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Let's Rename this Board

In the MON(Middel of Nowhere) where I am I had to go to Sirius/XM or I was about to go crazy trying to hold the very few decent stations there are. Now what I lsiten to is there all the time, every time - except for gas station overhangs, but I am not in the car anyway :)
 
I can relate with you and say that yes, SiriusXM is a good product, I've had it for 2 and a half years. It does have a lot of variety in genre, as well as some really good stations, and its better than what I have to deal with on FM in my area "country, religious, pop, rock".

But its lost its luster in my opinion, having to pay $18 a month for a channel list that is slowly getting smaller and is not really commercial free anymore isn't really worth it. When my family first got it, I thought it was so fascinating, it would be cool to listen to so many different genres of music, but now its seen its better days in my eyes, the customer service is very hard to deal with and you have to buy expensive accessories for your radio if you want to listen anywhere else than your car.

Nobody even listens to it anymore in my house except for me and I get bored with it after a half hour. Not to mention competition from online streaming services like Pandora and Slacker. I don't hate it, or really have any plans to cancel just yet, it comes in handy when nothing else is on, I just got bored of it.

And mainly the bad experiences you hear about all over the web are from poor customer service issues and price hikes, Bottom line: its just a company that doesn't care about their customers.

Just my two cents.
 
I only listen to Sirius/XM in the car. Not at home or streaming. I have other options at home (e.g Music Choice, Pandora). However, if I wanted to take the unit out of the car (plays through the car radio Aux input) it would not be all that difficult to hook it up at home. I already have a 12V power supply (13.8V actually) attached to a cigarette adapter so I could probably get it going in about 15 minutes. But I would rather leave it in the car.
 
Funny thing: Around the Memorial Day weekend, Sirius XM decided to reactivate my radio for 10 days for free to try to get me to come back. I hadn't used it in 2 years, so I dug it out, hooked it up and figured I'd listen and see if anything is any better. It wasn't.

Most notably, the DJ on Deep Tracks went off on a political rant about how evil 1%ers are, and started sounding like some rabid talk show host. It went on for nearly his entire show, with a bunch of political and protest songs sprinkled in. I couldn't help but think how absolutely out of line this was as he worked for one of those evil corporations he was ranting about, so I unplugged the radio, dumped the whole unit, power supply and antenna in the trash can and they will never see me again. I knew I was finished with Sirius before, now I am absolutely CERTAIN I am finished with them for good. What a mess.
 
OK, allow me to put in 2 cents here...I once subscribe to XM before the merger. I cancelled the subscription when time is up, mostly because I don't like to subscribe to anything. The music choices were fine, listened to mostly the "Cafe" channel except which I thought was OK.

Like johnnyu said in last month's post, I will not pay to listen to radio.
 
ddsparxx said:
OK, allow me to put in 2 cents here...I once subscribe to XM before the merger. I cancelled the subscription when time is up, mostly because I don't like to subscribe to anything. The music choices were fine, listened to mostly the "Cafe" channel except which I thought was OK.

Like johnnyu said in last month's post, I will not pay to listen to radio.

To each their own but I AM willing to pay for a superior product. Believe me, I get my moneys worth.
 
I keep thinking that what I need to do is post a clip of my local FM reception here from the format I usually listen to and a clip of a similar program from Sirius/XM. At least where I am, the whole discussion of sound quality/playlist becomes almost irrelevant. BTW, we have only one cell phone carrier that gets a decent signal into here (T-Mobile) and the best data rate I can get is 36kilo (not mega). Sirius/XM is not the best answer, it is about the only answer.
 
nocomradio said:
Funny thing: Around the Memorial Day weekend, Sirius XM decided to reactivate my radio for 10 days for free to try to get me to come back. I hadn't used it in 2 years, so I dug it out, hooked it up and figured I'd listen and see if anything is any better. It wasn't.

Most notably, the DJ on Deep Tracks went off on a political rant about how evil 1%ers are, and started sounding like some rabid talk show host. It went on for nearly his entire show, with a bunch of political and protest songs sprinkled in. I couldn't help but think how absolutely out of line this was as he worked for one of those evil corporations he was ranting about, so I unplugged the radio, dumped the whole unit, power supply and antenna in the trash can and they will never see me again. I knew I was finished with Sirius before, now I am absolutely CERTAIN I am finished with them for good. What a mess.

Ah, I see you've stumbled onto the Jim Ladd show. Jim is a legend in his own mind and there is no amount of collectivist clap-trap he won't regurgitate, since he is all about "sticking it to the man". As a long-time LA listener, I can tell you that when Jim sticks to just spinning the records, he can be an excellent DJ. But when his mind wanders off to the political commune, which is often, he is unlistenable. But don't worry, the end of his rants always come at some (missed) point, usually followed by a Doors record.
 
Yes let's rename this board Bash XM. You sure won't find much boasting about it!
can I jump on the bash XM bandwagon? I dumped mine after being a subscriber for more than 7 years. I loved it when I first got it, the selections were great! There was something for EVERYONE. Little by little, a station here, a DJ there, disappeared from the dial. I noticed something happening to XM, but couldn't place it or put my finger on it. Something.. funny. But, I stayed on for one station and one only: Radio Classics. I'd go to sleep to it almost nightly. Every once in a while I'd wheel through the dial to see what's new. Welp- never anything "new" but I notice less and less offered, and what WAS offered was pure garbage. I'd really like to put my honest opinion out here but that would cause a firestorm on a totally different subject.

You know what I think? Whomever runs Sirius/XM is not interested in giving their customers the choice of programming they want. AND- it would be LESS costly to supply content that people actually would pay for, and gladly. Seems to me they have an agenda, and it doesn't have their customers best interest in mind. I got sick of paying 15 or so dollars a month for one measly radio plays station that I can download from the public domain instead.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Ah, I see you've stumbled onto the Jim Ladd show. Jim is a legend in his own mind and there is no amount of collectivist clap-trap he won't regurgitate, since he is all about "sticking it to the man". As a long-time LA listener, I can tell you that when Jim sticks to just spinning the records, he can be an excellent DJ. But when his mind wanders off to the political commune, which is often, he is unlistenable. But don't worry, the end of his rants always come at some (missed) point, usually followed by a Doors record.

So that's who it was! The music wasn't bad at all, and I usually always hung around Deep Tracks anyway. But if I want that sort of talk, I will go seek it other than on a music channel. It really was getting kinda out there as the show progressed.
 
ai4i said:
KR4BD said:
With gas so high, I am driving much less.
Adjusted for inflation, fuel costs much less than it did before you were born, whatever your age might be.
Do the math, with an annual inflation rate of about 5%, a dollar is worth about four pre-inflated ¢ents, and I don't remember ever paying 16¢/gallon.

AZJoe said:
Many people on these boards are old terrestrial radio hacks (former & current employees/owners, etc)...
Its always been AM/FM to them and always will be...to each their own.
I have been following AZJoe's comments for several years across several discussion boards and they are allways intelligent.
He beat me to getting XM by just a couple of months!

In 1968, one hour of federal minimum wage, $1.60 per hour, would buy 5 gallons of gasoline.
 
Somebody said:
Many people on these boards are old terrestrial radio hacks (former & current employees/owners, etc)...
Its always been AM/FM to them and always will be...to each their own.

Don't tar me with that brush! As an old terrestrial radio hack I'm no fan of the current AM/FM dial where I live. They simply don't offer much for the 50+ crowd.
 
unitron said:
In 1968, one hour of federal minimum wage, $1.60 per hour, would buy 5 gallons of gasoline.
I remember minimum wage being $1.65/hour in the middle seventies, so it has always lagged behind inflation.
With an average inflation rate of 5% over forty four years, $1.60 worth of stuff should now cost about $13.70.
Add 1% annual government regulatory fees and surcharges (a tax by any name...) to bring it up to $21 and you are about right.
 
YOU WILL NOT PAY TO LISTEN TO RADIO. Cool, don't. I will not pay to watch TV. I prefer to listen to radio. And I will pay to listen to decent radio compared to what is OTA in my area.
 
Mitch Brewer said:
YOU WILL NOT PAY TO LISTEN TO RADIO. Cool, don't. I will not pay to watch TV. I prefer to listen to radio. And I will pay to listen to decent radio compared to what is OTA in my area.



Oh I'll pay. I did for years. I just want something worth paying for. If they want to give me 6 months for 25 bucks, I may do that; but I won't pay the regular rate for what they are putting out these days
 
nocomradio said:
To the O.P:

I am not sure how long you have been a subscriber to XM, or Sirius/XM as it is now known and has been for a few years. If you'd been there in the beginning as I was, and enjoyed what XM was and where it was going, you may have a different and not so rosy view of the merger mess that gutted XM. I am also not sure if you've ever had the occasion to deal with any of their personnel with a problem or issue with your subscription. It can frustrate you to tears at best. I dumped them shortly after the merger because they really, and truly seemed to me to act as if the customer meant nothing to them whatsoever. And that after paying for their service.

I had a problem with them a couple of years ago and I finally gave up after at least ten long frustrating calls to customer service, I was ready to rip my radio out of my car and run it over. Eventually after I regained my sanity with the problem remaining for another year I got brave and called customer service again and actually got someone who straightened it out for me. Maybe they have new customer service?
 
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