Go Ahead, Make My Day
I have had enough of this. When Sirius XM merged its channels there was an outpouring of threats of canceled subscriptions. Now it has begun again at the hand off the Bubba Army.
Like little children threatening to take their ball and go home, there seems to be a new attack on any company decision on any given day, with the inevitable backlash of threats soon to follow.
I recently switched banks and failed to notify Sirius of the new account, and my subscription was deactivated. When I tried to take care of business, I learned I was overdrawn over 1 million dollars on an account that was 2 days old. I’ll spare you the details, but I had to live without Satellite Radio for that weekend.
I cannot begin to tell you of the horror I felt listening to terrestrial radio after being a Sirius subscriber for the last 5 years. I’m not sure which was worse; listening to Pink Floyd with chorus from Whitney Houston chiming in every few seconds on the FM band, or the annoying whine that came through the speakers when I accelerated while trying to listen to the Giants game.
I had forgotten the ill effects of driving under power lines while listening to terrestrial radio. Going back to am/fm is like going back to rabbit ears or in this case, a phonograph from those swinging days of old.
So for those that want to threaten to cancel their subscriptions in an attempt to blackmail the company, I say “go ahead punk, make my day!” You’ll be back. Everyone has to grow up eventually.
Position: Long SIRI
Brandon, good to see you writing again.
When the merger was first announced the argument was that Sirius/XM competed with a number of other media formats including AM/FM/HD radio, the internet and Ipods/MP3 players. At the time, I thought the argument was specious although a good argument. Time has made that argument true. Internet based services, whether delivered via a cached service such as the Slacker portable or live services delivered via cell data services have given and will increasingly give Sirius/XM a run for our disposable entertainment dollars.
Great post Brandon. I bet you there are only 10 people with more 60 aliases a piece who have nothing better to do than typing away on different boards – Bubba is a punk and so are his followers.
That’s probably it… 10 guys with 60 aliases… genius.
Just because you don’t like/listen doesn’t mean that hundreds of thousands don’t. I have family that can’t stand Howard Stern but that doesn’t change the fact that he garners millions of listeners.
Um, Brandon, how come Sirius didn’t notify you by E-mail before they deactivated your radio?? I just went through the same thing(minus the million dollar issue), and Sirius gave me a 48 hour notice. Don’t you check your E-mail? Peace, Love, SiriusXM.
The e-mail I use for Sirius billing was an old one at optimum.net that I seldom check. I have corrected that issue, but thanks for asking.
Cool. Re: Terr. radio, I do agree with your assessment. The only thing I can listen to in LA is John and Ken on KFI, but it is mostly local talk with local issues and lately some ubiquitous SiriusXM adds. Go SIRIX!
P.S. There has to be some kind of official stink we can raise over the “longest merger review in history”? In light of the fact that only 6 months later the market is fecund with a plethora of competitive technological choices for the consumer. A most egregious behavior, and irresponsible and vindictive on the part of the FCC. Hello hindsight and kiss my ass FCC!
Brandon – so sorry about your being overdrawn at the bank to the tune of over 1 million dollars. I hope things worked out OK. Perhaps all the subscribers can band together and take up a collection for you so you can scrape by.
I can relate to the horror you felt; my Sirius Sportster Replay cut out on me for a few hours (connection problem – was fixed within hours). I reluctantly turned on the “other” radio, and I can say without a hint of exageration that it was sheer agony listening to it. It was so lacking in entertainment value, so utterly devoid of creativity, and so musically bankrupt that I could only endure a few minutes of the, for lack of a better word, SHIT !!! It was an absolute assault to the senses, and I actually started to become very anxious – to the point of almost freaking
out! I kid you not. I hadn’t listened to terrestrial radio in over two years – and I knew that it sucked – but this experience hammered home the reality of the situation; it REALLY SUCKS !!! It can only be described as heinous, and I can not for the life of me understand how anybody can listen to it.
Satellite radio on it’s worst day trumps terrestrial on it’s best (terrestrial best – now that’s an oxymoron!). People need to understand that this thing is a work in progress, and the idiots who have a seizure over their punk or disco channel going bye bye probably have a knee jerk reaction to every little thing that changes in their pitiful, bleak, unproductive lives.
So next time one of you losers start to get your panties all up in a wad, go over to that piece of shit AM/FM radio, turn it on, and see how much torture you can tolerate before you cry uncle. After you turn it off – and believe me, you will – and after your head stops throbing from the brain damage, turn the satellite radio back on. Sounds pretty good, huh? With the possibility of getting better. Terrestrial has NO POSSIBILITY of ever getting better, and you pay for it, not with your money, but with your sanity. That’s right; while you are listening to bad radio, you get the bonus of 23 minutes of lame commercials every hour.
Satellite radio may be far from perfect, but it is still a godsend compared to the alternative.
Recently, my car had to go in the shop for a week, and I was stuck with a rental car.
That was the longest week of my life without my XM radio.
David Rushing,
Irresponsible, vindictive, revengeful, spiteful, felonious, unlawful…..CRIMINAL !!! Bush, Cheney, the FCC, the DOJ, the NAB – this was the most disgraceful, unnecessary, conspiratorial, and damaging merger delay we will likely ever witness! Over two radio companies!!!!! It just shows you where this governments priorities are, but then Bush and his cronies have left the country in ruins – so why not take down satellite radio in the process?
There was tons of alternative choices for the consumer to listen to the entire duration of the 17 month debacle, and as you noted, many more now. Quite frankly, I am amazed that Sirius/XM survived, and is still in operation after the governments attempt to kill them off. I may be delusional, but it makes me think that they could survive anything after putting up with this miscarriage of justice!
Yes. It was Bush and Cheney’s top priority to take down satellite radio.
Wow. Overdrawn one million dollars and he is bitching about losing his SIRI XM radio. That is almost as dedicated as riding the stock down from $9 to .11 cents (or .08 cents if you buy the aboration that one day.)
I am with you all the way. While I hate the idea of loosing my entire investment in SIRI XM, I would be more concerned if I thought the service was going away, which it isn’t.
I have to agree with Brandon on this one. There is not better all around entertainment solution than Sirius XM. AM/FM is a Joke. the Ipod/Zune/MP3 devices only offer static content and nothing that allows the user to discover new music (or at least not much). No Exclusive content, and no interesting personalitize. Sirius XM is in the midst of a difficult transition and to get to a better place in the future, they need to make some tough decisions now.
All of the whiners should have no problem with Bubba on terestrial as that’s where he came from and you all liked him over there. Service like slacker and pandora do not deliver live exclusive content which is where Sirius has a huge advantage (Stern, Bubba, NFL, NBA, MLB, Premeir Leauge soccer, Collage Sports, Weather, and a litney of other personaliities that compliment the channels. Things will get better and settle down, but the changes have been mild compared to what they could have been. Bubba is an instigator and all of his trash talk is selfish blabber to get himself better terms. It has nothing to do with any of us. I say, if he can do better elsewhere, then let him go there. If the only reason you have sirius XM is for him, they you need to get a life (Stiring the pot a bit!)
I don’t really care about bubba, but I do feel like Howard has gotten way too comfortable with his popularity.
I honestly have tuned out the show in favor of my ipod for the last couple of weeks because all i hear is him talking about the fantastic job he does and how people can take it or leave it if they dont like whats going on. I’m also sick of hearing about how artie is on or off the wagon.
I won’t cancel my subscription, but thats only because I am a lifetime subscriber.
But I do believe the quality of programming has gone down since the merger… I think it’s because Srirus is cutting costs and trying to survive the economy, so I can live with it.
But I think it’s dangerous for them to get too comfortable and think that they don’t have to work hard to keep Sirius programming at the top of it’s game.
all it takes is another cool new gadget like the ipod to pull the rug out from under them and leave them standing in a pile of rubble wondering what just happened.
also – the sound quality of sirius music channels is total crap.
Yes ipod is static, but I can add a thousand songs each time i plug it into my computer and that takes awhile to get old.
I asked them if they plan on increasing the sound quality and they told me it’s cd quality (128KB)
first of all, 128KB is a far cry from cd quality, and secondly, theres no way in the world that sirius music channels broadcast 128KB music.
Maybe I’m too picky, but I spent a fortune on my car stereo system and it’s obscene for me to listen to crap quality music when I can use my ipod and get much richer sound.
sirius Music to me is unlistenable.
one more thing…
I do agree that terrestrial radio is unbearably grotesque to the ears.
I have not listened to FM radio EVER since I got Sirius 3 years ago
nor will I ever again unless there’s some cataclysmic change in the way they do things