The question remains, though, whether Mel Karmazin, who's as smart, shrewd, and tenacious as just about any CEO anywhere, can figure out a long-term strategy for making the satellite-radio business succeed. Americans are accustomed to getting radio for free, but Sirius XM asks them to pay up even though it runs commercials on its music channels. And what are the prospects for Sirius as new cars begin to enable us to plug in our iPhones and connect wirelessly to the Internet and to cool services such as Pandora, which lets us control and customize the programming that we personally desire? Satellite radio may wind up being an interim technology for the short time between the long ascendancy of old-fashioned broadcast radio and the new era of Internet on the run. Salvaging its future might be beyond even the talents of a legend like Mel Karmazin.