I hate days that remind me I need to go on a diet. Whatever.

Today is Fat Tuesday, a day where we think of the New Orleans and the great celebration, food and drink. The Mardi Gras celebration their dates back to the 1700’s and represents a tradition that we continue to observe. Celebrations are taking place in other parts of the globe as the final day before Ash Wednesday is recognized through celebrations such as Pancake Day, Carnival, and Shrove Tuesday.

We are also celebrating at WFDU – as our fundraising efforts for 2007 come to a close. I am thankful to everyone who made generous donations to either Traditions or The Session. While we did not meet our goals this year, we came close. There is hope. Those of you who made donations can sit back and I hope you will enjoy the programs that will be presented for the following year. Bill and I have great plans for Traditions and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for The Session.

Our sincere thanks to each of you! If you have not yet made your donation, there is still time – go to our website at www.wfdu.fm and pledge online!

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You may have read about the potential merger between XM and Sirius. There are a number of legal hurdles and rules changes required before the merger happens, but my guess is that it will.

Back in the 1980’s I worked for the first DBS system in the country. We folded after 14 months. The press decided that our downfall was due to people not wanting to put a dish on their roof to receive TV programming. As a private company, without major partners, we could not make the technology work and we disappeared. A few years later, Direct TV and Dish Network came along with a better business plan and made it work. Today it is commonplace to see these dishes, and owners are very happy with the service.

There are many negative comments being directed at satellite radio. Many people do not want to pay for something they get free (similar to early complaints about cable TV). The equipment required is also a turnoff. There are also complaints that satellite radio loses the local radio feel.

Welcome to change. You can’t stop it. Nor should it be stopped.

My feeling is that satellite radio provides new opportunities and possibilities.

While I don’t have money to burn, I am very happy to say I am a XM subscriber – and my wife and daughter have their own XM units as well. For our interests, it was and is a good investment. It is affordable. It has become an indispensable source of entertainment and information.

I chose XM over Sirius mainly because it offered Rich Warren’s brilliant show “The Midnight Special“. When I was making my decision, Sirius still had their “folk” channel and I had an opportunity to sample both. The choice was very easy to make. Aside from a program hosted by the Kennedy’s, a show I enjoyed, the rest of the “folk” offerings on Sirius were very lame. The other DJ’s on Sirius did not seem very knowledgeable and the music was very commercial.

XM simply sounded better – technically and artistically. Aside from Rich’s program, there was very little DJ interaction on the folk channel, known as “The Village“. Music was programmed to run seamlessly, except for an occasional ID. The variety was good, although perhaps a bit heavy on some of the commercial folk revival groups. Still, there was variety.

I am happy to say that over the past year, Mary Sue Twohy joined XM and has made some brilliant contributions to the Village programming. The music is even better now – more variety and more contemporary. Mary Sue can often be heard, and her warm and inviting voice is easy on the ears!. Today, the Village on XM offers a nice blend of traditional, folk revival, and contemporary. I love listening to theVillage.

Sirius dropped their folk music channel over a year ago. They replaced it with a channel called “The Coffeehouse“, which sounds like the music you hear piped into Starbucks. The Kennedy’s show was absorbed on another channel on Sirius.

So if the two networks merge, what happens to folk music? There is concern that it will be dropped as the two networks merge their channels. The bandwith can only carry so many channels.

While satellite radio offers some great opportunities to hear diverse programming, it still needs ears that support the channel. This is not public radio, it is a business. Business needs support. If it were my business, I would be looking at each channel to see if the offering was bringing in new subscribers. I notice that there are no polka channels. As a business person, if I could be shown that I would sign up an extra 100,000 subscribers if I offered 24/7 polka – you would bet I would try to find a spot. If I only have 10,000 people who sign up for folk music, guess which station gets dropped.

Of course it is all theoretical and I don’t think XM or Sirius have released any ratings based on channels. My guess is that Sirius dropped their folk channel because they did not know how to bring listeners to the service. My assumption is that XM does.

I think we all need to embrace new technologies and not fear them. There is incredible potential to do radio the right way and I would hope that if the merger goes through, or even if it doesn’t, that people start to support the offerings. Cable TV, while filled with a lot of junk, opened up incredible cultural opportunities and changed the landscape of entertainment.

All of us have witnessed the changes in terrestrial radio, and while I hope it that situation will improve, we should not ignore the opportunity to perpetuate this genre of music through satellite.

Obviously we all have opinions, and I do respect that. I just ask people to really consider the possibilities and opportunities that exist. The old models change. 100 years ago, the “community” was the town you lived in. When cars became available, the community expanded. When radio came along, the community expanded again. Now we have satellite radio, the community expands yet again.

Perhaps we are closer to the “one world” philosophy that we preached during the 60’s. I truly believe we need to look at the possibilities that are out there and continue to produce quality program. Bob Dylan’s radio program on XM is an excellent example of diverse radio and the scope of what can be done.

If we continue to throw negative comments and knock down new technologies, then the empty suits in charge have more ammunition to give us more Brittany Spears. A loss of folk radio on satellite radio would have terrible aftershocks in our “industry”. We can increase awareness and the size of our folk music community through satellite radio, and help our terrestrial radio programs as a byproduct.

There is something good about being able to go into my car and turn on a radio show (other than my own) and hear talented artists that I have been trying to promote on my own show. I look forward to a time when Antje Duvekot, Debra Cowan, Anais Mitchell, Joe Crookston and Jack Williams become household names – simply because audiences across the country heard them on satellite radio.

If you are thinking about purchasing satellite radio, you have my recommendation for XM. If you are already a subscriber, take a moment to send a note to XM and let them know you listen to the Village and would like to hear more folk music on satellite radio. It is another important step in helping to insure the future of folk music.

Enough of my ramblings. I’m off in search of pancakes, some jambalya, and Hurricane drink! Enjoy Fat Tuesday the right way!