XM really knows how to kill a good thing!

[mike1973]

I am soooooooooo pissed, the vast majority of the XM channels my family loved are now gone:

Fungus - my wife and I are ~40, we are old school punks. Losing this station was like a punch in the nuts, the "Bam Magera" channel is a sad substitute for pikers.

Beyond Jazz - Fun progressive Jazz is necessary to keep the youngsters interested, how else am I supposed to convince my kids Jazz isn't elderly music?

Chrome - What can I say, I grew up in the 70's, for me it is a vital guilty pleasure!

It seems the only channel I like that they will bring back is "Boneyard"

WTF? Does anyone really want to hear 24 hour stations of bands???
AC/DC This band died when Bon Scott did.
Jimmy Buffet Parents who listen to this crap are the reason thier kids turn around and listen to Satanic Death Metal and huff solvents.
Grateful Dead uh, yeah, right, these people listen to the Radio? Haven't they shunned all worldly possesions? Shouldn't they be out on the ocean saving whales, or in some far off rainforest, or protesting somewhere?
Led Zeppelin Decent music, but I thought most people heard enough of them at every high school or college party they went to?
Bruce Springsteen same answer as Jimmy Buffet.
Jam On Same answer as grateful dead.

Wow, I loved XM and had three subscriptions. I am seriously considering cancelling it, and just wiring my FiOS box to listen to "music choice" or whatever... SHEESH!!! What a way to ruin a good thing...

Thats amazing, you named the 3 stations that I listen to almost full time on Sirius (I'll let you guess which, though they must be doing something right to have beat out the other channels that went bye-bye) and I have yet to shun all my worldly possesions

 

[WalksInDarkness]

Thats amazing, you named the 3 stations that I listen to almost full time on Sirius (I'll let you guess which, though they must be doing something right to have beat out the other channels that went bye-bye) and I have yet to shun all my worldly possesions

That is because hippies only believe in giving away other peoples money, and not their own. "Trustifarians" just like to pretend to be "fake bums" for the weekends, at whatever lame jamband concert, so they can dance around with hairy chicks and get wasted. But I digress, this is a Sat Radio discussion, if you want to talk political PM with an e-mail address and I'll give you the link to our "open format" political discussion site.

 

[mike1973]

That is because hippies only believe in giving away other peoples money, and not their own. "Trustifarians" just like to pretend to be "fake bums" for the weekends, at whatever lame jamband concert, so they can dance around with hairy chicks and get wasted. But I digress, this is a Sat Radio discussion, if you want to talk political PM with an e-mail address and I'll give you the link to our "open format" political discussion site.

Thats ok, but I appreciate the offer. Its a couple weeks past political discussions for me, I was just getting at the fact that you can enjoy a type of music without living a predetermined lifestyle that may go along with it.

 

[navychop]

To clairfy I use it in my car with the car charger hooked in no battery problem.

Keep in mind it's only good for about 400 charging cycles.

I like my iPhone 3G. But I view it as a transitional device. Hopefully in a couple of years they will have a more capable device with longer battery life and a user replaceable battery.

 

[tomcrown1]

Keep in mind it's only good for about 400 charging cycles.

I like my iPhone 3G. But I view it as a transitional device. Hopefully in a couple of years they will have a more capable device with longer battery life and a user replaceable battery.

A user replaceable battery will only happen if Steve Jobs leaves apple. He will not do it. The only unit he has allowed a replacabe battery is the laptop and I doubt that he did that with a happy heart.

 

[navychop]

Just to make another buck off the customer? And we do without for a week or more while we also take a risk on shipping?

 

[bidger`]

WTF? Does anyone really want to hear 24 hour stations of bands???

There are lots of bands/artists I like, but if I tried listening to only one for more than 2 hours continuosly, they wouldn't be a favorite anymore.

 

[cybok0]

Yep, Faction is OK and all, but they extracted the punk out a while to make its own channel; putting it back into Faction with all that rap and alt is plain stupid; especially with all the 24/7 "insert band name here" crap channels. They need to dump all those 24/7 channels.

:up:up:up

 

[cybok0]

Actually, don't they call it "Action Sports Radio" or some stupid crap like that? And the fact that Bam Magera is one of the hosts, well that just makes me want to puke. It is more like punk-lite for noobs. I'll give it a listen some more, but so far it makes me say "eeeeewwwwwww...".

The "real" punk channel was good until they originally put AC/DC 24/7 on there.

 

[truckracer]

I listen to AC/DC radio quite a bit. Some bruce springstein too.
I don't know if I will still want to hear AC/DC all the time by next year LOL.
I like the concept of artist stations. Sirius and XM have so many audio streams-and when if ever a dual service tuner hits the market - The bandwidth will be huge and artist based stations won't hurt the regular stuff.

I hope to see more artist based stations in the future.

 

[kb7oeb]

I don't think the cellular network cable of handling wide spread streaming of internet audio. The mobile tv service verizon offers uses spectrum taken from that TV band the was sold to qualcomm.

I like my iPhone 3G. But I view it as a transitional device. Hopefully in a couple of years they will have a more capable device with longer battery life and a user replaceable battery.

Blackberry storm might be that device if it lives up to the hype.

 

[jegrant]

As an XM & Sirius dual sub, I have mixed feelings about the merger, but overall I think the addition of DJs to more channels does make it more *radio* and less *jukebox*, which is a good thing. However, some channels do seem to have lots of DJ chatter, and I think they should at least play 3 or 4 songs before interrupting the music flow.
I am very happy to see BBC Radio 1, NPR Now, and WRN added.

I hope the Canadian Sirius & XM hurry up and merge so that XM can get CBC 1 & 3 plus perhaps Iceberg.

 

[HCI]

Yep, Faction is OK and all, but they extracted the punk out a while to make its own channel; putting it back into Faction with all that rap and alt is plain stupid; especially with all the 24/7 "insert band name here" crap channels. They need to dump all those 24/7 channels.

I was listening to Faction the other day and the DJ jumps in in the middle of a song and starts singing along. The only 24/7 channel I like is the Zeppelin channel.

 

[vinnyv07]

I don't know about anyone else in here, but all I hear is a ton of people complaining about their fav ch going or ch's that were added or changed. Bottom line is that you can vote with your $$ and cancel. I am disappointed about baseball not being offered right up front with the best of XM pack. If your an XM sub you really have a lot to choose from as far as getting the best of Sirius. If you don't want it then you don't have to pay.
But one thing is for sure...no matter how bad sat radio gets....in my opinion, it will never be as bad as reg radio. I try to listen now and I go nuts. Sat radio is so worth my 13 bucks a mth. As a Sirius lifetime sub with an extra radio, I don't know what I would do if it all went under.

P.S. That being said ...they aren't getting another buck out of me until they offer baseball to Sirius subs.
And phones being built the way they are....like crap....it really isn't a good substitute for what sat radio gives the customer.

 

[charper1]

I agree and as I added in my other post above I called them and remove a unit from my account and specifically told them why / voting my displeasure.

 

[WalksInDarkness]

UPDATE: Hmm, interesting. They actually answered my e-mail. Not only that, it was an actual response (not just some form letter); as he addresses the specific channels I was pissed about! see below.
---------------------------------------
Dear W....,

Thanks for the e-mail.

I do appreciate hearing from you and empathize with your situation. I also recognize the fact that you're passionate about music. I am as well.

We are starting a weekly modern jazz show on REAL JAZZ and have two great classic dance shows on our decades channels; radio legend Joe Causi hosts a disco show on 70S ON 7 and Denny Terrio hosts a dance show on 80S ON 8. I know this is small consolation when you miss a channel, but I wanted to at least let you know about this programming.

While I can’t guarantee the return of FUNGUS, I can let you know that XM introduced a new channel called FACTION, which plays much of the music heard on FUNGUS, including a show hosted by Marky Ramone. We’re also hoping to move “Rancid Radio” as well as other long form shows from FUNGUS to this new channel. You can check out Faction on XM 52.

The fact is that the decision to pre-empt or discontinue a channel is never easy. We struggle with these challenges on a daily basis because of the limited space on the network. If space wasn't an issue, we'd offer hundreds of more channels covering every musical genre imaginable. The challenge with FUNGUS is that it was consistently one of the lowest performing music channels on the network. That doesn't mean the channel didn't have fans or that it wasn't great (I actually listened to FUNGUS quite a bit and my son did as well), but as our subscriber base grows to nearly 40 million listeners, channels that reach smaller audiences become harder to justify.

Again, thank you for writing. I'm sorry you're unhappy with the decision and I hope you'll stick around as a subscriber or check out all the new music channels available now. You can go to www.xmradio.com/newlineup to download the new channel guide. Your comments and feedback about our programming is always welcome and appreciated.

Best regards,

Jon

Jon Zellner

Senior Vice President

Music Programming

Sirius XM Radio

1500 Eckington Place NE

Washington, DC 20002

 

[Gordoco]

UPDATE: Hmm, interesting. They actually answered my e-mail. Not only that, it was an actual response (not just some form letter); as he addresses the specific channels I was pissed about! see below.

That's a nice personalized letter from someone with a Senior VP title. Responses to my emails were also personalized to the channels I complained about, but were signed by a lowly CSR.

We are starting a weekly modern jazz show on REAL JAZZ and have two great classic dance shows on our decades channels; radio legend Joe Causi hosts a disco show on 70S ON 7 and Denny Terrio hosts a dance show on 80S ON 8. I know this is small consolation when you miss a channel, but I wanted to at least let you know about this programming.

The problem with weekly shows is they're useless if your radio is in your car and you mainly listen to sat radio during your commute. The weekly shows are usually at odd hours, not rush hour when I'm in the car and the SiriusXM DJ's are out in force.

I'm still on the fence about canceling. Some days I find some good tunes and have a pleasant commute. Other days I'm channel-flipping like mad trying to find something worth listening to. Not good when you're driving - might as well be doing it with free FM. I never had this problem with XM.

 

[WalksInDarkness]

The problem with weekly shows is they're useless if your radio is in your car and you mainly listen to sat radio during your commute. The weekly shows are usually at odd hours, not rush hour when I'm in the car and the SiriusXM DJ's are out in force.

I'm still on the fence about canceling. Some days I find some good tunes and have a pleasant commute. Other days I'm channel-flipping like mad trying to find something worth listening to. Not good when you're driving - might as well be doing it with free FM. I never had this problem with XM.

I am in agreement with you 100%. I find that all of the "special shows" are at hours I won't be listening, or often want to listen to a completely different genre. I might look into attempting to record the shows to MP3 or something, almost like a DVR or something; but that would only work if I can set it all up via timer.

OTOH, I am seriously considering cancelling today. Since it is an organized protest to send a message Siriusly Screwed , I wonder if it will have any effect?

 

[tmac2112]

I was listening to Faction the other day and the DJ jumps in in the middle of a song and starts singing along. The only 24/7 channel I like is the Zeppelin channel.

I have XM. I noticed that the Zepplin channel was gone today. Was it cancelled? Just curious if anyone's heard anything about it...

 

[jself1982]

As a Sirius customer and XM customer for almost 5 years, I am not happy with Sirius XM. I had Sirius for some talk and Nascar and some music and XM for there great music selection...so with XM gone, we have seen Sirius come in and screw up the playlist. US Country played some good country on XM, now that its Prime Country, its nothing but repeats more often than ever. Gosh, not happy still here after a month of the new Sirius XM.