| Author | Message | ||
     Xb9er |
Got an email today saying that xm and sirius will be merging. The merger should be complete by late 2007, early 2008. Thought I would through this little bit of info to ya'll. Chris | ||
| Mikef5000 |
They would like to be merging. It is all up to the FCC now, and they are not too keen on the idea. We will see. | ||
| Carparts009 |
I have XM and deep down inside me I wouldn't like to see this happen. I've been reading what they plan on doing after the merger and the biggest thing for me was that they would get rid all but one channel that played a genre of music. I like the way XM is, thats why I bought it, and I wouldn't like to see any of the channels that I listen to go away. Yes a merger may mean more channels overall but most of the added channels are going to be talk radio, like Martha Stewart and Oprah, channels that I would never think of listening too. The only good that may come is that they lower the subscription price, even though it isn't that expensive right now. | ||
| Howieshotrods |
Lower subscription prices??? I thought a monopoly would normally cause an increase. | ||
| Damnut |
I love my Sirius. I don't want my music channels to go away. Especially my METAL CHANNELS..... damn it. Sirius has the better of the music channels, hands down. It is going to be nice having MLB now though. | ||
| Xl1200r |
I love my Sirius. I don't want my music channels to go away. Especially my METAL CHANNELS..... damn it. Sirius has the better of the music channels, hands down. It is going to be nice having MLB now though. Are you out of your mind? Sirrius is for talk and sports, XM is for music. My dad has Sirrius and there's only ONE channel that I wish I had on XM. I have a friend that actually has both because he wants to listen to Howard, but doesn't want the crap music selection from Sirius. | ||
| Bake |
Sirius got rid of The Discovery Channel today... too bad I liked it. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
I love my XM. The music channels are better than Sirius in my opinion. At least the ones I listen to. My favorites are the Deep Tracks, Top Tracks, and the Blues channel. Lots of others but those are the main 3. The comedy channels are also very good. What I like the most is the DJ's. They REALLY know their stuff. It's like FM used to be before Clear Channel came around. They are real DJ's not button pushers. Most channels have a "pirate radio" feel. Kind of like a good collage channel. There are some good channels on Sirius but I like XM better. It coould be a good thing for both. Depending on how soon they come out with dual channel radios. It could be interesting. My 3 year subscription is up in March, I need to figure out what to do... I'm sure I won't get the same rate I did before. I locked in at about $8 per month! Brad | ||
| Buell_nm |
This is disturbing news! I've had both and I luv the Sirius programing soooooooo much more then XM. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Whatever one you chose back then, XM or Sirius, you would never go back to regular radio. XM had a more corporate feel, and Sirius was a bit more "grass roots". I am a Sirius fan and Stern devotee, but today I heard some deep Pearl Jam cuts, Gordon Lightfoot, Pantera, Rush 2112 in its entirety...you can't get this stuff on commercial sh]tty radio. Sirius will be taking the lead in this merger, so I expect them to take the best of both services and provide a new service until the next best thing comes along. If you don't have it, you are certainly missing out. Just htis week Sirius has started a channel which contains the soundtarck of my adolescent formative years, Lithium 24, a showcase for 90's grunge and alternative. It's like a time capsule. | ||
| Damnut |
Are you out of your mind? Sirius is for talk and sports, XM is for music. Guess I might be...... What kind of music do you listen to??? I don't know if your into metal music or not but I like heavy metal and hard rock. IMO Sirius has better stations for that type of music. Sorry that I don't listen to that Yanny or Micheal Bolton stuff. Your right XM probably has better stations for that type of music. Seacrest OUT | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Amen, Damnut. | ||
| M1combat |
They'll add commercials if they haven't already. I don't like either system. | ||
| Loki |
Since I bought an INNO; I have not listened to AM/FM except for at work. Besides, I am liking listening to the Robert Zimmerman show. How about also getting to listen to the old King Biscuit Flower Hour shows. | ||
| Swordsman |
Sirius, just leave me Area 33 and the Big 80's and I'll be good! If either of those go, so do I. ~SM | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Damnut, Sirius does have better metal and hard rock in my opinion. However, I like XM's blues, jazz and "lighter" channels. Dude, you can keep the Bolton and Yanny stuff. That's worse than elevator music. I'm still not clear as to who is going to be running things. XM has a much larger market share than Sirius however, it looks like a sirius CEO is going to be heading things up. Interesting... Brad | ||
| Samiam |
M1combat, Both Sirius and XM do have commercials, just not on their music channels. Sam | ||
| Lowlife |
I like heavy metal and hard rock. IMO Sirius has better stations for that type of music Yeah, "Hard Attack" is decent. I do get kind of bent out of shape over the lack of small label bands though (Kalmah, November's Doom, Cephalic Carnage, Arsis...to name a few). Then again, I'm kind of nerdy and militant about my metal.  | ||
| Liquorwhere |
King Biscuit Flower Hour...now we are talking that was good stuff on the Westwood One Radio Network...I would stay up late on sunday night and hold my radio under the covers so my parents wouldn't hear it and listen to the Biscuit on 99.5 Kiss in San Antonio...that was awesome, that and the Dr. Demento show... | ||
| The_new_guy |
Opie & Anthony sold me on XM. | ||
| Rainman |
Robert Zimmerman's OK, but I way prefer Bob Dylan. He's sooooo much better! | ||
| Lord_deathscyte |
we get opie and Anthony in buffalo,NY for free and all I can says is not worth it. I do like the idea of merger. This way all the sports will be on one. | ||
| Yttikcat |
I agree with the Sirius fans. I like Sirius much more than I like XM. They play songs on the "Vault" that I have never, ever heard played on the radio. Also, if I have to listen to regular FM radio for over 5 minutes I get a headache! I did hear that both XM and Sirius customers will have to buy new receivers if the merger goes through. That sucks | ||
| Irideabuell |
The upper management at Sirius is pretty savvy. It's doubtful they will arbitrarily eliminate any music stations until the subscribers have had their say. It's honestly too early to speculate. | ||
| Buckinfubba |
If it weren't for outlaw country and bubba the love sponge I could never drive that truck all week. Trust me xm needs to merge with sirius cause last year with howard and this year with nascar xm is crying for help. and that 55million they paid oprah did nothing for subscritions. It was only a matter of time. Simple business 101 give a supereior product and you will win. sirius is winning. | ||
| Thespive |
XM never cuts out, Sirius does at every overpass, I have both in the same vehicle. I don't really like Sirius, and XM has baseball. The only good thing I can see is that my Sirius head unit might be able to get the XM signal and I can reduce clutter on the dash. Sirius has some better rock (but not good enough to make me switch), plus I love Discovery, which I guess doesn't matter now. Yep, I'll keep paying for XM. Sirius sucks. --Sean | ||
| Blublak |
Depending on where you are.. XM uses a ground station relay, so it's closer to conventional FM. Sirius uses 100% sat trans systems, so while they can cut out when the antenna can't see the sky, they also aren't effected by mountains or other natural conditions that cause over the air radio to drop out. Sirius is run by Mel Karmagian (sp?) the man that created what would become Clear Channel. He's a radio business giant that really knows how to generate a buzz and get his stations noticed. He was the man that hired Stern after NBC canned him. He saw the potential and went with it. With him at the helm, I'll bet that it would have only been a matter of time before XM fell by the wayside. This way (merger) they can still stay alive and operate.. The only thing that scares me is the concept of a monopoly that they will have on the market. How could anyone honestly think about competing with what will be Sirius/XM? Subscription rates could triple in a very short period of time. Especially if Mel retires and some short sighted 'modern' business person takes over and starts looking for the 'short gain' for their golden parachute .. Oops.. ok, sorry.. rant off.. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Depending on where you are.. XM uses a ground station relay, so it's closer to conventional FM. Sirius uses 100% sat trans systems, so while they can cut out when the antenna can't see the sky, they also aren't effected by mountains or other natural conditions that cause over the air radio to drop out. This is not true. Both systems use a ground transfer when they're in cities. My dad has Sirius and you can look right on the display and will tell you how strong both the satellite AND terrestial signals are. I can't comment on the metal staions on either system. I know there's at least one metal staion on XM, and others that just hard rock (I don't know which metal you are referring to - it's changed over the years). The Vault is the only Sirius station I wish I had, though I think less of it now than I did before. Dad and I took a long road trip and on the way home we were staring to hear quite a few repeats of things you were suprised to have even heard the first time. As for my tastes, I listen to everything. All classic rock, alternative, hard rock, jazz, blues, country, 80's, modern stuff - all of it aside from rap and hip hop. A number of my friends are DJs and they agree with me - XM is just plain better overall for music. I could care less about talk or sports. I love the guys on my local AM station for talk (if I ever feel like it). I woudln't doubt that Sirius has better stations for specific genres, but I don't listen to just one genre. | ||
| Yttikcat |
got this from an article I read and I think it is a good explanation. Sirius aims at urban core and red states. It has paid staggering amounts of money for the exclusive right to broadcast the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and NCAA college football and basketball. To hike the testosterone level another notch, Sirius last month signed shock-jock Howard Stern to a $100 million deal. It also has a couple of rap channels with explicit, uncensored lyrics. Most of the Sirius music channels are hosted by real human DJs, who provide some context for the songs and chatter just like a good local FM channel. At their best, they are terrific; at their worst, they are fine. XM aims at the suburbs and blue states. It signed former National Public Radio host Bob Edwards to host a morning news show. Its big sports bets are on NASCAR and baseball, as it recently signed a huge contract to broadcast every single Major League Baseball game over the next eight years. Most of the XM music channels are programmed from headquarters by clones from major shareholder Clear Channel Communications (CCU, news, msgs); they simply play song after song without DJ banter. At their best they are bland and at their worst, well, imagine KIIS-FM without the occasional break. How many times can you hear the same five Nelly songs over and over before you throw something at the dashboard? | ||
| Loki |
According to Mel..... With the merger they are willing to lock in subscriber rates at $13 for a some time to come. After listening to Mel on CSPAN yesterday. I see it in his perspective. Satellite radio is not a monopoly in the big picture. Only when you put it in its broadcast medium is it. Its competition is AM/FM(w/wo HD broadcasts), mobile internet streaming and some others. Terrestrial radio is scared only because sat radio is national in scope. Even they are going national in scope at this point. Don't think for a moment that Clear Channel, doesn't have plans to tie up some HD bandwidth with the same freq across the board. If it comes to be.... we will see. The more I hear; the more I do favor the combining of the two. Ala Carte programming is a moot point. Tiered programming will happen. | ||
| Swordsman |
Sirius needs to add in a J-pop station and a Celtic station, and I'd be totally hooked. Honestly, who listens to Radio Korea??? (yeah, I know, "Koreans"!) ~SM | ||
| Blublak |
That may be true about the ground repeaters in the city, but I do know out in the wilds, Sirius has a better signal since there is no ground station to be blocked. One of the guys I ride with has XM on his bike and there are times in the mountains where he looses the signal for miles on end. Whereas if my Sirius cuts out, it's just for a very short time. In my area, I'm used to it due to certain 'area conditions' that tend to block a lot of signals and what not. I had not heard about Mels comments regarding fixing the prices, but that's a good thing (a little more then I've been paying, but worth it IMHO).. There was a question about Sirius programming, such as how many stations carry what sort of music. I don't have the list in front of me, but there are at least three 'metal' stations. about a dozen hard rock and a total of maybe 25 rock and roll stations of various flavors, three jazz, one pure blues, several hip-hop, latin, classical, 'new age', easy listening etc. I'm sure XM is similar in content. Almost all of Sirius' channels are uncensored, so you get the true album versions. Lots of talk as well.. About 5 news, local and national weather, traffic in my area every four minutes. A good portion of left wing kinda stuff (they ruined 'Raw Dog Comedy' when they let that Bruer guy take over though. At least there are two other comedy channels that are still enjoyable. Howard, as we all know. Segment specific channels such as a gay channel, NASCAR, right wing and left wing talk, uh.. Home stuff (food, fix 'em ups etc.) heck, Playboy has it's own channel. Several sports, play by play games.. all that stuff.. Uh.. I'm sure I forgot some stuff.. But that's it in a nut shell.. Lastly, I agree that terrestrial radio is scared. Let's face it, un-restricted broadcasting has let even the DJ's (on some channels) start using the "F" bomb. So people can now pretty much choose what they want to listen too. I disagree with a tiered selection system though. I think you pays your money, you should have it all.. at the touch of a button. Although, Playboy the prime account holder has to OK.. have no idea why since Stern goes out without special permission. Could the bunnies have that much tit-ilation in their shows that it would be considered straight up porn? Ok, I'm outta here for now.. | ||
| Ghostrider |
I can't believe all you people pay every month to listen to the radio. While I'm sure commercial free is nice, I don't see the attraction. I haven't listened to the radio since I got my iPod. I put everything I like on that and listen to it all the time. I have a 20gig unit with over 2500 songs on it at this point. I have playlists for several genres of music and have never heard a song I didn't like. And I don't pay to download music. And I don't pirate it from the web. I just have a huge collection of cd's. I used to be a big fan of Howard when I lived in Philly and listened all the time. I didn't like him enough to pay for it, though. PS: Opie & Anthony are on here for free and they do suck hard. | ||
| Madsx |
The creator of satellite radio on Howard. http://homepage.mac.com/barnb/Audio/MartineRothbla ttSm.mov | ||
| Buellzebub |
it's good, operation costs should decrease, $15 cdn a month is a bargain. i hope they keep hard attack, octane & Sirius blues. i don't think i can ever go back to regular radio... still waiting for a 50gig flash based player. | ||
| Dfishman |
Outlaw country & the vault rule!.I have XM on the boat(work)& Sirius in the home shop.Sirius wins hands down for its variety of rock. | ||
| Rasmonis |
I absolutely love Sirius, testicular radio sux. Haven't intentionally listened to it for two years. Sirius programming is way better than XM (IMO), but everyone has their own tastes and with the combined programing a wider audience will tune in. Not sure how I feel about the merger, don't really care as long as it doesn't affect my lifetime subscription, definitely a bargain - satellite radio is here to stay folks. | ||
| Tdiddy |
I've had Sirius for a year now and the only 2 channels I've listened to are Howard and Elvis. I din't even listen to my cd's anymore. |
