Why pay for radio

Clarbear

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
May 21, 2018
118
29
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Hello all. My thoughts of paying for radio is like paying television services. Why should myself and others want to pay for radio and television services? I personally love free over the air radio and television without paying for something that will cost money and get lots of boring stations mainly in television stations. This to me is glorified things that will a lot of money that I don't really have, and if I did I still wouldn't get it.

On my smartphone I do have iheartradio and tunedin apps which I only use the free part of the apps. I don't get the upgrade because it means I have to pay for it.

Explain to me why pay for radio and television services.
 
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Simple for me...I like the content Sirius offers, and I enjoy the little bit of DJ banter/stories, w/o having to put up with 20+ minutes of commercials every hour, compared to terrestrial radio, or the fact that so many terrestrial stations have morning/afternoon/evening talk radio shows nowadays instead of just playing music.
 
I personally love free over the air radio and television without paying for something that will cost money and get lots of boring stations mainly in television stations.
This statement sums it up: some people just love free stuff because it appears to be inexpensive.

If you listen to the radio as background noise, it doesn't much matter what you listen to. If you're engaged in the experience the story is decidedly different. For those who are active listeners, things like commercials are a major downer. The local Entercom stations seem to favor 4-7 minute commercial "breaks" and many of the talk shows can't sustain the gaps as the talent can't keep the listeners engaged during the long pauses.

I appreciate content that is carefully curated so I don't have to sit through minutes of chaff waiting for something interesting to come along. Backstory is something that appeals to me as well.

There's plenty of content out there that doesn't require a subscription, but like anything on the Internet, finding it is the thing rather than kicking back and enjoying it. If you don't have a lot of free time to identify "stations" that you like, subscription radio can make life a lot easier.
 
Why would I want to listen to cookie cutter free radio with their limited choices, idiot DJs, repetitive playlists, radio edits, and commercials every handful of songs? Been with XM since their first 6 months of operation, got Sirius a year later. A decade and a half and a merger later I have three radios and can’t even remember the last time I listened to AM/FM. I don’t want to hear stupid car dealers screaming at me, I don’t want to hear from ambulance chaser lawyers going on about asbestos infused vaginal mesh implants and no matter how many times the toll free numbers gets repeated during the same commercial, I’m not going to call about pills that turn me into a sexual tyrannosaurus rex.

I don’t understand free OTA TV either, why would I want to watch some procedural crap on OTA TV where shows are basically the samething week after week, when I can watch quality shows on HBO, Showtime, Epix, FX, TNT, USA, AMC and others that feature unique ideas and intelligent writing.

It’s all about content. And the content on OTA TV and radio is just plain terrible.
 
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It’s all about content. And the content on OTA TV and radio is just plain terrible.

It's always about content. It's why I am willing to watch an SD channel from time to time if that's what has the programming I want or why 4K is not a must have. (not enough content) And certainly why I am willing to pay for SiriusXM. (I will add now that it can be heard via Alexa it's even more worth it)
 
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With my data cap, I try not to stream Sirius when in the House. Music Choice thru Cox has a few similar stations to what I like on Sirius, so I use it. Music streaming isn’t much data, but I already come close to that 1TB cap at 850-900GB a month.
 
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I don’t want to hear stupid car dealers screaming at me, I don’t want to hear from ambulance chaser lawyers going on about asbestos infused vaginal mesh implants and no matter how many times the toll free numbers gets repeated during the same commercial, I’m not going to call about pills that turn me into a sexual tyrannosaurus rex.

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Streaming is included if you have the All Access satellite package or you can add it to the base Mostly Music package for an extra $5.

I negotiated to get it for free in a lower package but yes that is generally how to get streaming. I think they gave it to me because I also get the SiriusXM date information in one of our cars too. (Traffic added to the navigation map, sports scores, gas station prices, weather, etc etc) And we have it in four cars. (Daughter and Husband is on our account)

That's a tip on getting a better price. If you have other family members put several on one account and then that account has more negotiating power than one with one or two devices.
 
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I kid you not, back in the early 2000s when I worked a factory job and started my shift at 5am, I would listen to the local rock station before their shock jock type morning show started at 6. This being considered the overnight shift, there were about three songs, a station bumper, then 10+ minutes of commercials. One of the commercials, that was played multiple times during the same breaks was an ad for a Viagra knockoff, that promised to yes, turn you into a sexual tyrannosaurus rex. :) And they repeated the phone number for free samples about 5 or 6 times during the end of the commercial.

At the time I had the original Delphi SkyFi PNP receiver for home use, I purchased the bowtie boombox for it, but being in a large metal plant, there was nowhere I could place it to get a signal in my work area. I ran the antenna out a garage bay where I could get a somewhat usable signal from the terrestrial repeaters when I pointed the antenna towards the city, but it was not reliable enough to use it on a regular basis so I returned the boombox.

A few years later, when I worked at the same place, but switched to night shift, I had the good ole’ Roady XT in my car with the super strong FM modulator that I was supposed to put those stupid ferrite cores on. There were a few hours overlap between first shift and second shift, every day after all the first shifters were gone, I’d pull my car closer to the building, and tune the old timey radio to 106.9, the frequency I would modulate the Road XT to and rock out to Squizz all night long, then pop out to my car a few minutes before 11 and switch over to 152 for the John and Jeff Show.

Back to present day, to rely on internet streaming isn’t good enough for me. I’m on T-Mobile with unlimited* data on two phones, so I don’t care about data usage. As a longtime Sprint, and now T-Mobile customer, I’ve never had to worry about data caps and routinely use 12-20 GB per month. It’s just T-Mobiles coverage is not reliable enough to be able to stream interruption free when driving and changing channels would be a PITA not to mention dangerous while driving. At work, it’s just my boss and I in the same office, my boss is one who needs complete silence when working, when he is out of the office, or on vacation, I tend to stream all day long on my phone. At home, if I streaming SiriusXM, I usually use the Windows 10 app on my main PC, which has a 300 watt speaker system connected to it, I’ll use streaming on the Echo occasionally if I just want background noise. My home theater receiver has a built in Sirius tuner, so I will use that most of the time for home listening. Outside doing yard work or whatever I stream on my phone and pair it to my Big Jambox bluetooth speaker.
 
It is odd that they chose the term "sexual T-Rex" as that's kind of a joke about self-pleasuring and how the T-Rex's arms weren't long enough to reach.
 
Everyone here has their reasons to satellite radio and pay television and don't mind paying for it. I do respect everyone reasons for it.

As for me I had cable from Time Warner cable and for what I had it gotten to very pricey and I no longer pay for it and gotten rid of it and besides they don't carry all the local all the sub channels. The main reason why that I don't pay for the cable and radio is that I don't have the money to pay for it. And besides if I do have the money I could use the money for other things that really do need it for like fixing my home or going to a sporting events.

Like I said I respect everyone's decisions and your reasons for paying for your stuff, but as for me I am happy for not paying those things.

Thank you all for your input in why you do for paying for it.
 
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many years ago, before the merger, i had sirius. steaming was not really around then
i traveled alot then, and it was great. no loss of reception.
i had it in 2 vehicles

then they merged. and wanted to charge for streaming
artists wanted more royalties
my price double, i ditched it.

i now stream
 
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