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

[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?