Is it just me, or has XM gone downhill?

[Deviant Grasshopper]

I swear there are more and more commercials every month. Some stations are commercial-free (mainly the ones I don't listen to I s'pose) but most have commercials every 10 minutes or so.

It didn't seem as bad a year ago when I signed up. I called to cancel (my subscription is up at the end of the month) and they offered me ~$77 for a year. It seems like a good price, but at the rate they're going with commercials I still think I'm going to pass.

 

[olds]

You

 

[Babbles]

I have Sirius and I am still happy with it. They allegedly merged many of the XM & Sirius channels - most of them were essentially the same genre, just different names. Anyhow, I do not have any commercials for Sirius on the music channels; news, comedy, sports, and other entertainment channels tend to have commercials, though.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
You

I don't know... I listen to the 80's and 90's channel a lot. I have a ~45 minute commute to work. On the way in today there were 5 commercial breaks... There definitely weren't that many a year ago.

Maybe I'm listening to different stations or something, I dunno.



I'm also not a fan of the censorship

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: Babbles
I have Sirius and I am still happy with it. They allegedly merged many of the XM & Sirius channels - most of them were essentially the same genre, just different names. Anyhow, I do not have any commercials for Sirius on the music channels; news, comedy, sports, and other entertainment channels tend to have commercials, though.

Those are somewhat understandable - they generally match up with a TV show or public radio so they have to do something to fill the gaps between programming.

 

[Elganja]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper
I swear there are more and more commercials every month. Some stations are commercial-free (mainly the ones I don't listen to I s'pose) but most have commercials every 10 minutes or so.

It didn't seem as bad a year ago when I signed up. I called to cancel (my subscription is up at the end of the month) and they offered me ~$77 for a year. It seems like a good price, but at the rate they're going with commercials I still think I'm going to pass.

I've noticed a few more commercials here and there ever since the sirus merger. But it's usually self promoting, like talking about other XM channels or what is coming up on that channel.

It's still MUCH better then public radio though...

I'm more irritated that they got rid of The Rhyme 65 since the merger

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
You

I don't know... I listen to the 80's and 90's channel a lot. I have a ~45 minute commute to work. On the way in today there were 5 commercial breaks... There definitely weren't that many a year ago.

Maybe I'm listening to different stations or something, I dunno.



I'm also not a fan of the censorship

That really sucks, considering that Sirius's 80's and 90's channels had NO commercials when I used to have their service.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
You

I don't know... I listen to the 80's and 90's channel a lot. I have a ~45 minute commute to work. On the way in today there were 5 commercial breaks... There definitely weren't that many a year ago.

Maybe I'm listening to different stations or something, I dunno.



I'm also not a fan of the censorship

That really sucks, considering that Sirius's 80's and 90's channels had NO commercials when I used to have their service.

There was 5 total - I.e. I would listen to the 80's until a commercial, then flip to the 90's until I hear a commercial, etc. So it was 5 combined..

 

[fbrdphreak]

I say spend that money on MP3's, but that's me.

Rhapsody is like $15/month and you can put all the (DRM) music you want on your MP3 player. Unlimited music selection AND no commercials.

 

[jiggahertz]

I've had Sirius for a few years and listen to the non-music stations most of the time. When they merged with XM, Maxim radio got dropped and only one of the shows stuck around, but is now at a crappy time slot. Now Sirus Stars Too is supposed to be the "guys radio channel". It's such a joke. In the morning they have Vinnie and some gay guy talking about how he is gay for 3 hours. Then the next 3 hours they replay that. You get a few hours of good radio with Covino and Rich (at a crappy time slot). Then Jay Thomas comes on for some senior citizen radio.

They originally dropped backspin which was old school rap/hip-hop, but that's back now. The good news is that they seem to be ok fixing some of their programming choices.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
I say spend that money on MP3's, but that's me.

Rhapsody is like $15/month and you can put all the (DRM) music you want on your MP3 player. Unlimited music selection AND no commercials.

$180 a year is just not worth it to me - also, it's frustrating finding good talk radio webcasts, then putting them on the ipod before I go to work.



I guess I'll sign back up for XM but I wish I'd gotten Sirius since it seems less censored.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
You

I don't know... I listen to the 80's and 90's channel a lot. I have a ~45 minute commute to work. On the way in today there were 5 commercial breaks... There definitely weren't that many a year ago.

Maybe I'm listening to different stations or something, I dunno.

I'm also not a fan of the censorship

Howard Stern > *

 

[slayer202]

I have sirius and don't have too many complaints, I just don't like some of the DJs I assume they brought over from XM. I only listen to about 5 channels though

 

[LilPima]

I feel the commercials have just started to increase since the new year and maybe the end of December. (I have XM). It's started to annoy me too but still beats regular radio. Some channels used to have commercials while others had none, those are now few and far between. They are also adding DJs to some channels that didn't have them before (which is annoying!). I love Lithium (the 90s alternative channel, 49 I think) but they have started to increase the commercials too. :thumbsdown:

 

[joesmoke]

a friend of mine has XM in his truck. seems like the rap channels play way shittier music since the merge...