Word is leaking out about what the XM lineup will look like in a post-merger world. Supposedly the switch is going to be flipped on this very soon. Loyal Wisdom readers will recall that I’m a Sirius fan from way back, have never been very impressed with the music of XM and didn’t hold out much hope that the far-superior music lineup of Sirius would survive the merger.
So I’m really happy to see that Sirius’ music lineup is apparently winning the battle for bandwidth over XM’s completely unforgettable roster of stations. Yep, Underground Garage is there, along with Outlaw Country, 1st Wave, Classic Rewind and Classic Vinyl. Looks like the B.B. King-branded XM blues station sticks around, which is probably OK. Can’t say I’ve listened much to XM blues before, so I’ll leave that judgment to somebody with better ears for it (TCL).
But, alas, I am soon to no longer be a Sirius subscriber. My annual subscription expires on the 14th and I’m not renewing. It’s not a reflection of my views on Sirius or satellite radio; it’s purely a fiscal decision being driven by us being a one-income household right now and the fact that not having a job means not being in the car much to listen to Sirius. But I am at home a lot, and by virtue of being a Dish Network customer, I get all the Sirius music through my TV anyway at no added cost.
I’m proud to have been an early adopter of satellite radio (Nov. 14, 2003), and it’s still a technology that’ll be high on my list when I get back into a mode where I can really take advantage of it. The new XM lineup will probably get me on as an “XM” subscriber instead of a “Sirius” subscriber now, though. They’ve got SEC football and my TL has an XM-equipped radio built in.
It flipped on this morning and is a continuing update. In just the 8 mile drive to LSU, it went into update mode 3 different times. In fact, it kicked me out of Sirius over to FM in my Mitsubishi twice while doing so. Have you seen the new lineup? They emailed it to me at home right after I’d left.
They gave us Oprah. UGH.
Always on the cutting edge, you are. I found out about the new lineup when the merger came to my Sirius Sportster this morning. As I twittered (tweeted?), on the evidence of one ride into work, I don’t like BB King Bluesville. Glad to see that Underground Garage, Outlaw Country, 1st Wave and the others stayed. Reggae became “The Joint”; both Punk and its recent, “Black Ice” promo tie-in incarnation, AC/DC Radio, are apparently gone; whatever I had on preset No. 7 is now “The Bridge,” which I believe was a Sirius channel, but must have moved to take the spot of something that’s now gone.
Generally, by keeping UG and OC, net positive. But a lot of blech in there.
In other news, the stock dropped 4 cents a share — which is meaningful when it is trading at .25. I wonder if stock can trade on negative value — Sirius XM pays you to buy it.
I’m noting in my blog today the name change from “Left of Center” to “XM U” on Channel 26. At least they are still playing the same format on the channel.
Yeah, the Sirius channels on Dish freaked out about 8:45 this morning and I figured something was up. And I got the channel update email a few minutes later. I’m sure nobody will be 100% happy, but overall it’s a positive shuffle.
As for the stock price – why the hell doesn’t a Cox or Clear Channel swoop in and buy the whole shooting match now? Undisputed ownership of that big radio in the sky …
Well, we’re having major issues here in Baton Rouge. I went by Mitsubishi this morning because my Sirius says “Antenna Error”.
I was the fourth person to show up. Apparently, the satellite or channel uplink in this area is broken. Bummer. I’ve got to listen to over the air radio in Baton Rouge? NO WAY!
Sirius is still in serious trouble. Problems extend to Infiniti autos too. I called back at 5 pm CST tonight and they don’t have a clue how long it will take to fix the problem. They’ve attempted resending signals to the antennae but none have worked.
Does the word ClusterFark come to mind???
Boy, I tell you – seems like Sirius is screwing up this “integration” big time. Seeing things about trying to crack back open the anti-trust stuff because the “more choice” thing is clearly out the window with the elimination of XM channels.
And John – I also saw something saying the update problem with OEM radios may be solved by pulling out your radio fuse and forcing a full reset. That’s not official advice from me, though … especially if you have an anti-theft code you have to enter after power loss and don’t know what it is.
The fuse thing was the fix. Got it from Sirius with instructions of “take it to a dealer and have them do it.” That was the official line. Took me all of a minute or so to pull it, wait 15 seconds, reinsert. Turn radio on. Let channels update. Back in business.
It took them 4 days to come up with that solution. The operators were nice enough, it’s their tech support I wonder about.
A 15 amp fuse?????