Consumerist
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talk radio
Finally, A Personal Finance Podcast For People Who Don't Want To Listen
The blog Personal Finance Hour is the home to a weekly live audio show with personal finance bloggers over whatever topics they like. Sometimes the conversation turns inward and focuses on trying to blog for profit, or blogging as a part time job. Sometimes the conversation is about things like remodeling your home or planning for a vacation. More » -
ad attacks
Black Blogger Alliance Hits Talk Show Host Where It Hurts
After Glen Beck called Barack Obama a "racist" who "has a deep-seated hatred for white people" on a Fox News show, a coalition of black bloggers went after the controversial talk show host, causing Procter & Gamble and other advertisers to pull ads from Beck's talk show, Mediabistro's TV Newser reports. More » -
why bother
New Sirius XM App For iPhone Missing All The Good Stuff
The new "premium" (their word) iPhone app from Sirius XM will cost $2.99 a month for customers who aren't already subscribers. It also doesn't include Howard Stern, MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play and Sirius Nascar Radio. Sirius blames licensing issues for most of the missing content, but not for the absence of Howard Stern, about which it won't comment. More » -
sirius
Sirius Streaming Radio Not Working For Some Customers
Sirus-XM charges for access to its Sirius Music Player, but for the past few days, some customers can't get it to work. One of them in this forum says it only connects after Howard Stern is over, and speculates that some cost-cutting measures have reduced available bandwidth, leading to locked-out customers. In another thread customers are complaining that popular third-party streaming radio services have been sent cease-and-desist letters from Sirius, further limiting access to streaming Sirius programming online. Naturally, Sirius-XM hasn't responded to customer queries about the issue. More » -
bankruptcy
DirecTV Owner Swoops In To Save Sirius From Bankruptcy
Liberty Media, the owner of DirecTV, has swooped in at the last minute to save Sirius from certain bankruptcy. Liberty will invest a $530 million in the form of loans to the satellite radio company, $175 million of which will go to paying debt that comes due for Sirius today. More » -
bankruptcy
Sirius XM May Be Preparing for Bankruptcy
According to the NYT, Sirius XM owes $175 Million by the end of February and it may not be able to pay up. Bankruptcy may very well be in the cards for the Satellite Radio super-organism. The article cites a failure to "to win over many younger listeners" and the general economic downturn.
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oops
Papa John's Founder Says Don't Eat Too Much Of His Pizza
Marketing and PR folks probably dread stories like this one: John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John's, said on a BBC radio interview yesterday that you shouldn't eat too much of their pizza. More » -
this just in
TV And Radio Stations Sell Restaurant Gift Certificates For 50% Off
If you're in the market for 50% off a restaurant gift certificate, consider checking out your local television or radio station. Yes, really. Many stations receive restaurant gift certificates in exchange for air time. They then turn around and sell the certificates to the public at a steep discount. Yeah, it sounds strange to us too, but here's how it works... More » -
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sirius
Confirmed: Sirius Radio Raising Rates March 11
Sirius Radio customer service reps are now telling subscribers that the rumored rate hike is indeed going to happen. This means, at the very least: More » -
Sirius XM
Is Sirius XM About To Raise Rates On Its Customers?
UPDATE: Confirmed: Sirius Radio Raising Rates March 11
Ryan pointed us to an article on Orbitcast about a rumored fee hike by Sirius XM. The increases appear to be for services that aren't strictly protected by the FCC agreement, which is why they would legally be able to do this despite promises that they wouldn't raise rates for 36 months after the merger. More » -
Sirius XM
Sirius XM Merger Reveals True Face: Fewer Channels And 'Sanitized' Programming
This week, Sirius XM began consolidating its channels. In reality, this mostly meant jettisoning XM channels wherever there was a tenuous overlap with something Sirius already offered, which is bad news for anyone with a favorite station on XM who woke up Wednesday morning to find it missing. Alex wrote in to tell us that the four Spanish music channels have been condensed to one without regard to genre, and that the uncensored "urban music" station Hot Jamz has been cleaned up, rechristened "The Heat," and now leans toward radio-friendly R&B. The Motley Fool suggests that the new lineup may drive people to downgrade their subscription—it's "an incentive to downgrade to the cheaper plan that costs $6 less a month and lets users cherry-pick 50 stations." More » -
christmas creep
Christmas Creep: Radio Stations Are In Full Holiday Mode
If you thought that you could avoid Christmas Creep by staying out of stores — think again. It's annoying you on the radio as well. More » -
pandora
Pandora, Other Internet Radio Stations May Survive After All
Assuming negotiations succeed, you'll have your Pandora to listen to after all. On Tuesday, Congress passed the Webcaster Settlement Act, which gives Internet radio stations like Pandora until February 2009 to reach a new royalty agreement with copyright holders; if they meet the deadline, the government will not interfere, which is great news since it was the gov's Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that set the current market-killing fees in the first place. More » -
XM/Sirius have (temporarily?) canceled two punk rock stations, Fungus 53 and Sirius Punk, and are redirecting listeners to a 24-hour station "dedicated to Australian hard rock act AC/DC." We've been told by readers that this is a temporary promotion and happens all the time, to which we ask, wtf? XM/Sirius sometime cancels real programming channels to run paid-for promotions? Do you get a refund on those channels, or what? [Punknews.org] (Thanks to Craig!)
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satellite radio
FCC Approves Sirius-XM Merger
Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of Sirius-XM. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new anti-consumer practices. To seek out new revenue streams and crowd out new competitors. To boldly safeguard the dangerous monopoly granted last night by the FCC. More » -
I will be in a roundtable discussion guest be on KCRW's "The The Point" at 2:10 PM eastern today. You can listen here by clicking on the "LIVE" link at the top left, or tuning into your NPR affiliate station if they carry it. We'll be talking about the economy, the growing pressures on consumers, the grocery shrink ray, and what, if anything, you can do about it.
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This morning, very early in the morning, we were on KTLK in Minnesota talking about, yep, you guessed it, the Grocery Shrink Ray. Clip is here. And earlier this week we were featured in an article in the UK's Observer.
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radio
New York, 8:53 AM
Mon Nov 9
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