I bought a Delphi SkyFi when Air America Radio first came on the air back in March 2004 so that I could listen to the now-defunct Al Franken Show. In the years that followed, terrestrial radio stations started offering the show for free, and I eventually took on more work to the point that I was unable to listen to it at all. Kelly used it for about a year while she was completing her masters degree, but by and large the unit has sat unused in our office for three years. I can’t even remember how much the subscription costs per year anymore. It started out at about $10/month, and by now I think it’s up to $13.95/month. Anyway, long story short, it was time to cancel the subscription.

What brought this up was a news article I read today on MSNBC about the possibility of XM and Sirius merging. If that happens, then I might be tempted to sign up again, but the FCC has said already this year that it won’t support a merger of the two entities because of language in the initial regulations that allowed satellite radio to begin broadcasting in the first place. The merger makes sense to me from a customer point of view - one subscription provider, all the great content. However, what will this do to the price? Will it double? Will it stay the same? It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.