Let me be the first to offer Bob Dylan the use of my apartment, turntable, CD player and various other pieces of humble but functioning electronic equipment should he need to transition “Theme Time Radio Hour” into a podcast-only kind of an affair.

As is being reported around the place, Sirius/XM Satellite Radio could be filing for bankruptcy very soon, and some are speculating that the major talent could be facing lay-offs, although it’s less than clear if that’s the case.

I’ve never been optimistic about the future of satellite radio, I must say. Asking people to pay money to listen to the radio always seemed like a terrible stumbling-block inherent to the business model. Of-course you can make the case for it, and of-course some people would do it, but the fundamental question was how many people will ultimately do it? And in trying to draw more people into doing it (for example by hiring big names to do shows) would the expenses quickly outstrip even the hoped-for future revenue?

Inevitably, you also have to raise the question of the illegal downloading thing, which cannot but have reduced the number of potential subscribers. No one is happier than me that Bob’s shows, in particular, can be heard by people all over the world, for free, thanks to online file sharing. Nevertheless, we’ll be sad if the show ceases to exist. The larger question is: Could XM/Sirius even stop any of this if they tried? They could slow it down, make it more difficult, but no, I don’t really believe they could stop it. Clearly, in Bob Dylan’s case, he seems pretty glad that people are sharing and listening to the show in all kinds of ways.* On a recent episode, he mentioned an earlier show, and as I recall he said something like, “If you missed it, why don’t you just go illegally download it.” That’s funny and endearing, but also effective: Imagine a court case where someone is being sued for doing just that, and then produces a recording of Bob the DJ exhorting his listeners to illegally download the show. It would create a real legal difficulty for the plaintiffs.

Perhaps the illegal downloading is considered to have an insignificant net effect on the overall revenue by the satellite radio people. I don’t know. I do hope Bob doesn’t get laid off, but he should be aware that we also make some pretty good coffee here at Chez RWB, and tasty snacks when called upon too. We also have a real cute little dog to hang out with, and, although my music collection is nothing to Bob’s own, there are definitely at least a few things that would amuse a connoisseur such as him.

(A more serious proposal for the continuation of “Theme Time Radio Hour” is made by Fred at Dreamtime at this link.)

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* UPDATE 3/20/2009: “Stop giving my shows away” says Bob Dylan

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