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SirusXM radio big changes


giltner68

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Be aware the changes are big, channels eliminated, channels changed, renamed etc - does this sound like a new (unneeded update to Windows??????) Well, it's coming Aug 13th and for me personally it may be the end of a 9 year subscription to XM. I listen to channel 69 Escape 99% of the time. It wakes me at 6:45am, plays throughout my property 24/7 and now - ? They're pulling it off satellite and after a long conversation with their "care dept"? - I'm told that I can pay an additional $5 a month to get it online only? - my WiFi connect is iffy at best and listening to Frank Chatfield in between the buffering silences for $5 extra somehow rubs me the wrong way. Online seems to agree, be aware and check into the main sirusxm site for details if you depend (yes I do) on them for peace of mind and background music etc.

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Just curious giltner68, why would anyone retired and your age want to be woken up at 6:45am? Since I retired some 15 years ago, I wake up when I wake up, unless there is an appointment earlier. I try my best to make all appointments in the pm. :D

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In the early days, when Tomas jumped up on me in the morning, I ignored him and tried to sleep. The second time, he peed all over me. Since then, I have paid attention. He trained me very well. On occasion, he has rewarded me by bringing me a field mouse as my reward. :D

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While SiriusXM net income is up, so is their cost of revenue, according to quarterly reports since September 2014. Their actual earnings are down about 30%. I know I changed my monthly plan from a ludicrous 15 bucks/mo to a more reasonable 10 a couple of months ago. I gave up Stern (a relief) and comedy channels, but I've got Old Time Radio and PBS. Maybe others are doing the same. I don't know if their losses continue to come from paying Stern unimaginable contract fees.

I have no idea why they are shuffling now. I would like to think it's because management realizes their whole system has stagnated for years. The music channels are no different than pop radio ever was, just more old-fashioned: they have their top 100 on every specialty channel and they practically refuse to play anything else. I get better and more varied music on my one Shaw rock music channel than I do on all the rock channels combined on Sirius. Their DJs have exactly the same amount of time to get their personality on the air that Top 40 radio used to: between songs. And yet the majority of them don't seem to care. I can turn on 60s on 6 anytime and I guarantee that within three songs I'll hear one of 6 or so Supremes tunes. And for this we pay?

And another thing (!): this is digital radio, and yet if you tune in to, say, the Diane Rehm show, that's all it says on the display. It doesn't say who the guest is or what the segment is. To me, that's laziness in the extreme. And I've gone through four radios in six years; this is quickly becoming a no-win.

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I asked the girl on the phone today how many channels they had and she said 150 - I said that's 149 more than I need or listen to, so why should I pay for that? - And, you're taking my only channel I'm interested in off satellite so all my "radio" gear is now useless, why should I pay more for less? - of course she couldn't answer so I told her to enter in the "comments" screen in front of her that it's a negative business model and will cost more than it brings in. I notice online there are already a lot of folks agreeing with me that pulling Escape is a HUGE mistake. MS has made them and now it's XM's turn, hopefully they'll realize and pull back from the cliff they're headed toward.

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One (and only one) of their portable radios allows you 50 channels of your choosing for $7.99/mo. And you can add extra channels of your choosing for 25 cents each. That's what I want. None of this forced channeling. I asked about getting CBC1 added. "Oh, no, we don't do that unless you have that model."

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  • 1 month later...

Big chuckle today, opened the mailbox and a letter from XMRadio - ESCAPE IT BACK ON CHANNEL 69. Sounds like the pushback was fairly strong. It's on XM now and returns to Sirus Oct 8th. So, some kid wearing the marketing/programming hat got his tail feathers singed.

I learned decades ago the challenge of keeping subscription customers and the cost of getting new ones, or getting old ones back is much higher, I even see XM has a page for "returning customers" on their site with a special deal - ha. Only problem for me is that I reconfigured the whole place and now I'll have to rethink getting everything to work, always something?

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Interesting. I fire off a couple of emails a year to Sirius XM asking mundane questions like: Why, when you have complete control of a digital data stream, you can only show me two lines of info? Why does it say "The Diane Rehm Show" twice on my display, when it could easily say "Now being interviewed: Don Rickles"...? (I know, I am repeating myself...)

And "Why do you play the same top 40 from the 60's over and over and over and over, when this is not an advertiser-supported channel?" I get to hear The Supremes every hour, whether I like it or not... and always the same four songs. As my brother once said: "You know, the next song on the album was pretty good, too".

And why do some tunes have the original year displayed, and not others? And why not the month it became a hit? There is such a wealth of information available, it seems sheer laziness to me. And with my new XM radio, they are even showing little full-colour album covers in the corner, and sometimes change the whole background image under the text display, so surely, surely it would not be a difficult thing for them to do what I believe I am paying them for.

On a less caustic note, I am listening a LOT to Little Steven's Underground Radio station, where he schedules a great, great mix over a 50-year period, with stuff I rarely hear or have never heard.

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Channel 115 on my XM version of SirusXM changed and is now a Fox Radio news station where they repeat the news every 15 minutes. And yes they update this 15 minute session as the news changes.

I haven't listened more than a few times, but it seemed OK to me

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