New Channel Line-Ups Cause Confusion and Generate a Stir
Sirius XM radio has done a decent job of making suggestions for channels on those that have been removed. The question is whether subscribers will be able to set aside their passion to give the other channels a try.
In some cases, a favorite channel may carry a new name. New Country on Sirius is now The Highway. Rest assured that Brad Paisley is the same on both the old and the new… as is Jewel. Human nature dictates a rash reaction to change. Human nature also gives us the ability to adapt to change.
Yes, there are channels that will no longer exist. If one of these was your favorite, express your opinion, but do it in a meaningful manner. Calling up angry saying you are going to cancel because one favorite channel was removed will not help get that channel back. Even a well worded letter may not get the desired results, but it at least has a better chance.
There was bound to be issues when the channels were unveiled. Certainly the company will be listening to opinion carefully as they move forward. Give a reasoned and well worded opinion, and you will have a much better chance of bringing about adjustments in the future.
Are you happy with the new line-ups? Is there a channel that is no longer available that you will miss? Is there a channel that you will try out. Check out the forums as conversations are popping up all over the place.
Position: Long SIRI
Someone could make an online petition. By all means, be courteous. You don’t want Mel to think you are an unsophisticated redneck. That would suck.
Tyler, well put. Rationally the change will be the number on the dial, yes some DJ’s are gone, but honestly, the DJ Im going to miss is the one I hated at first, I suggest give it a listen and be open minded.
it is unfortunate that New Country is gone. And the compression is absolutely horrible on 60 now. Seems mainly to be when people are talking, but it is awful. Sad to see Punk gone, Faction is OK, but to much babbling as always on that station. From what I’ve read in the past XM and Sirius allocate bandwidth differently, I wonder how it works now.
I was pretty upset this morning when the channels updated and I found that Sirius Disorder no longer existed and nothing even close has been added to replace it. I listen to a lot of music and loved the super-wide eclectic mix of music that was on Disorder.
On the positive side: they have replaced a lot of the other channels I listen to with the equivalent XM channel, and I am pleased to see/hear that they probably picked the best of the two services when combining the same type of music from the two services.
I do plan to lobby with Sirius XM for the return of Disorder, and would appreciate it if others that liked the channel will do so as well. Just send an email to their general feedback email address: genfeedback“at”sirius-radio.com
I’m overall happy. The Highway isn’t the same as New Country (same format, somewhat different programming), but I prefer The Highway, so that change is positive to me. Pitching it simply as a rename is a bit misleading.
The only big complaint I have is that it is ridiculous to send out the email announcing this hours AFTER the change was made. I knew it was coming because I pay a lot of attention to Sirius and XM news, but I don’t think that’s true of most subscribers. This is a pretty major change to make, and I think the customers deserved some notice.
I’m just really upset because of cutting of the Strobe CH 37 Sirius & this would be a great benefit to XM listeners.
70’s is not the same type of music.
Overall, it looks to me that XM got the better of the deal on content improvement.
I miss Boombox 39
SXMInvestor,
I strongly disagree, as I think that XM has now been gutted more. About 10 of my favorite channels got axed – and 9 of those were my top favorite channels! I understand that it is subjective though….
Tyler,
I usually agree with you, but I disagree with you strongly in regards to what has more likely of an impact in getting subscribers favorite programming back….
I believe that the threat and/or actuality of subscriber loss is the ONLY thing that will motivate the current management to rethink their recent programming decisions and make any changes. Squeaky wheels are more likely to get the grease…
At the end of the day, management could care less about the loss of your favorite channel and programming – they only care about how many subs cancel or potenial subs don’t sign up and what impact that has on the bottom line….
End of story…..
Stop the fucking whinning. Cancel your sub if you don’t like the changes. There are over 60 music channels to choose. Find something else or move on.
I’m a Sirius subscriber and so far am pleased with the changes. Favorite so far is “The Joint” which is supposed to be just a rename of the old reggae channel but seems to be playing better music than before. I couldn’t stop listening to it today. Also really like the “90s on 9”.
Tyler, the fact is SIRIXM now has the capability to know which channels are the most popular. I am sure they dont like pissing off a small minority but cuts have to be made. The facts are clear and simple, it is all about the numbers.
“john Says:
Tyler, the fact is SIRIXM now has the capability to know which channels are the most popular. ”
What evidence do you have of this? What evidence do you have that they even tried?
Mel killed off almost everything that made XM unique. There has always been a dearth of ‘popular’ channels to bring home the bacon, but part of the appeal was the niche channels.
With those gone, the hardcore loyalists are gonna bail. Slowly, but surely, they’ll find their music elsewhere.
Sirius languished as an also-ran till they scored the NFL and Howard at great cost, because their music channels were too FM-like — and why pay for anything you can get for free?
Now this so-called merger of equals has shown itself to be a bloodbath on the XM side. I seriously doubt there was even a sampling of opinions to see which service had the happiest listeners. Mel just kept most of his people and awful programmers in place.
Hard to know if this is going to be a positive or a negative for the company if you ask me. As a shareholder, it looks like an effective move, done with no warning in hopes that customers can love the new alternatives. But as a customer I feel a bit deceived and would have liked to have some forewarning so I could cancel if I was only interested in a specific channel that no longer exists. I should have expected the risks of a monopoly to show themselves eventually.
Cut costs now. Get the patient healthier. Better programming will come with profits. Being patient now is nearly impossible, but it will be rewarded eventually.
Cost cuts?
All of those DJ’s and program directors salaries that they fired could have been paid easily with a very slim, slight cut in the management’s salary.
More importantly, it’s about what their programming choices were – rather than what they cut. When it comes to the music programming decisions, choosing one genre channel over another is pretty much a zero sum game in regards to cost….
It’s as much about what they chose to keep as much as it is about what they chose to cut……
As an investor I welcome the line-up changes!!!!!! It is an example of the synergies working in for the shareholders. People resist change but eventually they will adapt and SIRI will become profitable!
No matter what you do, you’re going to piss off a lot of people when you make changes. I see this every time we implement a new software change and everyone complains a lot at first… but then people accept the change and the complaints usually change to “this is so much better that the old way”
hopefully that will be the case with Sirius.
what I really hope they do is increase the sound quality of the music. I love the talk stations, but I’m still using my ipod for music.
Demian, It has been talked about in many articles. As amatter of fact XMSR has had the ability for some time. SIRI just got it a few months before the merger according to a article on Seeking Alpha. The auther was amazed at the fact that SIRI did not have it sooner like XMSR.
Nothing can replace Disorder. I want it back! I can’t even find a place to voice my displeasure. I understand merging and taking the better of similiar channels, but there was nothing like Disorder. Nothing. The Loft?? Sorry, not even close. Greenstein, bring it back …PLEASE!
On the positive side, I like having the 40’s station from XM, and the Joint is a significant improvement over the “rap-raggae” that Sirius had. (it was baaad). I still have to listen to BB’s Blues station more, but my initial impression is that they dumped the wrong blues channel.
to sum up: BRING BACK DISORDER
I do wish they left Boombox in place. I happen to like electronic dance and energy music. Mostly I listen to the talkers above 100 but the channels between 36-39 are the ones I frequent when looking for music. I think the call to replace Boombox with the XM station was a poor call as they are not comparable. Not that I don’t like the new channel, would like to have the old one put back up along with it.
what happened to the velvet couch on sirius 71?
@@@ SiriusXMInvestor
As an investor of Sirius, and a listener, I only really listen to a few niche channels that I can’t get on the radio, the recommended replacement for Boombox is the same lame music that drove me to pay for radio.
Read the fan forums, yes, XM got considerably gutted worse than Sirius, but with the economy circling the drain, many will be hard pressed to pay $7-14 a month for talk and music, (now some censored) that could be heard for free.
You have to do something about changing KidStuff. My 3 year old is bummed. The new Kids channel does not work well for the younger kids. HELP