XM

[corporateradiosucks]

^^^ This sounds like a carbon copy of when the X/Crap Channel took over The Revolution. 15 years later and we've got...crap.

I don't own an mp3 player or really even understand how they work. Until all radio needs to be paid for I'm keeping it that way.

 

[Talk_Dude]

^^^ This sounds like a carbon copy of when the X/Crap Channel took over The Revolution. 15 years later and we've got...crap.

I don't own an mp3 player or really even understand how they work. Until all radio needs to be paid for I'm keeping it that way.

An MP3 player is just the 21st century equivalent of a Walkman. No more, no less. The only real differences between an MP3 player (or the Apple brand-name alternative, the iPod) and the old Walkman style products is that the new ones hold thousands of songs in solid-state memory and the new ones don't drain batteries as fast.

Like some of the old portable cassette or CD players, some MP3 players also have FM tuners. Mine does. When I'm outside walking, or if I'm shopping at the grocery store, I can use my MP3 player to listen to music I've loaded into it, or I can use the FM tuner to listen to the radio. If you just want to listen to the radio, and would like a personal portable radio you can listen to through ear-buds, then a portable MP3 player would be a good thing to own. You could use it at Heinz Field to listen to Hillgrove and Ilkin call a Steeler game as you watch it.

But that does illustrate the situation that broadcast radio is facing. XM and Sirius require subscriptions so they aren't necessarily the main competition for broadcast radio. But if you look through most electronic products catalogs, it's almost impossible to find a radio that is just a radio. Some exist, but most radios also include a CD player, or an MP3 player, or both. I don't know if any car makers offer a car that just has a radio and not a combination CD player and radio. Most new car radios I've seen have an input jack for plugging an iPod or MP3 player directly into the radio, making my FM adapter just a transition gadget for older cars.

 

[FreddyE1977]

US Rep. Edward Markey (D - MA) has been pushing a bill that would REQUIRE manufacturers of iPods, MP3 players, Kindles and all other "electronic devices" to incorporate an FM tuner into the design. As you can imagine, the electronics industry is pushing back pretty hard at that idea.

I am guessing the NAB must funnel TONS of cash into Rep. Markey's campaigns, since he seems always so willing to go over-the-top while sticking his nose into these issues.

The fact that Sirius and XM had to merge, and that they have to come chasing me, begging me to take them back
at fire-sale rates, indicates that their threat to traditional radio will be limited for the foreseeable future.

 

[Talk_Dude]

The fact that Sirius and XM had to merge, and that they have to come chasing me, begging me to take them back
at fire-sale rates, indicates that their threat to traditional radio will be limited for the foreseeable future.

You are correct about that. The only thing that might turn satelite radio into a winning proposition would be something more like cable TV. If they'd cut the base subscription rate to something nominal like $10 a year, with paid commercials, and a deluxe subscription for premium channels with uncut, uncensored content, then I think they'd have a chance. The base channels would be similar to basic cable channels like TBS, The History Channel, or MTV. You pay a little to get all of them, and still have to deal with commercials. The premium channels would be the radio equivalent of HBO or Showtime. They could also do audio "pay per hears", like live broadcasts of important concerts.

I don't know for sure if that would work or not, but it seems to me that since what they're currently doing isn't working all that well, trying something different is a better idea than continuing to do what hasn't been working.

 

[Parttimer]

The fact that Sirius and XM had to merge, and that they have to come chasing me, begging me to take them back
at fire-sale rates, indicates that their threat to traditional radio will be limited for the foreseeable future.

Wall Street looks at how many subscribers they have, not so much what they pay.

They didn't "have to" chase after you. It's just one facet of their business plan. The 80-20 rule probably applies here, that they get 80% of their revenues from 20% of their subscribers.

Likewise, the huge playlists in their early days were aimed at "early adopters", the sort of people who paid $1,000 for a Blu-Ray player the first month they were on the market. Eventually you have to go mass market, thus the playlists tighten up and the subscriber base grows.

Some people will never pay for radio. Some people still use antenna TV, or have basic cable. It doesn't mean xfinity and DirecTV are failures. Markets have multiple levels.

 

[Boss Radio]

Tight playlists are probably what chased some people to satellite in the first place.

 

[Parttimer]

That's all relative, none of the XM channels aside from maybe the CHRs are playing 300 songs. Tight on satellite probably means 2-3,000.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Based on their websites, XM has over 100 channels of specific music genres. If you want "hits", they have many channels of nothing but hits. If you want deep album cuts, they have a deep album cut channel. I don't know what songs each channel has on it. That's not on their website. But even if they only have 300 songs per channel, with 100 channels that comes to a potential for 30,000 songs!

 

[corporateradiosucks]

The key word is "potential."

I look at it as kind of the same way as the Music Choice channels on TV - there's the possibility for a LOT of overlap, unless the programmers make it a rule that (for example) all Keith Sweat songs may only be played on the "adult R & B hits" channel, not on "old skool R & B" or "lite pop hits" or "90s pop hits."

 

[Parttimer]

Based on their websites, XM has over 100 channels of specific music genres. If you want "hits", they have many channels of nothing but hits. If you want deep album cuts, they have a deep album cut channel. I don't know what songs each channel has on it. That's not on their website. But even if they only have 300 songs per channel, with 100 channels that comes to a potential for 30,000 songs!

I listen to the Underground Garage channel a lot (Kid Leo from WMMS in Cleveland, from way back when, does the afternoon shift). Little Steven from the E Street Band runs the channel, and said on the air that they play about 3,000 titles... so I didn't pull that number out of thin air.

I also am under the impression that the guys on Deep Cuts program their own shows.

So there are areas of huge variety, but that's certainly not what every listener is looking for.

 

[garnet]

I know some people who work on xm...pays around $18,000 a year...sad, obviously some make more, but there's a reason not many stick around...and yes, they say there are times when 7 people are listening...big fun.

 

[Talk_Dude]

I know some people who work on xm...pays around $18,000 a year...sad, obviously some make more, but there's a reason not many stick around...and yes, they say there are times when 7 people are listening...big fun.

I've listened to Sirius a little bit, and only heard XM at store demos. Do they actually have disc jockeys? That surprises me. I expected something like the audio feed from one of the Comcast music channels -- just song after song after song, like a 247 mix tape.

 

[dB]

I've listened to Sirius a little bit, and only heard XM at store demos. Do they actually have disc jockeys? That surprises me. I expected something like the audio feed from one of the Comcast music channels -- just song after song after song, like a 247 mix tape.

Would you believe Cousin Brucie?

 

[apostate]

There are both uninterrupted and hosted programs, including morning shows, across formats on the Sirius/XM channels. Apparently, the suits at the satellite service think jocks have some value, too. Other than the big names, though, it appears there may not be enough money there for someone to make their living solely from the satellite gig.

 

[Parttimer]

Some of the jocks VT stuff and also work at terrestrial stations.

Some of the bigger names are also on multiple channels... Mark Goodman, the old MTV VJ, does mornings on 80's on 8, and nights on the Spectrum, their AAA format.

Others also multitask... Spyder Harrison, who I had heard for a long time on WFLZ in Tampa, does the Sirius Hits 1 countdown on the weekend, and pulls a shift as JJ Walker on 70s on 7.

 

[Boss Radio]

That's all relative, none of the XM channels aside from maybe the CHRs are playing 300 songs. Tight on satellite probably means 2-3,000.

So the '60s channel on XM is 200 to 300 deep (on average) for every year? That's hard to believe.

 

[Parttimer]

That's all relative, none of the XM channels aside from maybe the CHRs are playing 300 songs. Tight on satellite probably means 2-3,000.

So the '60s channel on XM is 200 to 300 deep (on average) for every year? That's hard to believe.

The "decade" formats are probably not quite that deep. But my wife always wants the 80's channel on when she's in the car and they get pretty far off the beaten path sometimes. In their case, the core is tighter but they seem to have a category of more obscure stuff that's maybe on a lunar rotation, or they refresh it every month or two. Still not 300 songs, though.

 

[FreddyE1977]

The "decade" formats are probably not quite that deep

though the 70's channel is deep enough to make you gag and remember exactly why
that was such a crappy decade for music.

(another reason why Captain Showbiz' WTAE was a great radio station....it had to
overcome all of that bubblegum, syrup, novelty and disco on the playlist. You try playing
"Telephone Man", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and "Alone Again Naturally" in the same half hour
and try to hold onto your spot in the book).

 

[Talk_Dude]

The "decade" formats are probably not quite that deep

though the 70's channel is deep enough to make you gag and remember exactly why
that was such a crappy decade for music.

(another reason why Captain Showbiz' WTAE was a great radio station....it had to
overcome all of that bubblegum, syrup, novelty and disco on the playlist. You try playing
"Telephone Man", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and "Alone Again Naturally" in the same half hour
and try to hold onto your spot in the book).

In a way, that's funny. As a fan of classic rock, the Beatles release of "Rubber Soul" was the start of the classic rock era, and the rise of British synth-pop thanks to MTV marked the end of the era. I look at the 70's as the time when some of the best music of all time was created, including most of the works of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Rush, Foreigner, and countless other classic rock acts.

When I had access to an FM radio, I only listened to WDVE and WYDD in the 1970's, though I was stuck with no alternative to AM some of the time, as I drove a company vehicle that only had an AM radio. To me, the 70's were musical golden years because of all the great AOR music on WDVE and WYDD. Crap like "Telephone Man", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and "Alone Again Naturally", not to mention disco, were easy to ignore by just ignoring AM radio.

It's also kind of silly to assume that music changed drastically every ten years at the stroke of midnight on the last year of each decade. The 50's didn't really get started as "the 50's" until "Rock Around the Clock" became a hit in 1954. The teen idol crap that dominated the charts in the early 1960's was more a holdover from the 1950's than part of the 60's. The 60's really started with first wave of the British Invasion, and lasted until the early 1980's, at least for rock music. For other genres, the 60's started with the launch of Motown and ended with the start of disco.

 

[dB]

The "decade" formats are probably not quite that deep. But my wife always wants the 80's channel on when she's in the car and they get pretty far off the beaten path sometimes. In their case, the core is tighter but they seem to have a category of more obscure stuff that's maybe on a lunar rotation, or they refresh it every month or two. Still not 300 songs, though.

I listen to XM-6 several times a week. Most of the playlist seems to be Billboard Top 100 for the year, maybe Top-50 or Top 75. And it seems pretty thin on 1960-62, so a playlist of 500-700 for the decade would strike me as a reasonable number (purely as a guess, of course).