- Information Technology (38)
- Uncategorized (22)
- December 4, 2008: GM Must Fail
- December 1, 2008: A Tale of Two Market Segments
- November 29, 2008: The End of POD Draws Near
- November 26, 2008: When Will the Department of Labor and the Justice Department Get Involved?
- November 26, 2008: Vendor Management Systems = Price Fixing and Wire Fraud
- November 25, 2008: Your Very First Import to SourceForge
- November 18, 2008: Why I'm Ditching XM Radio
- November 12, 2008: Qt4 and Postgres quick example
- November 11, 2008: Java Rots Your Brain
- November 2, 2008: Numbered Headings in OpenOffice
Blogroll
Why I’m Ditching XM Radio
The recent merger of XM and Sirus has proven the more management inbreeds the more it becomes unfit to walk the earth. Prior to the merger XM had two channels which completely justified its existence: Fine Tuning & Audio Visions. These channels were unique in their nature and examples to be held up showing what the human race can aspire to become. Their loss can only be said to prove those against the proposed merger were correct.
Fine Tuning used to have the widest variety of non-mainstream radio music I’d ever found. In the same 45 minutes they could play Bach, Genesis, Jethro Tull, and several other artists nobody would associate together and somehow make it all work. There were shows which aired regularly such as Emerald Voyage featuring Irish folk and dance music, and a show featuring music of any genre written by original native Americans. These shows were fascinating. Had it not been for this station I would have never discovered a group called the Mediaeval Baebes, or an artist known as Nils Lofgren. Fine Tuning was a truly astounding station.
Audio Visions was that perfect background music for writing books or software. Most of the music had no lyrics. Simply beautiful sounds that evened out the stress of the day and allowed you to drift away when you needed to.
These were nearly the only stations I ever tuned in. They enriched the human species. Sadly, they are gone now. Soon my XM subscription will be gone as well.
November 19, 2008 at 8:45 am
I’ve been a Sirius subscriber since 2006 and am completely satisfied. While I have never seen a merger be totally successful, XM should never have existed in the first place and was only created when the FCC interfered with the creation of a company called CD-Radio). The original allocated band was split in two with one half allocated to a new GM company called XM while the CD-Radio was forced to change its name (they picked Sirius – The Dog Star). So one point of view is that this merger is putting things back to their original position prior to FFC interference Sirius has sent me a questionnaire every 8 weeks asking me what channels I listen to and why. Because I subscribe, large special interest groups (mostly religions or political) can no longer put pressure on commercial sponsors because there aren’t any. On top of this, I take my radio anywhere in Canada, US, Mexico, or the Caribbean and can now listen to BBC, NPR, CBC, etc.
Response: I never subscribed to Sirius for one simple reason, they never had any channels of interest. Now, after the merger, they are continuing their tradition of providing worthless programming. I really wish you could have experienced Fine Tuning, you would never turn on a Sirius station again.