• The Hollywood Reporter, Wednesday, September 10, 2008 9:15 AM

While Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius XM Radio, was trying to shore up Wall Street support Tuesday, his company's stock sunk to the lowest price in five years. Sirius XM stock has been suffering since the merger of Sirius and XM partly because of a heavy debt load.

Karmazin told analysts the company will end 2008 with 19.5 million subscribers and will end 2009 with 21.5 million, guidance that fell short of some analysts predictions. He also stressed that Sirius XM will show about 13% revenue growth next year compared with a 3% decline for the traditional radio industry.

Investors have been worried about a weak U.S. auto market because most new Sirius subscribers come with new car sales, but Karmazin said that the portion of new cars that come with a satellite radio is growing from 45% this year to 50% next year.

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