Spanish Language Terrestrial Station Wants To Broadcast On Sirius XM
With the passage of the merger between Sirius and XM came stipulations regarding minority programming. Early in the process Georgetown Partners wanted a piece of the pie, but they have been silent ever since the merger was announced. Another company, AlphaStar, has proposed what appears to be a very viable solution, and because they already have infrastructure, could launch services right away should a deal be struck. Now, a small radio station in Texas is proposing that they would like to broadcast over the Sirius XM system.
KQBO 107.5 FM is a small 12,000 watt terrestrial radio station broadcasting in Rio Grande City Texas. The ownership, Media Ventures Unlimited, is Hispanic, and the programming caters to a Latino audience. In a filing with the FCC, Media ventures stated that they would broadcast their programming 24/7 and are willing to enter into a contract with Sirius XM radio so that operations could begin immediately.
Should Media Ventures be successful in their bid to provide minority programming, their reach would shift from a 50 mile radius to a national footprint. One interesting issue will be that of “local advertising”. Satellite radio can not carry localized advertising, but a station such as KQBO would have ads built into their programs. this could bring such a proposal to it’s knees should the NAB challenge the concept.
Position – Long SIRI
Tyler: What this DOES do for Sirius is may possibly draw more subscribers, since a listener will have to have a subscription, even to the minority based channels. It also brings another demographic into the mix. Rio Grande City TX is litterally FEET from Mexico. Even though Sirius XM does not officially broadcast into Mexico, they ALL have family members in the US that they can use an address of.
I said it before and I’ll say it again “IN MEL I TRUST”mel is a very smart man and he will not let us down (or himself for that matter). When he get’s this quite you know something is cooking..Just hang on for a wild ride.
LONG
so you say Sirius does not get anything from the minority channels…what a scam.