# Boy, I miss XM



## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Yeah, I'm still a subscriber, but I really rue the loss of XM. I never realized how good we had it while we had it.

Sirius/XM is sooo bad compared to XM. I'll stick with them for now because FM is just so bad in Philly (other than WXPN).

Do you miss XM too?:nono:


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I miss Music Lab, having 3 hosts on MLB Home Plate's morning show, XM200 which was nothing but full-length concerts...

I lament the fact that XM Comedy became "Raw Dog" and instead of uncensored good comedy, they added more "Howard Stern"-ish stuff - comics who think they're funny just because they can swear a lot. Believe me, there's a big different between Eddie Murphy (in his prime) and many of the non-names on that channel today. At least they DID give us "Blue Collar" so that's a plus.

It *is* still better than terrestrial radio, though.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

The 80's channel is a total waste. Loved the XM version but except for the weekly countdown the Sirius version plays the same 20 songs over and over again or it seems like that. It is horrible now.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

I really miss the annual "IT"


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## max1 (Aug 12, 2005)

Not as much now. I have an I pod touch i can stream with AOL radio and I heart,Pandera etc- Radio and listen to tons of stations for free even without ever hearing a commercial!! It's a blast podcasting as well. Grant it i only use at home but it's great dont have to worry about signal loss. Plus now with the I Phone you can use other apps as well. I know DJ will disagree but i just dont see sirius lasting. The technology thats coming out now is going to be very hard for Sirius to compete and may eventually put them out of buisness along with some local fm markets. .My guess Sirius has about 5 years left. Max


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

For me, I mostly listen to music in the car. Our OTA radio market is complete crap with very little choice unless you like country. Even with the Sirius/XM changes that I didn't like (and I was originally with Sirius), I'm still glad to pay for it to have an alternative to OTA.


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## koji68 (Jun 21, 2004)

I started with Sirius and all the channels that I listen to stayed the same so I have no complaints. I understand the disappointment that the XM users must have as at the beginning this was not the case and I wan considering canceling.


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## koji68 (Jun 21, 2004)

max1 said:


> My guess Sirius has about 5 years left. Max


I can see that happening when 3G service is available reliably everywhere. Why pay for another service when you can stream Internet radio through your phone from multiple music services?

However in a lot of areas 3G is not available and satellite is king. So I think they will stay although maybe changed and smaller. Maybe bought out by a bigger player.


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## erosroadie (Jan 9, 2007)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Yeah, I'm still a subscriber, but I really rue the loss of XM. I never realized how good we had it while we had it.
> 
> Sirius/XM is sooo bad compared to XM. I'll stick with them for now because FM is just so bad in Philly (other than WXPN).
> 
> Do you miss XM too?:nono:


Yes, especially *Beyond Jazz*. Spa on Sirius/XM is a waste of bandwdth...


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## mountainDBS (Jul 31, 2009)

U would think the 2 companies getting together would have an awsome catalog of music, instead they charge us a "royality Fee" and play the same ol crap day after day. :nono:


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## Kansas Zephyr (Jun 30, 2007)

rudeney said:


> For me, I mostly listen to music in the car. Our OTA radio market is complete crap with very little choice unless you like country. Even with the Sirius/XM changes that I didn't like (and I was originally with Sirius), I'm still glad to pay for it to have an alternative to OTA.


+1

I've only been a sub since April...so I never expirenced the pre-merger XM.

But, I haven't listened to OTA radio since.


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## Gonesouth (Dec 26, 2007)

I am on the opposite side of the fence. I really do not miss it, and to be honest the only reason I went to XM because at the time my office window could not hit the Sirius sat. To much money involved with XM to switch to Sirius.



wilbur_the_goose said:


> Yeah, I'm still a subscriber, but I really rue the loss of XM. I never realized how good we had it while we had it.
> 
> Sirius/XM is sooo bad compared to XM. I'll stick with them for now because FM is just so bad in Philly (other than WXPN).
> 
> Do you miss XM too?:nono:


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

By the way what is so great about Pandora and Slacker. I know when I try stations on there I hear the same played out songs over and over again worse on Pandora.

AOL Radio was good. I like the music but they play way too many annoying commercials, even ones with videos. If they gave me a subscription option I might try it but I hate when I first load it and have to mute two to three minutes of commercials before the music will start. Many times I just close it in disgust. I miss the ad free AOL Radio Canada which worked fine in the US.


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## HalfMoon (Aug 10, 2003)

djlong said:


> I lament the fact that XM Comedy became "Raw Dog" and instead of uncensored good comedy, they added more "Howard Stern"-ish stuff - comics who think they're funny just because they can swear a lot. Believe me, there's a big different between Eddie Murphy (in his prime) and many of the non-names on that channel today. At least they DID give us "Blue Collar" so that's a plus.


Yes, I completely agree. Only time I tune to 150 anymore is when there's absolutely no new content on the music channels. Sometimes I'll listen to Stand Up. . . Sit Down, but the regular bits they play are stale, at best. Besides that, the promo spots they play announcing that you're listening to RAW DOG are full of "comedy" that I had outgrown when I was 16.

Are fart jokes really still funny to anyone?

One thing I have started to like, even though it is juvenile and somewhat a contradiction to my comments about channel 150 is the Jason Ellis show on Faction. He came from Sirius and at first I wasn't interested, but he is almost always covering relevant topics. He's a little too into MMA for me, I am not a fan but Tully and T-Wolf make the arguments entertaining on my ~2 hour commute in the afternoons.

Overall, I wish XM had remained the same, but the alternative on my 3.5-4 hours in the car each day is static with FM listening to the stations on the SF Bay Area and Central Valley on my commute or MP3s from my collection. At least this way I do hear a new song every few months (exaggerating) and find new artists.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

I dropped XM almost a year ago (before the merger). I listened a good bit during the free preview a few weeks ago and really don't miss it. Between my iPod catalog and Slacker I don't feel like I'm missing anything.


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## DodgerKing (Apr 28, 2008)

XM's music selection was much greater than Sirius/XM. Since the merger, the channels I liked not only changed to the Sirius version, so did the large music selection XM used to have.


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## Reaper (Jul 31, 2008)

Yes and no.

I only listen to radio in the car. Terrestrial radio sucks in Seattle so satellite radio is a good option for me.

Sirius XM has more of the music that I like, mostly 80s hair metal. However, I do miss the deeper play lists of XM. The old Boneyard would play new music from classic artists. Now Hair Nation and Boneyard mention new music from classic artists but they never play any of it. Frustrating.

I have noticed a little more variety lately though.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Do you miss XM too?:nono:


Nope.

I much prefer the programming that came over from Sirius. I especially like the programming on "Classic Vinyl" even though I have to put up with Dusty Street. The XM equivalent played weird seldom-heard selections.

I also like "The Bridge" which XM didn't have.

The "decades" channels for the 60's and 70's had motormouth DJ's on XM and Sirius but the word must have filtered back up the chain since they now don't blab nearly as much and often play 2 or 3 selections without saying anything.

"The Strobe" is MUCH better than the old XM version (I don't even remember it's goofy name).

Believe it or not, I listen to the Clear Channel stations ("More Music" with commercials) a LOT. They don't have that many commercials and they feature NO DJ's. Plus, they seem to be programmed by much more knowlegeable folks than the "commercial free" music channels.

The thing I'm irked about are the sneaky price hikes. And no "ala carte" channel offerings. Apparently, the promises to the FCC in order to get the merger through have all fallen by the wayside.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Thomas,
Wow - you're the first one I've seen that feels that way. To me, the XM playlists were much deeper and didn't repeat so often.

My wife really likes The Bridge, and I liked The Spectrum at the start. But they overplay everything.


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## DodgerKing (Apr 28, 2008)

ThomasM said:


> Nope.
> 
> I much prefer the programming that came over from Sirius. I especially like the programming on *"Classic Vinyl"* even though I have to put up with Dusty Street. The XM equivalent played weird seldom-heard selections.


How can you say this? Seriously, Top Tracks played everything Classic Vinyl plays and more. There music library was much more vast. I cannot understand why anyone would like a smaller music library of the music they like.

Top Tracks did not play weird seldom heard selections, they played more often heard selections, which is why they were called "Top Tracks".

I actually wish Classic Vinyl would play seldom heard selections. I much prefer to hear Emerald, Angel From the Coast, and the Cowboy Song off of Thin Lizzy's Jail Break album over the much overplayed Jail Break and The Boys are Back in Town.

This is why I end up listening to Boneyard more now than I did when it was an XM station. Not only did Boneyard's selection decline with the merger, they ended up being my #1 choice by default (even though they too got worse), because my favorite channel vanished all together.

I do agree with you on Dusty Street though. When it was XM, there were no DJs, period. And Dusty is probably the worst they could have come up with. Not only does she not have a radio voice, she talks about things that are so off topic and irrelevant, only a few would even care.


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## DodgerKing (Apr 28, 2008)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Thomas,
> Wow - you're the first one I've seen that feels that way. To me, the XM playlists were much deeper and didn't repeat so often.
> 
> My wife really likes The Bridge, and I liked The Spectrum at the start. But they overplay everything.


I concur. I have yet to hear an old XM sub say that Classic Vinyl is better than Top Tracks. It makes no sense that someone would actually prefer to listen to less of what they like with the same things repeated over and over and over.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

DodgerKing said:


> I concur. I have yet to hear an old XM sub say that Classic Vinyl is better than Top Tracks. It makes no sense that someone would actually prefer to listen to less of what they like with the same things repeated over and over and over.


Well, now you've heard an XM sub say Classic Vinyl is better than Top Tracks.

I'd rather hear the RECOGNIZABLE FAVORITES over and over than a huge playlist of obscure music that I don't remember and can't remember ever hearing on FM.

I listened to Top Tracks occasionally but quickly became bored with the tunes I'd never heard before, even if they were from top artists. Now, I can listen to Classic Vinyl for hours and hours-usually when Dusty Street isn't on. I wish Dennis Elsis (sp?) was on all day not just until noon EST.

I forgot to mention that Top Tracks also used to be the worst sounding music channel on XM. I think many AM stations sounded better quality wise AND XM NEVER FIXED IT. Apparently, Sirius-XM hired a few engineers that know how to tweek the neural audio processors since pretty much ALL the XM music channels sound better than they did pre-merger.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

erosroadie said:


> Spa on Sirius/XM is a waste of bandwdth...


At least on Spa they don't have those goofy foreign announcers you can't understand or those weird Indian chants that drove me crazy!


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> ..Sirius/XM is sooo bad compared to XM. I'll stick with them for now because FM is just so bad in Philly (other than WXPN).


The only time in my life I ever drove through Philly, just a few years ago, everytime I scanned the FM stations there were at least three Billy Joel songs being played at the same time. Is it always like that?

I saw recently that Billy Joel's daughter was having some health problems. Remember that old George Bernard Shaw line, when a stage actress sent him a letter, proposing that he father a child with her, but he declined, explaining, "What if the child winds up with your brains and my looks?"


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## DodgerKing (Apr 28, 2008)

ThomasM said:


> Well, now you've heard an XM sub say Classic Vinyl is better than Top Tracks.
> 
> I'd rather hear the RECOGNIZABLE FAVORITES over and over than a huge playlist of obscure music that I don't remember and can't remember ever hearing on FM.
> 
> ...


Then you are not a true fan of classic rock. The music they played was not obscure at all. The station was called *Top* Tracks for a reason. Perhaps you are confusing it with "Deep Tracks", which still exist?


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## bidger (Nov 19, 2005)

ThomasM said:


> I'd rather hear the RECOGNIZABLE FAVORITES over and over than a huge playlist of obscure music that I don't remember and can't remember ever hearing on FM.


Not me brother. I have a very respectable music collection ripped in full resolution to HTPC. If I'm going to tune to satellite radio, which I did via DIRECTV yesterday (The Loft), I want to hear *some* familiar things, but the bulk I want to hear is music I haven't heard before, say like a 75% new/25% familiar mix.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Now *Deep Tracks* had some obscure stuff... But, then, I still miss "Music Lab".


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## njblackberry (Dec 29, 2007)

When Dusty Street comes on I switch the station. She is the worst of he worst. I miss the days of no talkative FM DJs on the rock stations. Even if they are the DJs I listened to 35 years ago. Except Dusty Street - she is simply awful.

I liked it more before...


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

DodgerKing said:


> XM's music selection was much greater than Sirius/XM. Since the merger, the channels I liked not only changed to the Sirius version, so did the large music selection XM used to have.


This is most noticeable on the decades channels.

When Sirius took over, the XM program directors were fired. The decades channles are now Top 40 stations. When they had XM PD's they played everything from that decade, country, blues, pop, Rock/Roll, Jazz, Big Band, etc. If it was released during that decade, it was played.

When I get a call asking me to return, I ask "Is Matt The Cat back as 50's Music Director?" Until the answer is yes, my answer is no.


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## slidey (Mar 11, 2007)

I never had XM, but wish I would have - and wish I had one of their receivers at least, even with the content headed downhill...or perhaps at the bottom already. I'm stuck with Sirius in my car, and the codec is just plain bad, seems they overcompress quite a bit, especially on the talk channels, which sound absolutely horrible the compression is so audible. I'd rather listen to AM for talk over that robot stuff, honestly. I don't think I'll be renewing when my free trial expires...


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

first xm listen was november 15th 2004 on directv boy was i hooked 
i remember the first thing i turned too was terry young on 60s on 6


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

DodgerKing said:


> Then you are not a true fan of classic rock. The music they played was not obscure at all. The station was called *Top* Tracks for a reason. Perhaps you are confusing it with "Deep Tracks", which still exist?


Perhaps I'm not a "true fan" of classic rock.

No, I didn't confuse "Top Tracks" with "Deep Tracks".

Deep Tracks sucked before the merger and it still sucks now. That's in my "non-true-fan-of-classic-rock" opinion, of course.


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## crkeehn (Apr 23, 2002)

pez2002 said:


> first xm listen was november 15th 2004 on directv boy was i hooked
> i remember the first thing i turned too was terry young on 60s on 6


You got hooked at about the same time and the same way my family did. When they started playing the Christmas music, my wife began to listen regularly. She and I had the same idea at about the same time, that we should treat ourselves to a plug and play receiver for Christmas.

5 years later, history repeated itself as we treated ourselves to a Nexus for Christmas this year. There are still sufficient parts of the old XM that remain about the same, including Radio Classics; that we continue to enjoy the service.


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## DodgerKing (Apr 28, 2008)

Let me add something else that changed for the worse after the merger.

When it was XM only I would literally never a lose a signal and I always remember my parents (who are Sirius subs) losing a signal often. Since the merger I lose a signal go under or next to just about any tall objects. I now lose a signal simply going under a pedestrian only overpass. I used to be able to get XM in my car driving in the middle of the Disneyland parking structure and no I lose it simply being next to it. So not only has there music selection decreased, so has their signal strength.


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## DodgerKing (Apr 28, 2008)

ThomasM said:


> Perhaps I'm not a "true fan" of classic rock.
> 
> No, I didn't confuse "Top Tracks" with "Deep Tracks".
> 
> Deep Tracks sucked before the merger and it still sucks now. That's in my "non-true-fan-of-classic-rock" opinion, of course.


Sorry, I did not mean to sound so crass. Everyone has different taste and I realize that. Perhaps Sirius would have been a better first choice for you.


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## Buzz112 (Jan 30, 2007)

I have to agree with most posters that the new set-up is re-running the same songs over and over. They must be trying to save money on the license fees. The trouble is, why would anyone keep paying to hear the same songs over and over again? I suspect they thought Howard Stern, Opra, and Martha Strewart would keep people tuned in but I don;t think that is going to work. I suspect the new company will go bellie-up too.


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## hyde76 (Nov 26, 2007)

Looks like even less listeners after February 9 when DTV drops SXM in favor of Sonic Tap.


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## bidger (Nov 19, 2005)

hyde76 said:


> Looks like even less listeners after February 9 when DTV drops SXM in favor of Sonic Tap.


Ohhh...I LOVE those guys!!!










Oh...wait...


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## Dolly (Jan 30, 2007)

I also miss XM  But still the area I live in has such awful FM stations Sirius XM is better than those channels so I hope Sirius XM manages somehow to stay around.


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