More Consolidation -- YUCK

I love my XM. For road trips in the car I would not go without it. Weekend radio is AWFUL for the most part!

If I had wanted Sirius I would have purchased it. They have different big features like Stern and race coverage, but I really only listen to the talk stations, Fox/CNN channels and Decades, especially the '60s On 6. But I like the idea of being able to sample them all.

Now you know they will blow people up at either XM or Sirius. Lots of job duplication in Nashville alone, so Ka Boom -- consolidation kills again, and the listener is the loser! They'd better not mess with the '60s On 6!

When all is said and done for TV and radio, when the government did away with local ownership and limited number-of-stations-owned rules, they screwed up broadcasting. Local TV programming is pitiful. The news is franchised like McDonald's. News is gone from most local radio stations, and we lost a generation of radio listeners with bad canned, Cox-style country, read-the-liner-cards and play-recurrents country stations.

Enough Grammy talk and whining. The Grammys have RARELY been on the cutting edge of anything. It's just not their nature. The Chicks won five. Call me in a year and let's see what they are doing.

Where did Shania Go?

Bill Maher is about as unwatchable as Rosie! You may have heard him say to Jay Leno this week that country is only good to make fun of. This just before the Rodney Atkins segment. Rodney's band should have put big-mouth Bill in a road case and dumped him at Natalie Maines' house.

Congrats to Brad and Kimberly Paisley: new baby boy, Feb. 22 at 5a.

The Naked Cowboy was in town this week -- has to be the weirdest music gig ever!

"Nashville Star" wraps up this week. When I watch "American Idol," I compare, and I am sure it's MONEY and budget, but why is one SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the other?

Martina McBride gets to sing on "Idol" this year. That will be a huge thing for her!

"Idol" will no doubt be an urban singer this year. The others are awful! They weren't looking for country, and they sure didn't find any pop people worth a crap.

If I had to pick right now -- wow -- will they pick a female Ruben Studdard? Doubtful. The guy with spiked hair? Maybe, but doubtful. No way on Sundance. The guy with the fright wig? Nope. Melinda Doolittle from Brentwood just doesn't have that star quality. A few Fantasia types. Time will tell, but Lakisha, the single mom who wails, if you had to pick. BUT, like Taylor Hicks, no radio format for a torch-singing urban gal.