As a longtime listener of the incomparable Howard Stern, a Sirius Satellite Radio subscriber going on nearly three years, a baseball buff and, ultimately, a cheap bastard, I have to say that today's announcement of the long-delayed merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio was music to my ears. Not only will my radio still work in the wake of the merger, I'll now get to listen to any baseball game I want — a benefit only XM subscribers enjoyed before today.
Plus, with the likelihood of a reduction in future subscription costs, I stand to save a few bucks. In this current economic climate, I'll take all the help I can get.
Still, in some respects, Sirius' acquisition of XM has its down side, too. Over the coming months, Sirius and XM will phase out redundant programming, and the barometer for which channels stay and which ones go is still not clearly defined. I haven't listened to XM much (aside from the few times I've rented cars with XM receivers), but what I've heard, on the music side alone, didn't impress me all that much. And Opie and Anthony, in my estimation, are just hacks who've been ripping Stern off for years. But, I digress.
I'm truly worried that some Sirius channels I've come to cherish, like "Hard Attack," "Left of Center" and "Lithium," could be dissolved and replaced by XM equivalents, which, as far as I can detect, are lesser offerings. But much more than that, I'll miss making fun of XM listeners.
See, Sirius fans are, by and large, Stern fans. So, whenever I'd meet someone else who had Sirius, I knew right off the bat that they were good people. They were, I assumed, like me. They got it. They knew who Eric the Midget was and what really ended Artie and Dana's relationship. They could recite portions of the infamous Gary tape and could appreciate the subtle genius of Fred Norris. But whenever I'd meet someone who was an XM subscriber, I'd pity them — taunt them, even. And if I was with a fellow Sirius listener, we'd band together in the face of an XM fan, to extol the virtues of Sirius.
Basically, we looked down on XM devotees, and we'd brag about our access to all of the NFL games while recounting our favorite Stern satellite moments. Now, we're all on the same team, I suppose. That feeling of elitism I once relished may be gone, but I can promise you this: I'm never listening to Opie and Anthony.