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XM and Sirius: The Clear Channel of the Internet?

Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:16AM EST

XM and Sirius are now officially in merger discussions. Pending FCC approval, they'll bring their 14 million listeners together to create one big satellite radio station that you'll pay a monthly fee to listen to. Will you jump at the chance to belong or is this the ho-hum of the season? Satellite radio seemed pretty cool when it first launched, but the explosion of all sorts of Internet radio, podcasts, and other free listening channels has made satellite radio seem like a bit of a dinosaur.

they've got some incredible hurdles to overcome before this happens. many, many rules and regulations, and even some, in this instance pertaining to ownership of satellite radio companies.

not that it won't happen, but it's going to be even more difficult than usual.

As someone who has Sirius, I've very upset. There is no way of telling for sure what will happen but I know that the music will be altered and that sucks becuase Sirius just got really good musically by adding a great 90s alt rock channel. NOt very much seleciton but it just got started. XM seems to play obscure and unoteworthy tracks. Not rare and cool...obscure and sucky! I sampled them for a while and was not impressed and knew I wasn't missing a thing! I hope it is diffcult for them due to regulations. I have no interest in this monoploy...just Sirius!

VinnyM27 said:

chances are they're going to stick more with the Sirius playlists and business model, since it's the more popular, successful one.

VinnyM27 said:

I don't like the merging idea neither. But it just may happen anyway because XM and Sirius aren't making enough profits right now. In fact, I think (THE real) Howard Stern is making more money than Sirius itself!!!

TonyVanDam said:

Seems like...Sirius itself hasn't turned a profit...Howard has!

I hope then that, when it's all over, I can get over 300+ music channels. I have to say, I have Sirius now and am majorly disappointed. It's because they TALK between the damn songs -- it might as well be a friggin' commercial! They don't have to tell me what song played -- I read it on the read-out. They don't have to tell me about other channels -- if I wanted to hear them, I would flip around. "Music without interruption" = BULLSHIT!!!!

I would rather hear the music that's offered by my cable company (Music Choice) because they have far better selection and absolutely NO interruptions. Trouble is you can't get it in your car though!

The best, however, and you may laugh, is Gaydar Radio (gaydarradio.com) out of the U.K. because they play the BEST dance music!!!! Neither Sirius or XM have good channels for such thing. I pay a monthly subscription fee of $5 to hear it on the computer and wish Sirius would pick it up because (again) I can't hear it in the car.

Sirius + XM...
Yeah, we need more mediocrity, monolopolies, and people telling us what to listen to!

purpleunderground said:

I would be awesome if that happened but the thing is everyone is stressing cost cutting...Oh, joy! I think sadly the end is nigh and your ending statement is most accurate.

Yeah, Sirius does have five dance music channels (although Chill isn't all that dancable and doesn't even fit in the chill genre often). Most people say the popular dance channel is very busted plaing many tracks that are too old and sometimes electronic alt rock (older than those on the Strobe sometimes, which rocks and is my favorite!). There is also a gay channel, which does play "gay" music which can sometimes be dance but is only played at night and I think most of the weekend....They are mostly known for talk radio. Don't really listen to it. Of course you probably knew all this but for those who don't.

My channels are: Howard 100, Strobe, 1st Wave, Lithium (brand new...hopefully sticks around), Specturm, Heart & Soul, Sirius Left and the mother....the Big 80s. which is awesome because of Nina Blackwood and her Top 40 countdowns on the weekend!). I only hope at least my top five are safe (which includes the first four and Big 80s). How about you? What are your favorites?

I never understood why sirius would pay Howard Stern $500,000,000 to listen to him. They never will recup that money. Howard Stern ain't shit anyway. And who would listen to Oprah on Radio when all you have to do is turn on the TV. How dumb is that.

One gimich with the merger that people aren't thinking about is: Everyone will have to buy a new receiver to pick up the channel if they merge. Sirius radios can't pick up XM And vise versa. So everyone will have to buy new radios. That's fucked up. if this is the case I will cancel my XM.

purpleunderground said:

you're pissed off about 3 seconds of telling you the artist and title of the song? get a fucking grip.

jaimestarr79 said:

The Oprah thing is ridiclous because she apparently is only on for a half hour (from what I heard it's a phone call!) on the air a week. It's mostly those dumb dumbs that appear on her show regularlly like that semi-hot female psychologist or that designer guy.

As for Howard, he's said that he needed a million listeners to pay for his deal. Consider that before the deal was announced, Sirius had 600K subscribers....it's over 6 million now. I wouldn't say he can take credit for all of them but I'm sure he can at least claim a good 2 million as regular listeners if not solely subscribing for him. Howard has paid for himself but it's not like that's their only or biggest expense. It costs like billions to get those satelites up. And while now of the other talent is getting paid nearly as much as Howard, but it adds up. They've recovered his money, but not everything.

Also, I'm less concerned about buying a new radio because the one I have was free (I only had to pay $50 for a boombox...well worth it!). I wanted to buy a Stellito evantually. It's highly possible that people will have to buy new radios but I'm sure they will do everything to try and prevent pissing off loyal customers. My biggest concern is changing the product and music channels. I just don't like XM's music playlists.

And even though I responded to this but the post screwed up, I just wanted to say that I dig the bumpers for the most part. It is kind of nice to hear about what else is going on. It's hardly that big of a distraction. It's not FM. that's for sure. It's nice to have some personality on most of the channels.
And the DJs actually don;t have to tell you about what song they are playing or played becuase Sirius (and I'm sure XM) have a display which tells you the song and artist.
[Edited 2/23/07 6:08am]

KidOmega said:

YOU don't think it gets tiresome? That you can't READ FOR YOURSELF what the artist or station is? How about supposed dance stations where they do very little "continuous mix" because they insist on doing a commercial for their channel? Do I pay "extra" for having them talk? (And if I wanted talk radio, I would put the dial there!) Why pay for it if it is no different than local radio????

Yeah... the "fucking grip" I have on it is if I wanted that crap, I'd have stuck to my local radio stations. Why pay to have someone or entity tell me crap I don't care to hear that interrupts my listening enjoyment or invalidates what I thought was supposed to be a plus for having satellite radio in the first place. Thank god I DJ and make my own mixes... just pop that fucker in there and - ta da - no yakking!!!!!

You piss me off. I'm DISAPPOINTED with Sirius satelite radio!
[Edited 2/23/07 11:43am]

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[Edited 2/23/07 11:44am]

purpleunderground said:

some of us enjoy the comentary by the dj's... in fact i'd say if you did a survey of the radio listening audience i'd say that the majority prefer to have occasional interruptions. i mean it's not like the big wigs at the radio stations, both satelite and terrestrial, wouldn't rather have a computer just play music so they wouldn't have to pay anyone and save money, but most of us like a little personality thrown in, a little humanity.