[BC] Country Music plight in top towns

[Xen Scott]

At 08:19 AM 09/27/2006 -0400, Cornelius wrote:

>My position since the dawn of satellite radio - and in particular, the 
>terrestrial repeater quagmire was/is this: Instead of fighting Satellite 
>Radio, radio should have found a way to get ONTO the terrestrial repeater 
>system and become one of the many offerings on XM and Sirius.

I would love to hear an all-news format on satellite radio, but not just 
the audio from
a cable network.  The problem with using the audio from a cable TV network 
is that some
information is conveyed visually, such as in a graphic.  That information 
never gets to the
audio-only consumer.  Ideally, XM or Sirius would offer one or more of the 
major market
all-news radio stations.

Now I'm just a retired TV tech, but isn't there a big contractual problem 
with putting
over-the-air radio stations on XM and Sirius?  Don't most nationally 
distributed network
programs prohibit redistribution beyond the local market of the client 
radio station?
Most all-news stations use radio program network sources.  A case in point 
would be
WCBS-AM.  Would the CBS Radio Network permit re-transmission of their 
top-of-the-hour
news feed?

If over-the-air re-transmission of local radio were limited to that 
station's market,
wouldn't that consume a lot of pipeline bandwidth?  I know there is the 
example of
local TV being carried in their local market via Directv or Dish Network, 
but the technical
compromise in the form of significant compression makes the stations 
difficult to watch.
Do XM and Sirius even have the bandwidth to offer local radio into local 
markets?

Xen Scott