Satellite Radio Interruptions
I pay for Sirus and get XM with my DirectTV subscription. I used to
pay for XM, and probably still would if it wasn’t for their crappy
billing department, and over-billing me 3 times, but that’s another
story.
So on to the point.
I am beginning to get more and more annoyed with Sirius’ “DJ’s”
feeling the need to inject themselves after almost every freaking song.
I have the display built right into the radio it tells me everything I
need to know, I don’t need or want to hear the DJ’s take on the song,
or that brush with fame they had with the artist that, when they were
in the fast food joint a block away from where they were performing 20
years ago… XM blows Sirius away, with an automated bumper every 4 or
5 songs, not a problem. Then we have the issue of Sirius’s real
annoying DJ’s, including Sirius’ undisputed queen of annoyance Madison,
she is just completely grates on my nerves, I have been tempted to
smash my radio on several occasions listening to her… Then we have
Mr. Monotone, Darrin Smith, stick with programming top 40 in Topeka,
this guy annoys me on 2 levels, 1. the fact that he annoys me every
weekend morning (Sirius 22), and 2. that he is also responsible
somewhat in the programming of what I feel is turning into a loop of
music that only changes when a new tour is announced by a band from the
80’s. The other thing that is always annoying, is the announcement of
new subscribers, who gives a F*** that Bob in Milwaukee has just joined
the Sirius family, give me a break, that kind of crap should stay with
the FM teeny bopper top 40 station.
So I have written various emails to Sirius about this, and I always
get the same BS response, and I guess if it wasn’t for Howard Stern I
would have dumped Sirius and stayed with XM, in-spite of the billing
screw ups.
I guess my best hope is that the Sirius XM merger goes through, and
they use XM’s music programming, and eliminate the the interruptions.
Below is the extract of comments from the old wordpress blog
Oh yeah one very last thing, provide better programming, and you’ll
put the new merged company out of business, that is the American way…
Jun 9, 8:53 PM — [ ... ] — Satellite Radio Interruptions
Chris,
First of all, you not ever having been a customer, I don’t feel you are
qualified to comment, but this being a free country and all…
I think you really missed my point here, in its current form they
both blow away terrestrial radio, and I am all for the merger. AM and
FM Radio has brought this upon themselves. I doubt I’ll ever go back to
regular radio at any cost point, while the NAB is running around
shouting MONOPOLY, to anyone who’ll listen, you miss the point of
market economics. If the new merged company raises their rates, without
expanding service, customers will go away, broadcast radio radio does
just the opposite, they lose listeners, then add more commercials to
make up for the lost revenue. My commute is on average 15 to 20 minutes
each way, before I converted to satellite there were many times when
all I heard were commercials, and a couple of minutes of last weeks
news, or last years jokes for the entire 20 minutes.
Webster’s defines a monopoly as “Exclusive ownership through legal
privilege, command of supply, or concerted action”, and the proposed
merger can only be defined as a monopoly in the fact that the merged
company will have command of the supply at the time of the merger. Will
the company continue to have that “command of supply” if another
venture decides to launch a couple of satellites and broadcast radio,
no. Can the merged company do anything to stop such a venture, no, that
would be illegal “monopolistic practices”. The NAB never brings up
terrestrial radio groups when they talk monopoly, but there are markets
where these groups own the majority of the market, and are able to put
the squeeze on the locally owned independent station, and “undercut the
advertising prices at both the national and local levels” (your words),
maybe congress should take a look at that.
The thing that all the NAB members and shills miss is the variety
available to the listener, there is a station for every taste, can
regular radio say that, no. There again you wouldn’t understand,
because you have never been a customer of either XM or SIRIUS. The only
thing that you will hear on regular radio is only what is commercially
acceptable. For example this post by a friend of mine God I Miss the Dregs do you think he is happy with regular radio? No he is not, he listens to his iPod all day…
How is an entity that only has advertising on its talk stations
going to undercut advertising, I am really confused on that one. The
average “ditto head” that listens to talk radio all day, is not the
person that is going to kick down the $12.95 a month to listen to Rush,
when he can get it for free, unless of course Rush tells them to, and
maybe the occasional right wing trucker. That is not the satellite
demographic. I will concede that XM does have advertising on I think 7
of its channels, which was the result of a deal with clear channel, but
as I understand it, those ads will go away in a year or so…
So Chris, go get a radio and subscribe, and tell me after a month that regular radio is better…
The last thing I would like to address is the difference between
Billing and Customer Service. I have had nothing but the greatest
service from both XM and SIRIUS’ customer service departments, my issue
was the BILLING department. The entire situation was explained to me as
to what happened, I was credited the full amount and then some…
Okay the last last thing, with the exception of Madison, all the
DJ’s on SIRIUS are head and shoulders above anyone on regular radio,
she just annoys the F out of me…
Jun 9, 8:45 PM — [ ... ] — Satellite Radio Interruptions
While I have never been a customer of either service, I’ve been following the proposed merger in my work with the NAB.
Between the customer service and programming problems you mention,
should the merger go through, their would be even less incentive for
that entity to address these problems. You aren’t the first person that
I’ve heard complain about XM’s customer service. This combined
satellite radio monopoly could charge higher prices, and feel less
pressure to cater to demands of their listeners.
Not to mention the potential harm to local broadcasters. This
monopoly would have the ability to utilize anti-competitive practices,
like charging more and use those profits to undercut the advertising
prices at both the national and local levels.
Thanks.
Jun 6, 3:49 PM — [ ... ] — Satellite Radio Interruptions