You'd have to live under a particularly heavy rock for the past year or two not to have at least heard about satellite radio. The "digirati" have already experienced the other up-and-comer, podcasting. But is it making a difference? Is commercial radio even noticing? Well, according to this Business Week article, they're doing a lot more than noticing:

Lehman Brothers analyst William Meyers estimates that since many satellite listeners listen during the daily commute, the most lucrative hours, satellite alone will cut traditional radio revenue growth after 2006 to 2.5% from 4%.

A 37% drop in growth is enough to give just about any businessman the willies. And they are definitely worried:

"This is the tyranny of choice," says Fred Jacobs, founder of radio industry consultant Jacobs Media. "Companies need to rethink the competitive scenarios and take risks."

Consumers get a choice and what is the industry's response? Tyranny!!! Which is why there are already back-door attempts by the existing industry to hobble the newcomers. In spite of the sturm and drang of bloggers and columnists, they have absolutely zero chance of going anywhere, but do serve well to rattle investors in the new industries.

Equally amusing is BW's emphasis that, so far, nobody's figured out how to make money podcasting, completely ignoring the reason why... it's so cheap to do right now, you don't need to make money doing it. We wanted to create our own Weekly World News meets National Review newspaper, and blogs let us do that for less per month than what we spend on magazines. People who want to become the next K-NOTSUCK radio can now do the same for perhaps even less.

But it's only a matter of time before people do start making money at it. Satellite radio's continued growth and success seems to prove conclusively people are willing to pay for higher quality and increased choice. At least to a point at any rate. Which is what markets are all about... people offering a product for a price, and other people deciding if that price is worth it. Because, as "conventional" radio is finding out, if a product is bad enough, people won't take it even if it's free. Or, as the article puts it:

Says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media: "Radio pissed on their own product and then cluttered it up."

My friend Joshua and I already have an "Abbot and Costello" routine worked up around his "rediscovery" of radio ("Where do you fit the memory card? How big is the hard drive in it? You mean someone else picks your music for you?!?") I wonder if I'll be having the conversation for real with Olivia?