Radio is in the doldrums. The dominant Clear Channel network of stations has enforced a bland sameness coast-to-coast, and the first of the large networks to announce quarterly results this week had bad news. Viacom (VIA) president Mel Karmazin had one word to describe how Infinity, his radio network, was doing: "Disappointing."

Let's go back a generation. The blandness and homogeneity of network television, coupled with an advance in technology, gave cable television an opening. There may be times when it feels like you have 500 channels and none worth watching. But you can't argue with the fact that, despite the mind-numbing shopping channels and endless reruns of Designing Women, programming is more diverse now than it was when only three broadcast networks existed. These days there are hundreds of narrowcast networks, many of which have grabbed thin but lucrative market slices.

Some prognosticators thought Web-based radio would accomplish the same thing, smashing the soporific hegemony of regular radio, but the combination of copyright concerns and relatively low-quality streams has kept that medium from exploding. Plus, any radio medium that doesn't work well in cars is doomed.

That's where Sirius (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) come in. For two years, they have been battling to solve the problem in a different way -- closer to the cable model. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to receive exclusive programming. Like cable TV, satellite radio offers some interesting advantages over its broadcast rivals: It boasts better reception and a wider menu of offerings -- each hosts roughly 100 channels of familiar (NPR, CNN) and homegrown programming. And with devices like the portable XM Radio, made by General Motors (GM) spinoff Delphi (DPH), it's now easy to bring satellite radio more or less anywhere. (Sirius expects to release a similar portable system midyear.)

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