XM CUTS OFF TALK AND WEATHER CHANNELS ON SATURDAYS

[XRQKFM]

XM Radio is now cutting off channels 152, 166, 167 and the Weather Channel til 11:00 PM Eastern on Saturdays for College Football, E and Sonic Theater are also gone on the weekends.
If XM keeps cutting channels off I listen too I might just not have a reason to subscribe anymore!

Steve
www.xrqkfm.com

 

[smashedcd]

well if you spend all day saturday listing to the traffic and weather channels than you sir are really reaaly bored ;D

 

[livingfruitvirus]

They don't cut off 152. 166, 167 and 125 do get pre-empted Saturday evenings while 162 and 163 are gone all weekend. It's not as bad as Sirius though, where they could pre-empt up to 26 channels. And not just on Saturdays.

 

[smashedcd]

They don't cut off 152. 166, 167 and 125 do get pre-empted Saturday evenings while 162 and 163 are gone all weekend. It's not as bad as Sirius though, where they could pre-empt up to 26 channels. And not just on Saturdays.

considering sirius lost the SEC there isnt more than 8 football games on sirius at any one time anymore.

 

[Stuart]

I guess I could live without the "Garden Talk" on Extreme 152 When Extreme 152 was broadcasting most of the shows on 104.1 Real Radio (from Orlando) they were great.

Now they are horrible, although not as horrible as XM's Website. ???

Thanks,
Stuart

 

[DashRiprock]

I love XM's great music, sports, and talk/entertainment choices, but local traffic reports are not so good. I've found their coverage is too little too late, and presented by someone who's not familiar with my city. I always switch to a local AM station for my reports.

 

[XRQKFM]

well if you spend all day saturday listing to the traffic and weather channels than you sir are really reaaly bored

I never metioned traffic, nor did I say I listen to Traffic and Weather all day, Did I?
But when I tune to any above mentioned channels that I pay for I expect them to be there.

They don't cut off 152. 166, 167 and 125 do get pre-empted Saturday evenings while 162 and 163 are gone all weekend. It's not as bad as Sirius though, where they could pre-empt up to 26 channels. And not just on Saturdays.

If its pre-empted its cut off. if programming is cut off, pre-empted, deleted what ever you call it, I'm still not getting what I paid for.
I don't subscribe to Sirius nor do I plant to, when they merge I drop my subcripton
I am in an area where the only FM signals on the dial are XM Radios otherwise the dial is dead. AM mostly noise with the exception of the five spanish station and one day old news station.

Steve

 

[livingfruitvirus]

If its pre-empted its cut off. if programming is cut off, pre-empted, deleted what ever you call it, I'm still not getting what I paid for.

Well then what DID you pay for?

 

[byron]

I'd rather have non-essential channels cut-off/pre-empted/whatever than for new channel allotments to be established just for temporary use. See... New channel allotments, along with existing programming load, adds to overall bandwidth comsumption of the satellite feeding the sources to your radio, and thus theoretically reduces of overall quality in *all* of the channels we all pay for access to as paid subscribers. I'd rather lose an automated loop refeed of an electronic voice advising of information available elsewhere (PDA, terrestrial radio, television, newspaper, online resources, etc.) than have the 100+ something channels lowered in quality to offer football programming and appease some group of subscribers who whined enough about not having 24/7 access to pre-recorded loops of traffic and weather. I'd also like to add that XM is designed for residential (consumer-level) consumption, and weather and traffic aren't to be confused with news, entertainment and music choices that traditional customers are going to expect and enjoy. Majority rules here. Sorry.

And you aren't exclusively paying for access to weather and traffic channels. You're paying for access to a satellite radio provider's feed, who just happens to have common decency to offer you, I, and everyone else some entertaining choices to alternate ourselves away from traditional radio stations for, whether it be for a few minutes, a few hours, or hours on end. I'm not paying for five channels of anything when I pay $12.95 a month to have the service, and anyone who does base their preferences or opinion of overall service they're getting on that is just being foolish. And none of us are paying for that foolishness. Just because you only listen to 5 channels doesn't mean... [yeah I'm not going on from here.]

My two cents, but hell, I think I make a good point here.

 

[XRQKFM]

Re: XM CUTS OFF TALK & THE WEATHER CHANNEL ON SATURDAYS

I'd rather have non-essential channels cut-off

Whos non-essential channels yours or mine?

You're paying for access to a satellite radio provider's feed

No I'm paying for access to programming on that feed.

Just because you only listen to 5 channels doesn't mean.

Fact is most subscribers only listen to five or six channels, If it was the five or six channels you listen to were cut you would be miffed too. Listening to music on XM is point less with its low fidelityand all the yaking between songs. besides its available on DirecTV

Majority rules here

Who is the Majority? XM does no research and allows for no customer feed back.

I'd also like to add that XM is designed for residential (consumer-level) consumption

Fact is XM radio also serves commercial users such as trucking companies and restaurants etc., don't forget XM has radios designed for that purpose.

weather and traffic aren't to be confused with news

Again I never mentioned traffic, yet it keeps being inserted in the discussion, I simply stated a fact XM is removing channels

Well then what DID you pay for?

I paid for programming listed in the channel guide at time of subscription to be available 24 hours a day as advertised. programming changes took place after XM recieved payment for the month of September.
It will be their last payment if they cut off any channels I paid for again, I'll spend the $27 a month on a Dish subcription

local traffic reports are not so good. I've found their coverage is too little too late, and presented by someone who's not familiar with my city

Agreed, XM falls far short of what could be done, That has more to do with the NAB than anything else. We have no local traffic on AM-FM or XM, the scanner tends to have more timely traffic anyway.

Steve

 

[livingfruitvirus]

Re: XM CUTS OFF TALK & THE WEATHER CHANNEL ON SATURDAYS

Well then what DID you pay for?

I paid for programming listed in the channel guide at time of subscription to be available 24 hours a day as advertised. programming changes took place after XM recieved payment for the month of September.
It will be their last payment if they cut off any channels I paid for again, I'll spend the $27 a month on a Dish subcription

So you're paying for a concept more than you're paying for the programs? Are you a listener of the particular channels that get pre-empted on weekends?

 

[byron]

What's the majority? XM's *residential* subscriber base, thats what. Sure XM serves commercial entities too, but with 100% of the same product, speaking of the audio portion only, (RADAR and other products are irrelevent here) which is more that likely in more than twice the amount of homes than in any businesses. That's where majority rules. Truckers are still end users, and the businesses are just playing a single channel in most cases for a Muzak alternative. If the radios are designed to receive something else, I'm still not concerned with that, seeing as we're talking about cancelling subscriptions based on a few measly non-essential channels. Back to the issue...

You have thousands of households complaining about this, and then get those same households to cancel their subscriptions and communicate the channel pre-empting as a root cause, then you have a case. Until then, XM can pre-empt all the non-essential channels they want instead of burning more channel space to appease a few people wanting niche programming. I'd be upset if they didn't carry football, or music, or any of the other featured programming as-a-whole, so yea you're right. They'd never cut something that profitable, nor something they've spent that much money on. Interruption of robot-reminiscent audio of traffic and weather automations? Other niche-based channels that probably don't have high TSL to begin with? Not as much of a hit on the investment I've made with my measly $12.95 a month. Plus there's competition elsewhere. You can always make the switch.