Another question for any of you Sirius Satellite Radio subscribers

So I have been hearing Sirius on a guest pass listening mostly to the 'Standard Time' channel, and a little bit of Little Steven's Underground Garage channel streaming on my computer. It's pretty cool, and I will either buy it OR I will get it for my birthday (dropping serious hints).

My only criticism is that I have heard many songs repeated on the Standard Time channel. It's a great channel with some great Rat Pack, Siantra, vintage vocalist (Steve & Edyie, Ella, Peggy Lee, etc.), and some Swing Era stuff. But so far, I have heard many of the same Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peggy Lee songs already repeated within a few days. I know alot of the artists that did standards did alot of the same songs, but I've heard for example Sammy Davis' version of 'Something's Gotta Give' a few times already, and also Frank Sinatra 'Love & Marriage' has been played way too many times. Out of all the Sinatra songs out there, do you think maybe they could play a different one from time to time? Every time I hear that song I think of the TV show 'Married With Children' (which I was never a big fan of). I thought one of the ideas behind Sirius and XM was to expand the playlists because they were free of having to please any adveritsers. I was hoping to hear very expanded playlists with no repeated songs for a while. Have any of you noticed this? Also how is the reception? I have been reading mixed reviews of bad signals and good signals. I thought the signal would be better no matter what. It seems like this is a big selling point for satellite radio. I don't know if they are saying it outright, but the message seems to be that the signal is supposed to be flawless no matter where you are. But regardless of these few criticisms, it sure beats the hell out of listening to regular terrestrial radio. Once I go Sirius,I will probably never again listen to...at least FM radio in my home ever again. They have cow-towed to their advertisers for too long, and have just about killed anything cool that FM rock and pop radio USED TO be about.

So just wondering before I make the plunge to Sirius what advice/observations any of you subscribers may have.

ADDENDUM: right after I wrote this post I heard Peggy Lee's "Ain't We Got Fun" which I definitely heard last night and two or three times previous to that....so there you go. Hmmm...second guessing subscribing to Sirius now.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2005-09-28 15:45 ]

I looked into Sirius and their competition a while back. I went on their web site where you can listen to the stations and came to the conclusion that my knowlege of music and desire to hear more obscure old and new bands (I mean how many times do we have to hear "That Ole Black Magic" by Louis and Keely?) meant that satellite radio was not for me. From your posts about music donhonyc I gather that you know a lot about music and want more choice as well.

Internet radio is the future. Just around the corner is public Wifi and streaming radio at high quality wherever you drive or walk.

Jab-

I hear you on the Louis and Keely thing. Yeah internet radio is great. If I haven't mentioned it already, I am a big fan of 3WK-Classic Underground Radio. It's internet only. You can listen for free with some advertisements, or pay a fee and hear no ads. Really great programming though, and as far as I can see a genre of music not programmed on XM or Sirius. If either of these satellite stations really had their sh*t together they would have a channel like 3WK. They should also have a Lounge/Exotica channel which I don't think either has. Problem with internet radio is that I can't hear it on my stereo plus it has a weird digitzed sound sometimes, that's where satellite comes in. I want to be able to switch it on 'the old fashioned way'. I'm also a big fan of Cousin Brucie who is now on Sirius, so I think sooner or later, I'll probably get it. The Underground Garage on Sirius is pretty good too, I just haven't chose to listen to it a whole lot lately.

I've had Sirius radio for almost a year and I have noticed that there is a "playlist" on certain stations. Not nearly as short a list as regular radio, but you will hear a few of the songs on a regular basis. I've found myself loving a new station I discovered, then moving onto another one once I start to notice the repetition of a few songs. But, if you stop listening for awhile, they do tend to shuffle in and out songs to keep it fairly new. I agree that there are so many songs out there, why only play a handful by a particular artist?

As far as the reception & quality: The signal drops completely when you go under a bridge or into a garage and doesn't come back until you get back into the open. If you're going through an area covered with trees, the signal still gets through with no problem. It's only when there is 100% obstruction.

The quality, to me, is "good". It sounds a little like AM radio, but in stereo (if that makes sense). It has that "electronic" sound like when you listen to a radio station over the internet. Very clear, but electronic sounding all the same.

All that being said... I wouldn't want to be without it. It's great on trips because you don't have to keep finding local stations and there is something for everybody from music, to talk shows, to comedy, to vintage radio shows.

If you're trying to decide between Sirius & XM, the deciding factor to me was the sports broadcasts. Sirius has: NFL, NBA, College & NHL (well, eventually there willl be something to hear on NHL). I believe that these are all exclusives to Sirius. I know for sure that NFL is. They broadcast EVERY NFL game and you have the choice to listen to the home or away announcers.

XM has: MLB

Hope this helps and thanks for letting me ramble.

[ Edited by: MachTiki 2005-09-30 10:57 ]

never mind all that..howard stern is going to be on sirius and that's reason enough to subscribe, playlists be damned!!

Right On, Tipsy!

I am planning on getting Sirius as soon as Howard is about to come on. For music I use my MP3 player because for the most part nobody is playing what I want to hear anyway!!! Radio in general sucks ass!!! Does anybody know if satellite plays commercials?? I REALLY HATE COMMERCIALS!!!

Sirius does not play commercials. That's part of the appeal of satellite radio. However I've heard that some time in the future we may be hearing them. If that in fact is true than satellite customers will have been bamboozled. Remember how cable TV was supposed to be commercial free?

As far as Howard moving to Sirius...can't say I'm a big fan of his. For whatever reason I stopped listening to him around the 'Private Parts' era. I do think it's pretty cool though that he is bailing on regular radio and going satellite. All these suits and consultants that have dominated the radio biz for years now have sucked it dry. If the mass exodus of the radio audience to satellite doesn't wake them up to work on better ideas then FM radio deserves to die.

It's true that Sirius does not play commercials on their music stations (except for the occasional plug for other Sirus stations), but a lot of the stations have DJ's which can get annoying at times. Not a lot of banter, but some. At least there aren't any "Morning Zoo's". Oh, and Mojo Nixon is one of the DJ's.

All of the "Talk" stations that I have listened to DO have commercials - And there are only a few that advertise, so you hear the same commercials all the time.

One of my favorite stations is "Rawdog" which is uncensored stand-up comedy. Always helps the commute go by faster and you hear a lot of new comedians there.

I too have Sirius and I agree with MachTiki. The playlist repetition forces me to listen to station that I normally wouldn't listen to. I find this very refreshing to be honest.

The main reason that I bought Sirius and not XM was for one thing and one thing alone. Sirius is not Clear Channel and XM is...

I don't know where "the black lagoon" is, but if you're anywhere in Southern California I highly recommend AM 690 -- "The Lounge." It's all Great American Songbook stuff, really top notch if you're into that sort of thing, and I've never noticed playlists repeating. And at 6 am and 6 pm they always have a Sinatra set.

On 2005-10-11 13:23, Cool Manchu wrote:
The main reason that I bought Sirius and not XM was for one thing and one thing alone. Sirius is not Clear Channel and XM is...

Wow... I didn't know that?! With my great hatred of Clear Channel I'm glad I went with Sirius. Otherwise, I might honestly have changed.

Just got it today. I hate using this term, but talk about your 'kid in a candy store' scenarios. Sirius (and I'm sure XM for all you XM'ers) is completely mind blowing. It's like an endless well of chocolate milk, for lack of a better term. The programming is amazing and appeals to every aspect of my musical tastes and radio fan-dom. It has totally made listening to the radio fun again.

Traditional, terrestrial radio especially here in New York has completely killed itself by surrendering to the suits and consultants. The NYC classic rock station WAXQ/Q104.3 being the worst of those offenders.That station is absolutely putrid (go ahead...play 'Money' by Pink Floyd for the billionth time this week.). Being a life long fan of radio it's seems sort of sad on one level...on another all I can say is old radio deserves to die. They've played it safe for far too long. I will never listen...at least in my home...to FM radio ever again. AM.. maybe occasionally, there are one or two programs that I like not offered on satellite.

Sirius is AMAZING!!!

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2005-11-06 19:51 ]

On 2005-11-06 19:46, donhonyc wrote:
Traditional, terrestrial radio especially here in New York has completely killed itself by surrendering to the suits and consultants.

Can't you get WFMU? They're the best radio station in the country, and the best thing is they're listener supported, so no commercials. If I lived in NYC that's all the radio I would need. I listen to WFMU online as often as I can.

One of the other great things about Sirius radio is that once you have an account, you can listen to all of their programming on your computer. Quite a great thing to have at work, especially if you work at a place where the radio signals can't get through, or you don't have room for a separate radio/stereo.

topics merged.

Forgot about that post Hanford, sorry...

Just subscribed to Sirius....I love it!!!

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2005-11-07 13:22 ]