Apple Gets Sirius

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Aren't you sick and tired of hearing how the popularity of Apple Computer's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPod and other portable streaming devices is going to kill not only traditional radio but also Sirius (Nasdaq: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR) as well? It's a lot like saying that the DVD will be the death of cable television or the multiplex. That's because folks who already spend a lot of time listening to music they know will go to even greater lengths to discover new music.

So perhaps that's why I appreciate the irony of Sirius' announcement that it will team up with podcasting pioneer and former MTV host Adam Curry to offer blocks of talk radio programming dedicated to podcasts.

If you aren't familiar with podcasting, it is the aural equivalent of blogging. Yes, folks, pseudo celebrities and amateurs on a virtual soapbox will record everything from political tirades to comedy routines to garage band rehearsals and make them available for downloading to your computer and/or your portable digital music device of choice.

Yet, in reality, new and old radio regimes have little reason to dread the iPod. When Sony (NYSE: SNE) popularized the Walkman, it didn't mean that music fans were abandoning radio -- it just meant that they were expanding on their fanaticism by making the best of what they heard portable. Earlier this year Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) started offering snippets of some of its most popular radio shows for podcasting online and just recently Viacom (NYSE: VIA) converted a San Francisco radio station's format into podcasting 24/7.

The iPod is not a grenade. It's the pineapple of hospitality. Conventional and satellite radio are doing the right thing by embracing the format and using it as a way to promote their own agenda. It's what anyone with a need to be heard would do.

Wouldn't you agree?

Tune into some of these revved up yet related stories:

• Learn more about what Clear Channel is doing with podcasting.
• Ask yourself if Sirius is a Rule Breaker.
• Then feel free to wonder out loud if Apple is a Rule Breaker.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz thinks it's cool that Sirius broadcasts The Motley Fool Radio Show four times over the weekend, and audio-streaming fans can also pick up pieces of the show through NPR.org. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story.The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.