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Bring us your dead... technology edition.

A Boy Named Seo Sep 16 2008 02:22 PM

Satellite radio. Dead? Sirius seems to be in serious trouble stock-wise and debt wise. I'm still an XM subscriber and will keep subscribing to something. I dig it. Sounds like they have some different channel options coming around the holidays. According the The Wall Street Journal, "The company will soon introduce radios that allow consumers more flexibility in the programming, including a 50-channel plan that costs $6.99 a month." Sirius will also bring out a "best of" offering for $4 a month. Anyone else still subscribe to Sirius or XM? Or is it all portable mp3s now?

Benjamin Grimm Sep 16 2008 02:24 PM

Funny that we're hearing that Satellite may be dead just days after the "Mad Dog" channel launches.

metirish Sep 16 2008 02:26 PM

Are they not the same company now , if one is in trouble will the other just absorb it or get sucked into nothingness with it?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 16 2008 02:36 PM

Yes they are one company, although loaded with debt that'll be tough to pay off. I dunno. I don't wanna pay for radio. I want radio to work for me.

A Boy Named Seo Sep 16 2008 02:40 PM

Yeah, they're one in the same now. Sirius officially swallowed up XM, but their projections for the upcoming year were way worse than everybody expected, I guess. Some $2 billion in debt and no good way to refinance has investors shitting themselves and the stock dropping beneath a buck putting it at risk of being delisted by NASDAQ. Not sure what would have to happen for that to really occur.

Nymr83 Sep 16 2008 02:50 PM

i've never listened to it, is it like cable TV or does your $10 a month get you commercial-free music?

A Boy Named Seo Sep 16 2008 03:00 PM

The music is commercial free. Each individual channel has a Program Director (I'm pretty sure) and there are DJ's and everything, but it's less a slave to its advertisers than FM or AM and subsequently there's an awesome variety of music. There's some great individual shows on XM, too (Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio, Tom Petty's Buried Treasure). The news and sports channels do have advertisements, but I really never listen to those unless I'm driving across states and can't watch the Met game or something. LA traffic channel has saved my arse numerous times. Here's XM's [url=http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/full-channel-listing.xmc]channel listing[/url]. One of the columns is "What's Playing Now" which gives you an idea about it. It sounds like I'm the only one who still pays for this crap.

Centerfield Sep 16 2008 03:12 PM

I just got XM in my car and am wondering how I ever lived without it.

Nymr83 Sep 16 2008 03:31 PM

commercial-free makes it sound appealing if you have a decent daily commute by car, i doubt i'd use it at home though.

sharpie Sep 16 2008 03:37 PM

Having just spent last Friday through Sunday driving a cargo van from NYC to Asheville, NC and back and having only regular radio to listen to I can testify that the idea of XM in a car is really great. Especially Friday when the weather was terrible so it was hard to tune in stations, what we were forced to listen to was pretty appalling. Our standards were down to: anything that wasn't a Christian station or contemporary country. Lousy current teenpop stayed on; songs I've despised for 30 years stayed on and so forth.

themetfairy Sep 16 2008 03:47 PM

We had satellite in our rental car in Las Vegas in December. We enjoyed it - it was easier than trying to find music we liked on the traditional radio stations.

Gwreck Sep 16 2008 04:17 PM

Most of what's said here is spot on. If you drive for your commute, it's great. If you've got a rental car, it's great. If you live in New York City? Not worth it.

TheOldMole Sep 16 2008 07:34 PM

I love XM.

MFS62 Sep 17 2008 07:39 AM Re: Bring us your dead... technology edition.

="A Boy Named Seo"]Satellite radio. Dead? Sirius seems to be in serious trouble stock-wise and debt wise. I'm still an XM subscriber and will keep subscribing to something. I dig it. Sounds like they have some different channel options coming around the holidays. According the The Wall Street Journal, "The company will soon introduce radios that allow consumers more flexibility in the programming, including a 50-channel plan that costs $6.99 a month." Sirius will also bring out a "best of" offering for $4 a month. Anyone else still subscribe to Sirius or XM? Or is it all portable mp3s now? So, can we say you're deadly Sirius? Later

soupcan Sep 17 2008 07:57 AM

I'm a Sirius subscriber. Only complaint about satellite radio I have is that the signal gets lost if you are driving on tree-lined roads or sometimes on cloudy days. I think though that this is partly due to the fact that my receiver and antenna on my car are at least 4 years old. People who have gotten their units more recently don't seem to have the same problem with the kind of frequency that I do. Other than that I love everything about it.

Vic Sage Sep 17 2008 08:17 AM

Since an IPod allows me to travel around with MY ENTIRE MUSIC COLLECTION in my pocket, and since i can plug my Ipod into my car with minimal expense, why would i pay a monthly fee to listen to the radio? i have channels of folk/country, rock, classical, jazz, standards, showtunes, celtic... i have comedy, poetry, books on tape. And they've all been programmed by my favorite DJ... me.

Fman99 Sep 17 2008 10:16 AM

XM is the shit. I've had it since 2004. It helps for those of us who have long commutes (I drive 100 miles, total, each weekday).

TransMonk Sep 17 2008 10:51 AM

Vic Sage wrote: ...why would i pay a monthly fee to listen to the radio? I don't pay a fee to listen to the radio and don't want to either. But, I get bored with even my iPod after a time. I would think that one of the charms these commercial free radio subscriptions is the chance to get introduced to music from an artist you may have never heard before. Commercial radio and MTV/VH1 have done a very poor job of diversifying what is out there over the past 25 years, and really just shove what "the man" wants you to hear down your throat. Personally, when I'm sick of being my own DJ with my iPod, I'll tune into Pandora, which is free over the internet. It allows you to set "station" type categories based on artists that you like, and then they play similar artists both old and new based on your selections.