It's hard to imagine that when you try to sell a product, you are the least receptive to the people that hold the fate of your product in their very hands. Well, not really, I guess. You see, Scott Greenstein, president of entertainment and sports for Sirius Satellite Radio, doesn't care about college kids. Heck, he didn't really care much for being interviewed. He did it anyway, though. He's a businessman, after all.
Conversely, it doesn't seem as though the college demographic cares all that much about his product. A recent study conducted by the Simmons Market Research Bureau stated that the principal demographic for Sirius Satellite Radio users are adult males who range from age 25 to 34. Unless you enjoy collecting degrees, you're probably not in school at 25.
Greenstein is reaching out, though. Recently Sirius Satellite Radio made several moves to attract the college market. First off, Sirius Radio picked up Howard Stern. Howard Stern's vivacious, in-your-face comedy has a huge market - college kids included. Another ploy made on Sirius's part to directly affect the college market was the introduction of "Left of Center," a radio station that specifically plays indie and college rock. Sirius further delved into the music scene by acquiring three major bloggers, Brooklyn Vegan, Gorilla vs. Bear and Marathonpacks, as radio hosts for their programming.
As an individual without an iPod, without a laptop and without a soul, I would seem like the perfect target individual for satellite radio. Being in the position of interviewing the president of Sirius Radio, one would think this the perfect candidate for coaxing an impressionable student into purchasing satellite radio. Let's see what the president had to say for himself:
Greenstein: Well, Sirius Radio is the best radio on the radio.
Me: But why would I want to purchase satellite radio, let alone Sirius Satellite Radio, over, let's say, an iPod?
Greenstein: We have 130 channels that are 100-percent commercial-free. We allow people to discover and rediscover music. It's hard to believe we're missing anything. You like Big 12 football? Well, we've got that too. We are the best radio on the radio. The best aggregator of audio content. The purveyors of the satellite-radio medium.
Greenstein is a well-trained robot.
However, I am an advocate of satellite radio. There is something about radio that is spontaneous, that no shuffle on an iPod can provide. You can also hear programming by musical legends, such as Bob Dylan and Tom Petty - at least on XM satellite radio you can. More recently, you can record specific radio programming, just like a DVR device does for cable and satellite television. It's only a matter of time before MP3 devices start having the capability to pick up satellite radio.
There is one problem with satellite radio, though, and our robot friend had no answer. If consumers are seeing a growing trend towards the convergence of all media (heck, you can listen to podcasts, watch television shows and watch movies all on your iPod, which by the way, easily connects to any vehicle old or new), what is the point of buying a separate device to listen to, well, the radio?
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