Sirius upbeat Q2

YOU CANNOT BE SIRIUS: Maybe this satellite rado thing is gonna work after all. Sirius announced yesterday that it ended fiscal Q2 with a record 19.5 million subscribers, up 6% over the year-ago quarter. The company also raised its subscriber forecast for 2010 by nearly 50%, now expecting 1.1 million new subscribers. Sirius added 583k net subscribers in the second quarter, after losing 186k in the same period a year ago, while subscriber churn fell from 2% to 1.8%. "Our subscriber results mark the best quarter of gross additions, deactivations and net additions since the merger of Sirius and XM in July 2008," Sirius top dog Mel Karmazin enthused. "The strong execution in both adding subscribers and retaining them resulted in our record-high 19.5 million subscriber milestone, despite continued economic uncertainty. The further improvement in our guidance reflects the attractiveness of satellite radio but maintains a cautious outlook for continued improvement in the economy." One of those channels has just gotta be spinning Steve Earle’s “Satellite Radio” right now. (7/8a)