May 1st... I'll be at Best Buy

The Best of Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, two-DVD set, will be released on May 1 by Time Life. The show starred Barbara, Louise and Irlene Mandrell and aired on NBC from 1980 to 1982, with a weekly audience of 40 million viewers. The set includes 44 musical performances from guests including Johnny and June Carter Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Alabama, Glen Campbell, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, the Statler Brothers and the Charlie Daniels Band.
- cmt.com

Anyone wanna guess what my "Happy 6th Anniversary at XM" present to myself is going to be?

So. The M Word...

Seriously (or is that... Siriusly...) y'all don't know how much I appreciate the nice notes I've gotten. I think of y'all every time I hear "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" on Highway 16. At this point we really don't know much more than what you can find on our website or in the press. But to answer a few questions that have come in...

* If you have a radio that works the day before the merger is finalized, you're going to have a radio that works after the merger is finalized. Period. No one is going to suddenly have to go out and buy new equipment.

* There has been NO name decided for the new company (and probably won't be until much closer to actual merger time.) Check out XMFan.com for some amusing suggestions in the meantime. And some hysterical logos.

* Where company HQ will be is still undecided. Although conventional speculation that has been widely published points out that they pay very expensive rent in Manhattan, and we own our building in D.C.

* Obviously, there is a lot of channel duplication between the two services - especially in music. Some channels are going to go. Which ones will live and which ones will die is unknown at this point. Things like that can't be tackled until they clear anti-trust hurdles with the Dept. of Justice.

* Our chairman of the board stays. Directly under him is their CEO. Beyond that, no one knows anything about staffing. People are going to lose jobs, but who those people are is completely unknown, and probably mostly undecided at this point.

The most common question I've been asked is "So how do you feel about the merger?"

Quite honestly, I haven't decided. It's hard to get excited about something that's probably close to a year away and has a 50/50 chance of getting shot down by the government. I joined XM May 1st, 2001 - before the company ever broadcast the first note of music. So as an employee, it's a little sad. But it's pretty exciting too.