Daisy’s Blog

This week the two previously competing satellite radio companies Sirius and XM, whose companies merged four months ago, also merged their channels together into Sirius XM — a move that feels more like a Sirius takeover than a merger.  Complaints are ringing out across the net from XM customers about the few remaining stations before the merger being replaced with stations from Sirius.

For the past months, I have seen XM’s lineup dropping stations. There had been a series of 10 stations that played hip-hop, for example, from 60-70 on the ‘dial’. That was when I signed up about two years ago. Then one day a few stations just disappeared. The buttons skipped thier numbers, their names were gone from the XM listings. As if they’d never existed. So then there were only 8, and your forward and back skipped a few numbers on the way from 60 to 70. And then 4 or 5. Then two. Two stations between 60 and 70! Well, they kept the best ones, I guessed, and I enjoyed the two that seemed to stay around. I started to wonder if I should keep my subscription when it came up for renewal. This wasn’t only happening to hip-hop, it was in all the genres of music. Electronic, Rock, Alternative. The selections dwindled to almost non-existant.

Then the merger came, and it happened across the board. Many more stations went off air, and many more, with little warning, were replaced with the stations from Sirius. The three remaining Rock stations that I was listening to, Fred, Lucy, and Ethel, have been replaced with Sirius counterparts which, pardon me saying, are not nearly what I’m used to. Their selections just don’t compare.  The Sirius DJ’s are constantly breaking in and talking, doing station ID’s, answering calls. XM as I remember it was music, uninterrupted, commercial free, good music.

It isn’t anymore.

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