Howard Stern + Opie and Anthony: Together at Last?

The Department of Justice has approved the Sirius-XM merger today.

O&A (on XM) are currently on vacation, so we won’t hear their comments until Wednesday.  I wonder how this will affect their terrestrial radio contracts, as this is the only way I can hear them now…

Stern (on Sirius) will probably have comments tomorrow morning, but I won’t hear it, as I’m not a subscriber.  I considered it briefly, but then gave my money to Dr. Demento.

Despite this merger (which still needs approval from the FCC), I’m still not considering getting satellite radio installed in my next car.  It would hardly be worth it for my short commute.

Some “Sirius” Consideration

No final decision has been made, but there may (or may not) be satellite radio in my future.

For the longest time, I listened to Howard Stern in the morning during my commute to work.  Then, he left terrestrial radio to go to Sirius in January 2006.  I wasn’t going to pay a monthly fee to listen to him.

Howard was replaced by David Lee Roth, and I was kind of left adrift in my morning commute.  Morning music wasn’t cutting it, Dave’s style of talk wasn’t all that entertaining, and Imus wasn’t (and still isn’t) lighting the world on fire for me, either.

Dave’s foray into radio burned out after four months, and not a moment to soon.  He was quickly replaced by Opie & Anthony, who were (and are) doing their show on terrestrial radio and XM simultaneously.  They were a much better “Stern Substitute,” and kept me entertained in the morning.

Now I’m hearing rumors that that O&A might be leaving terrestrial in the spring of 2008, and would be on XM exclusively.

Now what?

Perhaps at this point, I should subscribe to satellite radio, but to Sirius or XM?  With the merger currently in the works, it may not make much difference, but maybe I should get Sirius so I can listen to Howard again.  O&A make a good replacement, but if I have to pay for one of them, might as well pay for “the original.”

However, I’m just not sure I want to do that.  First, there’s the upfront cost of the radio hardware, with the various car/home/portable options and so forth.  Then there’s the monthly subscription fee.  $12.95 per month over 12 months adds up to kind of a big chunk of change for radio.

Oh, and then there’s the whole Dr. Demento thing.  I’ve been listening to the $2 (per week) Internet stream, which has recently gone from stereo to mono.  In order to hear the stereo stream, it will cost $14.95 per month.  That’s yet another big chunk of change (per year) for just one show, but they try to sweeten the pot with extra goodies at the web site, and I don’t need any extra hardware for it.