Sirius and XM to Merge

[Tones]

Satellite radio is pretty much paralleling cable/satellite TV to a T. IIRC cable was commercial-free at one time, too.

[Frogacuda]

I didn't hear most of it yet; did he say anything about the music? I know that XM has commercials on some of their music channels, and that has had me worried.

The only XM music channels with commercials are the clear channel ones (like 2 or 3 channels), and while he acknowledged that they may be stuck with those, he lamented their existence and said he really didn't want to see commercials on the music channels,.

[Wildkat]

I didn't hear most of it yet; did he say anything about the music? I know that XM has commercials on some of their music channels, and that has had me worried.

Its only a few, like frog said, and its because Clear Channel gave XM money in the early days of its existence to help get it of the ground in exchange for a contact for a slice of bandwidth for a set number of years on the new service.

XM went commercial free on all its music stations about a year after launch. CC decided to use its muscle and put commercials back on the stations it ran. XM responded by moving the commercial channels onto much higher channel numbers and made its own in-house duplicates of the channels.

Satellite radio is pretty much paralleling cable/satellite TV to a T. IIRC cable was commercial-free at one time, too.

Nope, the only channels that were ever commercial free were the premium channels. At the start Cable pretty much just took regular commercial, non-network affiliate TV stations received via satellite, like WSBK out of Boston, WGN from Chicago, WTBS from Atlanta, and WWOR fron NYC, and put them on the system. It took a while for the whole concept of a "cable channel" to take hold, other than HBO which had an extra fee attached.

Some channels start with no commercials, but as soon as the get measurable ratings and can charge for the ad space, they bring them on.

[Wildkat]

Well, a rumored version the "new improved" channel list is out.. So much for the "merger" giving us more choices...

DECADES
4 – 40’S on 4
5 – 50’s on 5
6 – 60’s on 6
7 – 70’s on 7
8 – 80’s on 8
9 – 90’s on 9

COUNTRY
10 – The Roadhouse*
11 – Nashville^
12 – Outlaw Country*
13 – Willie’s Place
14 – Bluegrass Junction
15 – The Village
16 – The Highway*
17 – Prime Country*
18 – Elvis Radio+

POP/HITS
20 – 20 on 20
21 – KISS^
22 – MIX^
23 – SIRIUS XM Love*
24 – The Pink Channel^
25 – The Blend
26 – The Pulse*
28 – Escape*
29 – BBC Radio 1*
30 – Pop 2k*

CHRISTIAN
32 – The Message
33 – Praise*
34 – enlighten

ROCK
39 - Led Zep Radio
40 – Deep Tracks
41 – Hair Nation+
42 – XMLM
43 – SIRIUS XM U*
44 – 1st Wave*
45 – The Spectrum*
46 – Classic Vinyl*
47 - Alt Nation*
48 – Octane*
49 – Classic Rewind*
50 – The Loft
51 - The Coffeeshop
52 – Faction+
53 – Boneyard (returning in January)
54 – Lithium*
55 – Radio Margaritaville+
56 – Jam_On+
57 – Grateful Dead Radio+
58 – E Street Radio+
59 – Underground Garage+

R&B/URBAN/RAP
60 – Soul Town*
62 – Heart & Soul*
64 – The Groove
66 – Shade+
67 – Hip Hop Nation*
68 – The Heat

JAZZ/BLUES/LIFESTYLE
70 – Real Jazz
71 – Watercolors
72 – Spa*~
73 – SIRIUSLY Sinatra*
74 – BB King’s Bluesville
75 – On Broadway~
76 – Cinemagic~

CLASSICAL
77 – SIRIUS XM Pops*~
78 – Symphony Hall*~
79 – Metropolitan Opera Radio*~

DANCE
80 – Area
81 – BPM
84 – SIRIUS XM Chill*

INTERNATIONAL/LATIN
85 – Caliente~
86 – The Joint~
87 – The Verge~
88 – Air Musique~
89 – Sur La Route~

KEY:
* - merged/adjusted
^ - Clear Channel Music Channels, w/ commercials
~ - moved channel
+ - NEW channel

I wont pass judgement on it until I hear it for a while. I have heard good things about Faction and Lithium, and REALLY happy Top Tracks is getting the boot. Not happy that all of the XMU staff got the boot while they keep the name.

Anyone thinking about canceling or have jumped ship already? I can get O&A from other sources, and Slacker is looking mighty attractive.

[K3V]

Where the hell is Fungus (XM) or Punk (Sirius). WTF.

[MonsterMash]

Where the hell is Fungus (XM) or Punk (Sirius). WTF.

Fungus and X-Country are my two most listened to channels. Both are now gone. I've been waiting for Fungus to come back since the damn all AC/DC channel replaced it.

[K3V]

Yeah, they took Punk off of Sirius for the stupid AC/DC channel too. Ugh.

[ChaoofNee]

Man, why do you guys even bother anymore? It's obvious they don't want your money and free music on the internet is so damn easy to obtain...

[K3V]

I like Howard and the News/Talk channels. If they don't have MLB on Sirius by next summer I'll probably switch to XM to get that with the "best of Sirius" package.

I have a long commute and enjoy the non-music content. I do like Lithium and used to listen to Punk all the time but the music quality is such crap that I can't stand it anymore. Let's compress the crap out of it to fit even more channels on the limited bandwidth!

I just load up my iPod for music.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I like Opie and Anthony and the News/Talk channels.
I have a long commute and enjoy the non-music content. I do like Lucy and used to listen to Fungus all the time but the music quality is such crap that I can't stand it anymore. Let's compress the crap out of it to fit even more channels on the limited bandwidth!

I just load up my CD changer for music.