

(perhaps taking drugs would have kept them focused more and lead to a better management model)