It's not dead yet, but things are looking pretty grim for Sirius-XM satellite radio.
On rumors that the company would soon be filing for bankruptcy, the stock plummeted 51% today to around 5 cents a share.
Satellite radio seemed like little more than a nice-to-have during its formative years, but suddenly appeared essential in late 2005 when news broke that Howard Stern was taking his show to the uncensored "promised-land" of Sirius.
I was one of the multitude who followed him there, even opting for a "lifetime subscription" (please stop laughing). Interestingly, the increase in freedom of speech for Stern correlated almost exactly with an inverse reaction in comic inspiration - the Sirius shows (mostly) stunk, relying heavily on D-list comedians and hangers-on to provide the laughs.
The rest of Sirius wasn't bad, however - I loved Underground Garage, Siriusly Sinatra, and a handful of others genre-focused music channels. (The 2008 merger with XM brought over Willie Nelson's channel, which turned out to be a surprise favorite).
I stopped listening in early 2008 when the satellite reception in my car - which was always spotty under trees, crossways, bridges and such - became unworkable. By then, I was listening mainly on the Internet anyway, which seemed to defeat the entire purpose of "satellite" radio.
So what does today's news mean for the future of Sirius-XM? Probably nothing for the time being - but I won't be too surprised if the current lineup of "star" channels (including Stern, Martha Stewart, Oprah, and the like) fails to survive any sort of debt-restructuring intact.
In fact, I'll be interested to see if Stern can possibly survive to the end of his contract in 2010.
