XM really knows how to kill a good thing!

WalksInDarkness

SatelliteGuys Master
Aug 17, 2005
5,008
945
Kekistan
I am soooooooooo pissed, the vast majority of the XM channels my family loved are now gone:

Fungus - my wife and I are ~40, we are old school punks. Losing this station was like a punch in the nuts, the "Bam Magera" channel is a sad substitute for pikers.

Beyond Jazz - Fun progressive Jazz is necessary to keep the youngsters interested, how else am I supposed to convince my kids Jazz isn't elderly music?

Chrome - What can I say, I grew up in the 70's, for me it is a vital guilty pleasure!

It seems the only channel I like that they will bring back is "Boneyard"

WTF? Does anyone really want to hear 24 hour stations of bands???
AC/DC This band died when Bon Scott did.
Jimmy Buffet Parents who listen to this crap are the reason thier kids turn around and listen to Satanic Death Metal and huff solvents.
Grateful Dead uh, yeah, right, these people listen to the Radio? Haven't they shunned all worldly possesions? Shouldn't they be out on the ocean saving whales, or in some far off rainforest, or protesting somewhere?
Led Zeppelin Decent music, but I thought most people heard enough of them at every high school or college party they went to?
Bruce Springsteen same answer as Jimmy Buffet.
Jam On Same answer as grateful dead.

Wow, I loved XM and had three subscriptions. I am seriously considering cancelling it, and just wiring my FiOS box to listen to "music choice" or whatever... SHEESH!!! What a way to ruin a good thing...
 

navychop

Reunite Pangea! Stop overfishing Panthalassa!
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Jul 20, 2005
62,554
30,982
Northern VA
Well, now that Sirius has bought XM, I suppose it's to be expected that the Sirius channels will replace the XM channels, for the most part.

In any event, XM did not seem to be headed for profitability, but Sirius was. So XM was doing something wrong.
 

WalksInDarkness

SatelliteGuys Master
Aug 17, 2005
5,008
945
Kekistan
I might be OK with it all, if I was getting Stern free out of the deal; but they want another $5 for that too, they can bite me.

What I am getting at though, is that I chose XM instead of sirius because I was mostly interested in Music. But now they have removed that from the equation.
 

cybok0

SatelliteGuys Master
Oct 23, 2006
12,786
39
Sha Ka Ree.
I might be OK with it all, if I was getting Stern free out of the deal; but they want another $5 for that too, they can bite me.

What I am getting at though, is that I chose XM instead of sirius because I was mostly interested in Music. But now they have removed that from the equation.

IMO Stern isn't that great anymore, I got tired of listening to him.
 

WalksInDarkness

SatelliteGuys Master
Aug 17, 2005
5,008
945
Kekistan
IMO Stern isn't that great anymore, I got tired of listening to him.

That was part of my consideration too. When I was deciding what Sat Co to go with, a guy at my work had just signed up with Sirius; we used to listen to Stern at lunch, and I wasn't all that impressed. It really didn't seem like his new show added anything, just lots of curse words.
 

xzi

SatelliteGuys Family
Dec 5, 2007
49
0
North Greenbush, NY
Well, now that Sirius has bought XM, I suppose it's to be expected that the Sirius channels will replace the XM channels, for the most part.

In any event, XM did not seem to be headed for profitability, but Sirius was. So XM was doing something wrong.

Neither of them were headed to profitability. XM was closer than SIRIUS, though, having lower costs and more subscribers. SIRIUS needed this merger more.

But to get back to the flavor of the actual thread, it was SIRIUS that ruined XM. The merger was more of a "hostile takeover" in relation to the musical influence, and XM died long ago. This merger of channels was just another step on that direction, putting the final nail in the coffin of interesting, deep playlists and in return we get SIRIUS's FM playlists with high repitition and low creativity.

Thanks Mel. He's always looking out for the shareholder first and customer second, and in this case he got both wrong so far. Hopefully they kept enough XM staff around that can go into these SIRIUS programmed channels and go, "hey, guys, how about spread those hits out a bit more" and maybe can show them how the folders full of music can go beyond the 40 or 50 songs they have in rotation on most channels.

It's actually pretty funny reading about the other side, the SIRIUS subscribers, that complain about the few channels that XM did bring over and hear them talk about how it "sucks" that they play so many new songs they never heard before.
 

WalksInDarkness

SatelliteGuys Master
Aug 17, 2005
5,008
945
Kekistan
Another thing I noticed about ALL of the sirius DJ's, they all seem to have that phony "DJ Voice & Persona". They all sound like they went CSB, and took a class called "How To Sound Like A Phony Top-40 Do#@heBag DJ".
 

cybok0

SatelliteGuys Master
Oct 23, 2006
12,786
39
Sha Ka Ree.
That was part of my consideration too. When I was deciding what Sat Co to go with, a guy at my work had just signed up with Sirius; we used to listen to Stern at lunch, and I wasn't all that impressed. It really didn't seem like his new show added anything, just lots of curse words.

That's all they do, F this F that, It gets tiresome after awhile.
 

navychop

Reunite Pangea! Stop overfishing Panthalassa!
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Jul 20, 2005
62,554
30,982
Northern VA
Neither of them were headed to profitability. XM was closer than SIRIUS, though, having lower costs and more subscribers. SIRIUS needed this merger more.

Nope. Exact opposite. Search on it. Sirius, oddly enough, was predicted to reach profitability, I think in 2009. We can forget that, now. XM's greater # of subs (&, IMHO, better name) did not translate into profits in the forecast. If Sirius was more desperate, then this "merger" would see XM in the drivers seat, instead of pushing the bus.
 

charper1

Bourbon Tester
Supporting Founder
May 18, 2004
18,442
6
I'm Nationwide
Nope. Exact opposite. Search on it. Sirius, oddly enough, was predicted to reach profitability, I think in 2009. We can forget that, now. XM's greater # of subs (&, IMHO, better name) did not translate into profits in the forecast. If Sirius was more desperate, then this "merger" would see XM in the drivers seat, instead of pushing the bus.

EXACTLY; the disgruntled want it to be the other way regardless of the facts.


That being said I too am not happy with the current string of channels losses. To the poster about be an old school punk; I too fall into that cat and see the the Sirius Punk is also gone; the punks were really screwed; at least so far. It seems we have been relegated back to the Faction; which simply needs to have the alt and rap removed to be a great channel. I called and emailed the contact info provided in the other thread and also canceled one of my units in protest.
 

WalksInDarkness

SatelliteGuys Master
Aug 17, 2005
5,008
945
Kekistan
That being said I too am not happy with the current string of channels losses. To the poster about be an old school punk; I too fall into that cat and see the the Sirius Punk is also gone; the punks were really screwed; at least so far. It seems we have been relegated back to the Faction; which simply needs to have the alt and rap removed to be a great channel. I called and emailed the contact info provided in the other thread and also canceled one of my units in protest.

This is the thing that confuses me, I really don't understand why they completed gutted the lineups. I completely recognize thier need to streamline, and therefore eliminate redundant channels; but why they would eliminate both punk channels is a mystery to me, I would have been happy to accept the Sirius version channel if need be (something is better than nothing). It appears they want to make Sat Radio into a completely Vanilla enterprise, I can just put up an FM aerial if I wanted that.
 

cybok0

SatelliteGuys Master
Oct 23, 2006
12,786
39
Sha Ka Ree.
This is the thing that confuses me, I really don't understand why they completed gutted the lineups. I completely recognize thier need to streamline, and therefore eliminate redundant channels; but why they would eliminate both punk channels is a mystery to me, I would have been happy to accept the Sirius version channel if need be (something is better than nothing). It appears they want to make Sat Radio into a completely Vanilla enterprise, I can just put up an FM aerial if I wanted that.

Faction is suppose to be the Punk station.:rolleyes:
 

WalksInDarkness

SatelliteGuys Master
Aug 17, 2005
5,008
945
Kekistan
Faction is suppose to be the Punk station.:rolleyes:

Actually, don't they call it "Action Sports Radio" or some stupid crap like that? And the fact that Bam Magera is one of the hosts, well that just makes me want to puke. It is more like punk-lite for noobs. I'll give it a listen some more, but so far it makes me say "eeeeewwwwwww...".
 

charper1

Bourbon Tester
Supporting Founder
May 18, 2004
18,442
6
I'm Nationwide
Yep, Faction is OK and all, but they extracted the punk out a while to make its own channel; putting it back into Faction with all that rap and alt is plain stupid; especially with all the 24/7 "insert band name here" crap channels. They need to dump all those 24/7 channels.
 

tomcrown1

SatelliteGuys Pro
Mar 20, 2008
2,321
16
San Francisco
Holly cow do what I did Drop the Sat radios they are dead killed a good thing.

Then get an IPHONe and get the station you want to hear with better sound no doubt.

Internet radio for the car is comming out and sat radio is goining bye bye

Idots are running the ship.
 

navychop

Reunite Pangea! Stop overfishing Panthalassa!
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Jul 20, 2005
62,554
30,982
Northern VA
I got an iPhone 3G. Battery power is a joke. I charged it up one night, had an 18 minute phone call the next day, with very little other use, and the low battery (20%) alarm went off. Can't imagine trying to listen to radio on it, too.
 

tomcrown1

SatelliteGuys Pro
Mar 20, 2008
2,321
16
San Francisco
I got an iPhone 3G. Battery power is a joke. I charged it up one night, had an 18 minute phone call the next day, with very little other use, and the low battery (20%) alarm went off. Can't imagine trying to listen to radio on it, too.

To clairfy I use it in my car with the car charger hooked in no battery problem.:D
 

charper1

Bourbon Tester
Supporting Founder
May 18, 2004
18,442
6
I'm Nationwide
Phones WILL NEVER provide what sat radio can provide overall as far as cost and convenience fora MUSIC device; a phone is OVERKILL. Stop and think at the cost for an iphone; monthly and upfront; to simply have a tiny phone with tiny speakers just to play music? Power issues, stopping and starting when needing to make a call, email or text; what a joke, weak overall quality for a device I want to PLAY MUSIC. What if I want to play it in the home for hours at a party or on a long road trip UNINTERRUPTED; what if I want one unit in the car and on in the office or home? All this talk about phones taking over the internet, video and audio world are plain nonsense. They may be a decent addition for those services in a pinch, but that's it!
 

socalpanman

Supporting Founder
Supporting Founder
Feb 12, 2005
501
2
San Rafael CA
Take a breath and open your ears to the stations that are there.
The 70's are well covered including R&B, and soul.
My kids understand Jobim and Coltrane from listening to the real thing. Please don't equate the Kenny Gs, Peter Whites as a gateway to real Jazz.
Throw in some Sinatra or 40s on 4 for the young ones.

Jimmy Buffet is a lot more than just his stuff. It's a great mix of soca, calypso, reggea, zydaco, country, southern rock and more.

As a Sirius sub I'm also not too happy with how they XM'd too much stuff but after a week I'm hearing the improvements.
 

Annoying Sirius "In-Activity" Log-off

Satellite Radio Thru Home Audio Receiver

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Top