The Infinite Dial

Okay, there's no question that everything is not rosy for the merged Sirius XM Radio. A number of my Edison colleagues have let their subscriptions lapse, either returning to terrestrial radio or streaming radio on their iPhones. Not everybody is sanguine about the new channel lineup, or having to keep the channel numbers straight when they're different between Sirius and XM. And there are those larger issues about the stock price, the decline in auto sales, etc.

But I've never heard Sirius XM playing in as many stores as I have in recent weeks -- not unusual for me to go from '90s on 9 at the gym to '70s on 7 at the grocery store five minutes later. Sirius and XM began their march into retail, replacing commercial radio but also seemingly devastating some other paid services, years ago, of course. But with the merger (and perhaps with the culling of choices), you're hearing the same channels everywhere now -- instead of hearing that listening divided up between the two services. So it sounds bigger.