Air America and XM radio.

[benburch]

Hey, folks,

Here is what I have been able to determine;

1. The XM deal is exclusive. Sirius will not carry any more AAR programming.

2. Indeed Malloy will not be live on the new service, and Alan Colmes will be live in his time slot. I am unsure whether Malloy will be streamed on delay in the late night hours.

3. I am not sure yet what the status of Randi Rhodes' show is, but it appears that it will remain diced up as it currently is in the XM lineup in favor of Schultz.

4. All cast in stone, and nothing will change the decision.

On the good side of things, Sirius will be seeking out programming to fill the void left by AAR, and there are a lot of really wonderful small-market Liberal/Progressive shows that will likely be taken up by Sirius now.

My personal take on things; They made the move for financial reasons. AAR has to make money to survive, and survive they must. Had they hesitated, the XM opportunity would have been lost, probably forever, and they would have been stuck with the minority satellite radio service. And who knows what the status would have been had the merger that has been talked about gone through. They might have been left totally without a satellite provider! So, I can understand the hostility and disappointment, and I feel that too, but we'll have to deal with the hand we are dealt.

[quiet.american]

1. XM is also partnering with AOL

This should get interesting.

[Caution]

2. Sirius is the company that dropped the ball here

XM saw the value in AAR and AAR takes the exclusivity deal for the larger subscriber base in XM and the money to be made from the deal.

People seem quick to jump on AAR or XM for this but they should be jumping on Sirius for not working to keep AAR in their lineup.

While it is understandable that people don't like the exclusivity part of this package, the fact is that this is just good business for the fledgling network and for XM as well.

AAR is now on 53 different affiliates around the country. If you are or were a Sirius subscriber you should write them a letter regarding your disappointment in a missed opportunity and you might also wish to let AAR know that you will now be unable to listen unless they add a local affiliate.

I personally think it is great that they signed this deal with XM (of course I'm an XM subscriber, primarily for baseball) just due to the fact that this shows that liberal talk radio is viable.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. I think it sucks that they are going with the channel partner that

destroys the continuity of their programming.

[Caution]

7. I definitely agree with you there.

I'm guessing this is due to prior commitments to the schultz and colmes shows. I'm hoping that once those prior commitments expire that they will go with the full AAR feed.

[tx_dem41]

9. Wow....you must be a corporate insider, since you seem to know

exactly about the efforts Sirius didn't make to keep AAR. Thanks for the info. :eyes:

[Caution]

15. Yeh they must have really gone all out

Sirius really must have worked hard to maintain their relationship.

:sarcasm:

Thanks for the witty response.

[tx_dem41]

16. I was only responding to a post that stated as fact the following:

"they should be jumping on Sirius for not working to keep AAR in their lineup."

Face it, neither you nor I has any idea what went on between Sirius and AAR. The difference is that I'm not going to surmise an opinion on it out of thin air, and, if I did state an opinion, I definitely wouldn't state it as fact.

Sorry, for the snarkiness of my first response.

[Caution]

17. Good point.

That should have read "they should be jumping on Sirius for not working hard enough to keep AAR in their lineup."

This is more clearly the point I was trying to make.

[tx_dem41]

18. Again, sorry for being ...

...an ass in my first post.

[Caution]

19. sokay. I'm regularly an ass in my responses

and you were right that my statement was a little strong for someone with only an outsider's perspective.

[onehandle]

4. So it's (nearly?) the same programming as before...

...but AAR loses a million listeners. Unless XM advertises the Hell out of AAR's presence, this is nothing but a loss.

Yes, the channel is now Called Air America Radio, but it's tainted.

I only see a marginal gain, but a huge PR loss.

No Satellite radio for me at all because of this.

Can I ask you folks, does XM know how much we despise Alan Colmes?

Sheesh!

[benburch]

5. Colmes...

"Can I ask you folks, does XM know how much we despise Alan Colmes?"

Nope they haven't a clue. Now, writing them and telling them might be a good idea!

[onehandle]

8. Just did. A Question...

How do you know the line up is "tainted" like this? What was your source for this info?

[benburch]

10. My source? Asking a lot of questions!

Now, if any of my sources were wrong, I'll be wrong, but I doubt it.

[onehandle]

11. Well...

When I'm disappointed, I like to know why.

I'll take your word on this one, buddy.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Maybe XM sweetened the deal somehow (cash/stock)?

[HomerRamone]

12. Sirius was good enough for Stern

Luckily for me I listen to AAR on-line mostly. But between this, partly muzzling their most liberal voices (Malloy and Rhodes) and associating with opportunist Springer they are screwing their base...

[benburch]

13. Sirius still has The Thom Hartmann Show, too!

And I hope this means that they will be able to schedule it without interruption!

[onehandle]

14. Springer is an asset.

We need names and personalities to get our viewpoints noticed.

[benburch]

20. I agree...

And he is 100% on our side.

[yojon]

21. Will Mike still be streaming

Ben-

There was some talk about cutting off the streams. Have you heard if this is really true?

Jon

[benburch]

22. No confirmation of that.

I hope it is not true.