The XM/Sirius Merger

[Runesmith]

So, the XM/Sirius radio merger finally went into full effect today. Imagine my surprise this morning when I flipped the radio on and saw a bunch of unfamiliar channel titles in the LED screen; it seems quite a few of XM's stations were replaced with ones from Sirius. The three stations I listen to the most - Fred, Bone Yard (I can't believe they dropped Eddie Trunk), and Lucy - were changed to Sirius channels, so I'm a bit worried about the direction XM might be taking. In addition to repeating songs a bit more frequently, I've heard Sirius tends to ignore deep cuts in favor of the hits, which is one of the things I loved about XM; even the hit stations loved to throw the occasional curveball out there. Is anyone else worried about this, or am I just blowing it out of proportion?

On a positive note, I'm glad we're (sorta) getting a punk station (Faction) after the clueless people at XM thought it would be a great idea to replace Fungus with an AC/DC channel. Nothing could really replace the greatness that is Fungus, but at least its a step back in the right direction.

[Hungryfreak]

Bah, this sucks. Why couldn't they just add the channels instead of replacing? XM has always been a good source of listening and finding great bands (most of which a21schizoidman posted in the obscure band listing thread) as well as constantly supplying us with many, many great songs in general.

[Mex]

My Sirius subscription ran out a few months ago so I haven't really been paying attention. I thought I'd heard they still offer all the channels from both sides and you'd be able to pick and choose.

Instead they just mashed everything together?

[Zeleii]

Wow that's really bogus... deep cuts > Singles and hits any day of the week

[Captain Zepp 07]

As long as I can still listen in to Bob Dylan on any channel talking to me about Presidents (forgot what they called it), then I'll be happy. I loved listening to it, really cool facts that doesn't bore you in school

[AxlVanHagar]

The Boneyard and others have been shuffled on the dial, they're still there. I had an email with all the changes. Here it is, first channel is the old channel second channel is the new one. The Boneyard moved from 41 to 53. Chennels preceded with a - are new.

America The Roadhouse Classic Country XM 10 XM 10

X Country Outlaw Country Americana XM 12 XM 12

Highway 16 The Highway New Country XM 16 XM 16

US Country Prime Country '80s & '90s Country XM 17 XM 17

- Elvis Radio Elvis Presley 24/7 - XM 18

The Heart Sirius XM Love Love Songs XM 23 XM 23

Flight 26 The Pulse Modern Adult Hits XM 26 XM 26

Cinemagic Cinemagic Movies XM 27 XM 76

On Broadway On Broadway Showtunes XM 28 XM 75

UPop BBC Radio One UK Pop Hits XM 29 XM 29

XM Hitlist Pop2K 2000s Hits XM 30 XM 30

Spirit Praise Gospel XM 33 XM 33

- Hair Nation '80s Hair Bands - XM 41
Boneyard Boneyard Classic Hard Rock XM 41 XM 53

XMU Sirius XMU Indie/College/Unsigned XM 43 XM 43

Fred 1st Wave '70s & '80s Classic Rock XM 49 XM 49

XM Cafe The Spectrum Adult Album Rock XM 45 XM 45

Top Tracks Classic Vinyl '60s & '70s Classic Rock XM 46 XM 46

Ethel Alt Nation New Alternative XM 47 XM 47

Squizz Octane New Hard Rock XM 48 XM 48

Big Tracks Classic Rewind '70s & '80s Classic Rock XM 46 XM 46
- The Coffee House Acoustic Rock - XM 51

The Verge The Verge Emerging Artists XM 52 XM 87

- Faction Action/SportsPunk/Ska - XM 52

Lucy Lithium '90s Alternative/Grunge XM 54 XM 54

- The Mothership Led Zeppelin 24/7 XM39

- Margaritaville Escape to Margaritaville - XM 55

- Jam On Jam Bands - XM 56

- The Grateful Dead Channel Grateful Dead 24/7 - XM 57

- E Street Radio Bruce Springsteen 24/7 - XM 58

- Underground Garage Little Steven's Garage Rock - XM 59

Soul Street Soul Town Classic Soul XM 60 XM 60

Suite 62 Heart & Soul Adult R&B Hits XM 62 XM 62

Raw Shade 45 Eminem's Uncut Hip-Hop XM 66 XM 66

The City Hip-Hop Nation Urban Contemporary XM 67 XM 67

Beyond Jazz Spa New Age XM 72 XM 72

High Standards Siriusly Sinatra Sinatra/American Standards XM 73 XM 73

Escape Escape Beautiful Music XM 78 XM 28

The Move Area Trance/Progressive XM 80 XM 80

XM Vox Met Opera Radio Opera/Classical Vocals XM 112 XM 79

XM Chill Sirius XM Chill Smooth Electronic XM 84 XM 84

Caliente Caliente Tropical/Reggaeton XM 94 XM 85

Air Musique Air Musique New & Emerging Music XM 96 XM 88

The Joint The Joint Reggae XM 95 XM 86

Sur la Route Sur la Route Pop Hits XM 97 XM 89

XM Classics Symphony Hall Traditional Classical XM 110 XM 78

XM Pops Sirius XM Pops Classical Pops XM 113 XM 77

XM Kids Kids Place Live Songs for Younger Kids XM 116 XM 116
- The Catholic Channel Not What You'd Expect - XM 117
- Doctor Radio Powered by NYU - XM 119

FOX Business News FOX Business News FOX Business News XM 128 XM 136

- Mad Dog Radio Sports Talk with Chris Russo - XM 144

- Blue Collar Radio Blue Collar Comedy - XM 148

- The Foxxhole Comedy with Jamie Foxx - XM 149

XM Comedy Raw Dog Comedy Comedy Uncensored XM 150 XM 150

Take Five Sirius XM Stars The XM Difference XM 155 XM 155

- Cosmo Radio Fun, Fearless, Female - XM 162

Big 12 Big 12 Sports Play-by-Play XM 241 XM 213

- NBA Sports Play-by-Play - XM 232
- NBA Sports Play-by-Play - XM 233
- NBA Sports Play-by-Play - XM 234
- NBA Sports Play-by-Play - XM 235
- NBA Sports Play-by-Play - XM 236
XM Scoreboard XM Scoreboard Sports Schedules XM 243 XM 95

Canada 360 Canada 360 News & Information XM 244 XM 96

Quoi de Neuf Quoi de Neuf News & Information XM 245 XM 125
Calendrier Sportif Calendrier Sportif Sports Schedules

[supersickie]

Consider checking out The Vault. Channel supposedly built around deep album cuts.

EDIT: Now known as Deep Tracks (16). Might have to check it out myself now...

[Hastyl3]

I miss my Sirius Hard Attack. Well mostly the name, Liquid Metal is a dumb title =/

I like and don't like the direction they went with 27, yeah sure, it's heavier and diverse but, what's with the metalcore being thrown at me now? It's worse than Hard Attack at night(DJ who knows nothing about metal, thinks that Slipknot is the heaviest band in existence). Il ike the fact that there's a Led Zeppelin channel now but, I'm missing my all Punk channel that played Punk from every generation known. Sirius decided it would be a good idea to give hat to Ac/Dc, than to some indie channel.

[afterstasis]

my roommate used to have sirius in her car and we'd listen to a pretty cool station that played early alternative, post-punk, and the sort...

i remember catching fred from the b-52's guest-hosting a few times, which was great.

[Quinarvy]

Is XM Led still intact?

And man, now I gotta get used to a new Bone Yard station.

[Hungryfreak]

Nah, the Led Zeppelin channel was down a month or two before I left for Israel. They have a Metallica channel now that plays St. Anger half of the time...

[cdestey]

They ruined Liquid Metal, they used to play mostly death and grind, but now it's nothing but Slipknot. Plus they took away the punk channels on both formats, and replaced them with AC/DC radio. 24/7 AC/DC... because their catalog is so diverse.

The only reason I'm still paying for this is Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez.

[Keebler]

From the Sirius side, I haven't seen much of an effect except for the renaming of some channels (e.g. The Vault is now Deep Tracks, Buzzsaw is now Boneyard).

You guys will be happy to know Led Zeppelin Radio is back on the air! For Sirius, it's either Channel 12 or 34.

[Hastyl3]

They ruined Liquid Metal, they used to play mostly death and grind, but now it's nothing but Slipknot. Plus they took away the punk channels on both formats, and replaced them with AC/DC radio. 24/7 AC/DC... because their catalog is so diverse.

The only reason I'm still paying for this is Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez.

Yeah, it's been like that on Hard Attack the past few months. When I got Dish, I discovered the channel, he played Thrash, Death, and Black all day, around June was the time when they switched from metal all day to Metalcore, now they're a 2% Metal, 40% Slipknot, 30% Metalcore, 28% Mehshuggah channel. I miss my old Hard Attack where they didn't just play stuff from 85 onward, they played ALL metal from ALL metal eras. I'm happy that they at least got rid of the chick at night who knew nothing about metal.

[King_Nuthin]

I cancelled on September 15th when AC/DC radio showed up in Fungus's place, but accepted the 3 free months they offered, but after the mass layoffs in mid October I saw the writing on the wall and I stopped listening and bought an Ipod Touch. They canned most of my favorite channels in this latest batch, plus put Boneyard hiatus, another casualty of AC/DC radio. I've had a few exchanges with John Zellner, the head of music programming, but I'm also quite upset that they dumped Scott Walterman who ran the XM news division and POTUS channel, which became regular listening after the first batch of layoffs.

I expect that Special Xmas will not be back, another one of my favorites.

The FCC should have blocked this merger, its clear that Mel Karmazan lied through his teeth about his plans post merger. He killed Sirius's long term future by overpaying for talent and then he decides that when he merges the companies he will kill the other brand's strength. Anyone would have told you a year ago XM for Music and baseball, Sirius for talk. So the first thing they do is gut the music division. Uggh, this merger really cheesed me off, if you can't tell. They even got rid of my wife's favorite Sirius channel that has no replacement on XM (Backspin). At least the kept the Underground Garage, but its not enough to save my subscription. I will need to find a new way to listen to the Red Sox though.

[King_Nuthin]

From the Sirius side, I haven't seen much of an effect except for the renaming of some channels (e.g. The Vault is now Deep Tracks, Buzzsaw is now Boneyard).
That is because they laid off all but a few of XMs programming team, so far most of the Sirius crew has survived the cut.

[Runesmith]

I cancelled on September 15th when AC/DC radio showed up in Fungus's place, but accepted the 3 free months they offered, but after the mass layoffs in mid October I saw the writing on the wall and I stopped listening and bought an Ipod Touch. They canned most of my favorite channels in this latest batch, plus put Boneyard hiatus, another casualty of AC/DC radio. I've had a few exchanges with John Zellner, the head of music programming, but I'm also quite upset that they dumped Scott Walterman who ran the XM news division and POTUS channel, which became regular listening after the first batch of layoffs.

I expect that Special Xmas will not be back, another one of my favorites.

The FCC should have blocked this merger, its clear that Mel Karmazan lied through his teeth about his plans post merger. He killed Sirius's long term future by overpaying for talent and then he decides that when he merges the companies he will kill the other brand's strength. Anyone would have told you a year ago XM for Music and baseball, Sirius for talk. So the first thing they do is gut the music division. Uggh, this merger really cheesed me off, if you can't tell. They even got rid of my wife's favorite Sirius channel that has no replacement on XM (Backspin). At least the kept the Underground Garage, but its not enough to save my subscription. I will need to find a new way to listen to the Red Sox though.

I almost cancelled after Fungus was pre-empted by AC/DC back in September, until I realized that I just couldn't go back to AM/FM again. :( Sadly, XM and Sirius could pretty much do whatever they want, and I'd still stay a subscriber because I can't listen to commercial radio anymore. I've been spoiled with all the great music XM had to offer. Really hoping XM and Sirius improve over time, despite the somewhat rocky start.

[seinman]

I'm pissed off. I canceled my XM subscription. I've been a subscriber for three years, and I put up with all the other changes they made, even welcomed most of them... but this is too much. I feel like i've lost a dear friend, and i'd rather not talk about it. :(

[King_Nuthin]

I almost cancelled after Fungus was pre-empted by AC/DC back in September, until I realized that I just couldn't go back to AM/FM again. :( Sadly, XM and Sirius could pretty much do whatever they want, and I'd still stay a subscriber because I can't listen to commercial radio anymore. I've been spoiled with all the great music XM had to offer. Really hoping XM and Sirius improve over time, despite the somewhat rocky start.
I'm hoping they make a Slacker radio app for the iPod Touch, but for now I'm getting by on garagepunk.com and a few other podcasts on bus rides and then last.fm and Pandora in the office, plus my mp3 collection.

I bought my wife Sirius before I had XM and could never get into their music. Way too singles/hits oriented which is one thing, but their playlists are shallow as well so they repeat almost daily. There are quite a few stations you can set your clocks to. The only way I can possibly see getting them to change is to unsubscribe and hope they get the message. But they've canned many great people and essentially shut down XM operations out of their DC studio. The Sirius (music) guys are cheaper and often voice tracked. Mel has a pretty big history of hating indie and alternative music, and anything that isn't commercial, so I just can't see things changing but you never know.

[seinman]

I hate how they call this a merger. Look at the details of the transaction: Sirius bought XM. XM has better technology, and Sirius wanted it. From the beginning it would have been obvious that Sirius wanted to dump all of XM's talent and programming, if it had been reported as a buyout instead. I guess we should have seen this coming.

[supersickie]

I hate how they call this a merger. Look at the details of the transaction: Sirius bought XM. XM has better technology, and Sirius wanted it. From the beginning it would have been obvious that Sirius wanted to dump all of XM's talent and programming, if it had been reported as a buyout instead. I guess we should have seen this coming.

Amazing how some can still say Howard Stern had no effect once he moved to Sirius...

[King_Nuthin]

Amazing how some can still say Howard Stern had no effect once he moved to Sirius...
I'd say his effect was launching a talent war that pretty much destroyed the medium.

Sirius XM is now trading at 20 cents. I made a joke a few weeks ago to friends when it hit 42 cents that Forever stamps were a better investment that doesn't seem so funny now. Delisting can't be far away.