• NY Times, Monday, December 19, 2005 10:48 AM

With the arrival of Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite Radio just days away, the drumbeat of hype and legitimate excitement about the future of the medium is attaining fever pitch--precisely as the inimitable Stern would have it.  Whether or not he can vault Sirius to the No. 1 position in the two-horse-race industry is impossible to predict, but today's New York Times sets out the business model, saying Sirius' $500 million bet on Stern will pay off if it can attract a million additional subscribers over the length of the shock jock's five-year contract. Overall, the Times paints an optimistic picture of the satellite radio business. The two competitors, Sirius and XM, are somewhat different in their approach to programming, but both understand that it is personalities (such as Stern, Martha Stewart, and Ellen DeGeneres), not music, that will attract loyal audiences.  "The mainstreaming of satellite radio, the companies hope, is just around the corner," writes the Times' Eric Taub. Still, for now, sat radio's key market is the automobile, where XM holds a slight edge. 

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