XM/Sirius Merger takes to the air today.

[Lester]

Wifey-poo says Octane-20 sounded so bad, she actually emailed them.

Any other thoughts?

[genlock]

Wifey-poo says Octane-20 sounded so bad, she actually emailed them.

Any other thoughts?

Technical bad or content bad?

[Lester]

Content.

[sportsvoice]

I noticed the channel update on my Sirius receiver today. I think they are likely to notice heavy cancellations among XM customers since the bulk of their programming got wiped out. Sirius doesn't go as deep as most of the XM channels did. Octane is like the typical boring CC active rocker here in town, the only difference is that the playlist is slightly less repetitive and doesn't have all the annoying ads.

[Arp2]

As a consumer of XM, I thought I'd play this as a consumer (either not see or pretend not to see anything that was going on) and see what my experience would be. So.......


I woke up in the middle of the night and put on XM's "Audiovisions" channel (new age / instrumental), which goes into some sort of special hypnotize / go-to-sleep mode between midnight and 6......it wasn't there. It was classical. Dynamic, enthusiastic classical. It was my rude awakening....literally.

My email this morning had the announcement....there was not a thing in advance.

Looking at the lineup, I see some really confusing or annoying things:

First is the addition of Sirius' artist-exclusive channels....IMO, there is not a bigger waste of bits than these one-time attempts to hook new customers.

Second is the loss of XM's "Fine Tuning" and "Beyond Jazz"....the latter was a unique and intriguing soundtrack for an hour or trip or day or evening, and the former was a high-bitrate (along with the classicals, the best-sounding on XM) intelligent combination of quality music that added an elite air to anything you were doing.

Third is the combining of Spanish-language music channels....on paper, that's a combining of Mexican country and gold with traditional Caribbean dance and contemporary hip-hop-based music. This, I gotta hear.

Fourth is the apparent move of some weak, IMO, channels to Sirius when the Sirius channels would have been better. Perhaps they merged or just used the names, though....gotta tune those in, too.

Fifth is the loss of "Chrome"...billed as a Disco channel, it was actually a fair amount broader than that and provided a great gold-based alternative for those wanting to hear a beat without wanting to turn "thug."

Sixth....jam bands??? Oh, good lord.....

Seventh is what I fear is happening to audio quality. Already not great, the audio quality definitely suffered when the merged company added the "best of" package. A quick glance (math could be wrong; I didn't try that hard) shows a net of +3, which almost has to drop that audio quality even further, doesn't it?

Definitely wanna hear this.....next good and lengthy chance isn't 'til Friday or the weekend, though.....

[Mr. Jones]

First impressions... from the Sirius side:

The playlists seem XM-deep, as I've heard tracks on the newly refurbished decade channels that I haven't heard in years. The presentation is a lot worse, to the point where I think they booted bad consultants for even worse ones. Hearing "Sirius XM" in jingles just doesn't work.

The reorganization of said channels mostly works for me. I'm not a fan whatsoever of all the solo-artist channels. Give me back SuperShuffle or anything else instead of the Grateful Dead or Zeppelin 24/7.

Bottom line: this works. For now.

[ashton]

I'm a loyal xm comedy 150 listener. The new channel is a merger, which I'm not so sure about. I'm pretty big on artist rotation. It seems lacking for now, as I heard 2 Chris Rock bits in a set of 12 minutes or so..

[AmpedNow]

I haven't talked about satellite much lately, because, well, there hasn't been anything to talk about.

The CS of both services have been less than responsive, going back at least to 2005... It's obvious to me that it's still not a priority to the "new" company. A shame, too, considering the wasted potential of millions of "opt-inners" who actually want to be contacted.

There are still exclusive channels on each service. "Hits 1" is still a Sirius exclusive, while "20 On 20" remains on XM, for example. The CC channels remain on XM, too. The traffic/weather channels remain separate as well. There are still contracts that need to run out, so there will be more changes over time.

I could maybe understand sports, but I don't know why Stern is even a "Best Of Sirius" option for XM subs... If he is still the golden boy of this merged company, then why charge XM subs extra to hear him while he remains part of the standard Sirius package? The Howard channels should be standard on XM. Same goes for Oprah and "The Virus" on Sirius.

I supported the merger because the current marketplace makes it impossible for two satellite radio companies to survive. This business model was created before the iPod/iPhone and Wi-Fi streaming, and did not factor in competition beyond terrestrial radio and in-dash CD changers. One of them would have went under anyway, giving us a monopoly by the free market. Heck, even under the merged "synergies", the company is still in penny stock territory with a $1 billion debt liability next year. So, there are still no guarantees that this is going to work long-term.

Also, this time next year, they will face the dilemma of resigning Stern should he want to stay, or take a big net negative sub hit for a couple of quarters, which will look terrible on paper. If he retires, there will still be a loss, but not nearly as big as it would be if they "fire" him. There would be plenty of protest cancellations. This may also be why they are keeping O&A around on The Virus, so they'll still have a "T and A" morning show to feature.

I'll have to factor all of this in when my phone contract comes up again... I may just cancel and put the sub money towards the iPhone/streaming route.

[Larkin Ocho Cinco]

I have Sirius, because it came with my vehicle and is free for a year. I would be surprised if the Mrs lets me keep it, but I do enjoy 40s on 4 and Escape because it is actually different and unique and not something you hear over the air.

[AmpedNow]

I'm liking Pop2k. One of the new channels on the service.

[Uncle Shishkabob]

60's on 6- Wolfman does not belong on in Midday. The new night guy at night also doen't seam to fit. Cousin Brucie on Saturdays is cool. Flash and Terry do a nice job
70's on 7- much better..the high energy effect sounds good...they should add reverb to the mic.
The Classic Rock Channels also sound good.
Channel 18 comes in handy when I'm in the mood for music fit for a king( Thank You Thank You Very Much)

[Ace Purple]

I've thoroughly enjoyed the 90s on 9 channel.