my turn to whinge about Sirius XM

[geekchick]

I'm annoyed that the majority of my XM presets are now either dead air or redirect to some pale imitation of the stations they were before. Lithium, in the time I've listened to it, sucks and I want Lucy back. Fred > First Wave. I didn't care much for listening to Billy Zero babble on XMU, but his playlists were good; the updated XMU isn't quite doing it for me. The System is gone. Fine Tuning now redirects to Spa, which from spot-checking seems to be crappy newage background music instead of the eclectic mix that Fine Tuning had been playing. Vox is gone. XMX is gone. X-Country is now Outlaw Country and the jury's still out on this one since I haven't listened to it much yet. (No puns intended.) People are acting like having his show available is a benefit, but frankly I will pay money to not listen to Howard Stern.

The only additions on the new lineup that are looking appealing right now are Little Steven on Underground Garage, and BBC Radio 1 pretty much only for Pete Tong's show (which I can listen to online anyway). Maybe an occasional flip to the Grateful Dead channel. And of course I'm going to have to listen to the 80s Hair Metal channel.

What I'm really annoyed about is that there was no notice sent to subscribers, at least as far as I can tell. I got an email the day the lineup switched pointing to a web page with the new station listing. A little warning would've been nice, guys. I'll admit it though: I'm not planning to my subscription even with the annoyance because terrestrial radio is so close to completely unlistenable, so this is just me shaking my tiny fists ineffectually at my new merged satellite radio overlords.

Comments

[nixieq.livejournal.com]

frankly I will pay money to not listen to Howard Stern.

amen, sistah. you are not alone.

this is why i just bought that fancy ipod, and why i tend to share music with people. pretty much every kind of radio sucks these days, so why listen?

you COULD always take your monthly subscription fee and instead use it to buy new music every month. (download, even, so as not to create visible clutter.) just a suggestion. >:) you could build up an impressive collection pretty quickly.

[kellfire.livejournal.com]

*wah* I got a slight warning from a friend who works there. But didn't know til just now :(

[geekchick]

I heard there was a newspaper ad listing the new lineup, but I didn't see it. I couldn't figure out why they kept mentioning what the general format was on The Loft until they made a brief mention of welcoming new Sirius subscribers. D'oh.

[dionysia.livejournal.com]

Lithium and First Wave repeat selections too much.

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

My favorites list has been shot to hell as well. I am not happy with all the talking on First Wave now and since its my go-to station its more than a bit annoying. I'm gonna have to see how this all pans out.

[geekchick]

They really are chatty now, aren't they? That's another annoyance. If I wanted to listen to people yammer on and talk over the music, I'd listen to FM radio.

[rdhdsnippet.livejournal.com]

The loss of Lucy makes me sad on many levels. :(

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

We haven't had XM for a while, but I hear they replaced my favorite station, Top Tracks, with Sirius' "Classic Vinyl". I wonder how it compares...

My first time ever with satellite radio

[inkedandkinked.livejournal.com]

Is the road trip I am now on. I too like the garage the bbc some variations of the rock stuff and the npr channels. Of course I was almost through Penn. before I realized the rental had a satellite radio.

By then I was listening to cds of Thelonious Monk piano solos and the new York Dolls so I was npt bored at all. Who knew that the word sat next to the knob meant satellite radio ...

Re: My first time ever with satellite radio

[geekchick]

My car came with satellite radio installed, but Mazda ships with Sirius and I've got XM. D'oh!

cds of Thelonious Monk piano solos and the new York Dolls

That's an interesting combination. =)

How's the road trip going?

[penk.livejournal.com]

Ditto ditto, and... ditto.

I noticed a change on my 3 comedy channels (150-151-152), but for the most part the content is still good. I listen to those the most (I have a loose ground int eh car somnewhere, so the xm receiver 'whines' - music sucks on it :-/ )

I'll likely reprogram all my presets (fortgunately the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s channels are still 6,7,8,9 :)

But ah hear ya.

[geekchick]

I've noticed that the 80s and 90s channels sound different to me now too; not better, not noticeably worse, just different. Not sure if the playlists have changed or if I'm just being oversensitive.

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

Okay. This is a huge grievance of mine, having been a Sirius customer since August. Here we go.

I listen to First Wave, and.. I kind of like it. Kind of. I really like it on Sunday nights, from 10p-1a EST. It's nearly the only time I can hear Bauhaus or Joy Division.

But you see, in the last few weeks, I've been composing a "break-up" style email in my head to send them. I'm so incredibly tired of the same 200 or so songs, over and over. And I can't stand any more Billy Idol, Elvis Costello, Sting/Police, and sometimes, REM (which is tolerable more often than not).

On the other hand, I am a-ok with their overkill of Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and The Smiths.

My other gripes:

I am reallyreallyreallyreally tired of Joe Jackson's "Kinda Kute" and "Is She Really Going Out With Him?". Maybe it's just because I'm too young to remember either of those songs, but I don't feel like they fit with the genre whatsoever.

I have thought many, many times about logging their playlists 'round the clock for a week, with volunteers, and developing an Excel chart to prove my idea that they play entirely too much of certain artists, and that while they claim to play "more than the hits!", B-sides are rarities. How often do you hear a non-happy Cure song on there? I'm so tired of "Hot Hot Hot!" .. I think it's the only Cure song that Richard Blade knows.

And speaking of Richard Blade.. does that man EVER take a day off!?!?

Oh! I forgot to mention - I hate that whenever they *do* play a Bauhaus song in the middle of the day, by some miracle, it is almost always a springboard to advertise Darkwave.

And I want to throttle them every time they giggle over the phrase, "Get your goth on!!", as if it's the most ridiculous thought ever.

But hey, it's something, I guess. I'm still sick of Billy Idol, though.

Know what's amusing? I can't listen to a CD in the car without continually checking my sat radio thinger for the Title of the song. Whoops. :)

[geekchick]

Fred used to play Joy Division all the freakin' time. That was pretty much my major complaint about Fred, that they'd occasionally decide "Today we're the Joy Division channel" and play them over and over. (Substitute "Siouxsie" and "Morrissey/The Smiths" for "Joy Division" in a fairly regular basis.) Not that I dislike any of those bands in the least, but I'd like to hear a little more variety. If I want to listen to the same artist all day, I'll pop the CD in. =)

How does the Sirius new lineup compare to the old one? I've heard a lot more XM subscribers complaining about the changes than I've heard Sirius complaints. Did a lot of Sirius channels disappear?

[wotw]

My complaint:

Used to be, when I turned my radio off, and then came back
later and turned it on again, it started off on the channel
I'd left it on.

Since the big switchover, I find that I sometimes get the
channel I left it on, but more often I get the damned preview
channel.

I think but am not certain that there's a pattern: If I leave
it on one of the old XM stations, it goes right to that
station, but if I leave it on any of the new stations, I get
the previews.

In any event, it pisses me off.

[geekchick]

Y'know, I noticed that on my (SkyFi 2, i.e. "very old") receiver too. I know I'd left it tuned to one of the new stations when I got out of the car, and when I got back in it had reverted to the preview channel. I left it on The Loft this morning, I'll check and see if it's still there when I head home.

[geekchick]

Mine is still doing that too. If I leave it on one of the old stations, it's still there when I get back in the car. If I leave it on a new station, I'm back at the stupid preview.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

I havent listened to any XM in a while (it comes in on DirecTV).

Squizz XL needs to left untouched, or I'm not going to happy...

[geekchick]

Squizz is now Octane.

[fizzygeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Underground Garage is the channel I listen to most on Sirius...sometime listen to outlaw country between 4-8pm (Mojo Nixon!!!!) and Faction Tuesdays at 8pm (Marky Ramone!!!!) I'm kinda peeved that they replaced the punk channel with ac/dc radio. :(

[geekchick]

AC/DC Radio will be gone in mid-January, at least on XM. They're bringing Boneyard back on 53.

[geekchick]

Online-only is essentially gone for me, since I only listen to the receivers in the car and the firewall at work blocks whatever protocol they're using for streaming online. =( I could listen to the streaming at home, but I never do. =/

So far the biggest actual annoyances for me have been the radio resetting itself to the preview channel if I leave it on one of the new stations when I get out of the car and the fact that what I assume are the Sirius DJs are really freakin' chatty and they TALK OVER THE MUSIC GRAAAH! (That is a big peeve of mine.)

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

Um, if you have the desire and iPod/hard disk space, I kind of am the Grateful Dead channel -- and/or you can stream a lot of high-quality versions of the shows free from etree.org. Of course that doesn't work so well in the car, but all my shows, you can has.

[geekchick]

Yeah, I knew about etree. (Love etree. ♥) I'm not nearly enough of a fan though to do more than occasionally pop over to the Dead channel. I'll keep in mind that I've got a source though if I ever need it. ;)

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

There you go. All you have to do is occasionally pop over! :D