Mel

One of the things I like about Tom Taylor's column at Radio-Info.com is that he goes through the SEC filings and finds little nuggets about the pay of the executives I blame for radio's long slide. Today, Mel Karmazin (CEO of XM/Sirius), who this year received...

"A higher base salary ($1.25 million to $1.5 million) and a larger bonus (from $7 million to $8.4 million)."

Plus this little tidbit...

"There’s a change-of-control provision in Mel’s contract that would pour cash into his pockets like a berserk slot machine if he’s terminated – payments and bennies worth at least $108 million. Mel’s deal keeps him there through December 2012. And if something happens and he does leave, he even gets a “gross-up” – the company will essentially pay him enough to cover the excise tax that would be due on his goodbye package."

Sigh.

That's the pay of someone who runs a company trading at $1.81 a share. A company that was almost de-listed just a year or so ago.

If I were smart I would stop reading about things like this, but I like keeping up with it for my occasional interviews about $everance.