http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/ Switched Comments for http://www.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.switched.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
I WANT MY XM BACK! (or at least Lucy)]]>Nov 18th 2008 1:55PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 2:09PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 2:29PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 2:25PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 2:49PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 2:55PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
Sirius is pointing to my car manufacturer, and my car manufacturer is pointing to Sirius. I sent an email to the FCC - no reply.

Merger. What a great idea.]]>Nov 18th 2008 3:22PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 3:47PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 4:33PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
I was also disappointed that the first mention I saw for these changes was in an advertisement in the USA Today. It would have been nice if they had sent out an email giving everyone a couple of days notice, at the very least. Most of my friends who have XM found out when they turned on their radio and got different stations. Not the best customer service I've ever seen.]]>Nov 18th 2008 4:38PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
For what it’t worth to the rest of you readers, I called XM on the morning of the 12th to cancel all three of my subs (we’ve been subscribers since 2001). They offered us free service for a period, but that was really of no value to us. But then this offer poses another question concerning management expertise and ability: if they are trying to enhance profitability by laying off people, reformatting their music offerings / eliminating redundancies, what will be the net effect when the subscriber base disappears, and/or the company has to offer free service to help retain listernership? Brilliant huh? Like I said before, these actions could only be contemplated with the intent of running the company into the ground (pun intended).

]]>Nov 18th 2008 6:19PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 18th 2008 8:15PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
While there are a number of stations that I listen to and enjoy, one station in particular, X Crountry, was the real reason I was a subscriber. It is the station that I had on probably 90% of the time. And now it is gone. No warning. No survey. No chance to give my input or opinion.

This station played artists I loved and heard nowhere else, except my CD player. In addition I heard many artist I hadn't heard anywhere before. Many of them are favorites now as well. X Crounty was the one thing about XM and satellite radio that caused me to tell people how great XM was. That reason is now gone, and my subscription will be soon.]]>Nov 18th 2008 7:54PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
Are the changes advantageous to advertisers?

Are the changes tolerable to stockholders?

Are the changes in line with the expectations made by the FCC?

Advertiser-supported media, offered at no charge to users, is responsible to its clients for attracting the quantity and quality of audience required to meet their marketing objectives.

Subscriber-based media, though obligated to meeting the necessary requirements to maintain advertisers, also has an obligation to meet and maintain the standards expected by its subscribers. I believe the XM/Sirius merger and their subsequent business tactics have compromised the performance expected not only by its subscribers and advertisers, but also by its stockholders.

I believe the integration of Sirius into the XM service is an insult to all parties involved, but especially to its listeners. Personally, as a long-time XM subscriber, I believe the integrity and ingenuity of some of the XM concepts have been terribly compromised; the XM service has lost the vitality, variety and value provided when originally conceived and offered to subscribers. And I am under the impression that subscribers who preferred and originally chose Sirius also feel that some of the compromises made by the merger lack the original expected standards promised to them when they originally signed up with the Sirius service.

What will happen to Sirius if subscribers become as disenchanted as their stockholders have already become and do not renew their subscriptions? Will the service need to be offered to listeners at no charge and be completely advertiser-supported? Can Sirius afford and support such a model?

If XM or Sirius subscribers had wanted standard broadcast radio formats, they possibly would not have subscribed to XM or Sirius in the first place. I subscribed to XM after being disappointed and dissatisfied with how CBS/Infinity led by Mel Karmazin (now CEO of Sirius XM Radio) was compromising the resources and programming offered by their radio stations which for the most part had previously offered superior content, better execution, respect for their audiences and consistent results for their advertisers.

I suggest Sirius learn from the mistakes made by CBS/Infinity during Karmazin’s tenure. I suggest Sirius not repeat the same types of strategies and tactics implemented by Karmazin which seem to disregard what is best for listeners, advertisers and stockholders. I believe CBS might still be trying to catch up due to mistakes made during Karmazin’s tenure at their company; trying to catch up on quality of product, competitive position, revenue, value of equity and overall profitability.

I understand the need to eliminate redundancy. I do not understand anyone (including the FCC) tolerating Sirius’ complete disrespect of subscription contracts. Maybe the current Sirius leadership is demonstrating the same of lack of good judgement as utilized in the past at CBS/Infinity. Now that’s the type of redundancy that should not be tolerable to anyone, especially to Sirius stockholders.

Maybe Sirius needs to bring back some of the original XM Radio management and eliminate the current leadership. Not all of the previous XM management led with integrity or honesty; but a new board of directors could be careful and perform their proper due diligence and assemble a team of managers, programmers and talent along with sales and marketing personnel to rebuild a superior product.

The unfortunate truth to Mr. Karmazin and his stockholders is that listeners and advertisers could all live without XM or Sirius, unless of course the product is made to be unique and relevant, and thereby possibly irreplaceable.
]]>Nov 18th 2008 9:39PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/ Then the Merger happened and Ethel, Lucy and Fred were shotgunned dead in some ally. Lithium and 1st Wave play a shallower, pop 40 mix of music and worse a lot of the music offerings appeal to Teenagers. Jazz got pidgeonholed into Moldy oldy stuff that is tedious to listen to. And over it all the DJ's can't seem to SHUT-UP!
Now I have only one channel I can stomache for any period of time-- and frankly, I've decided that one or even two channels is NOT sufficient reason to re-up by contract.
Sirius-XM is not giving any signs they are hearing tje tumult. They keep telling us how WONDERFUL everything is-- Ooh Look, I can hear STERN now!!
I blame Stern-- or rather the insane rush by BOTH companies to throw rediculous amounts of money at personalities like Stern and Oprah.
I mean-- on regular Radio, Coke and Pepsi and GM are willing to throw hundreds of thousands a day in commercials just to be associated with the personalities.
But on Satelitte Radio-- there was only the Subscribers: US.
Financially speaking, it didn't make sense in the long run. What were those Execs THINKING?!]]>Nov 18th 2008 11:19PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
The technical issues at XM have been many times worse.

It's like listening to high school radio only worse.]]>Nov 19th 2008 12:00AMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/]]>Nov 19th 2008 12:51AMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 19th 2008 9:25AMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/
I listened to E! radio most of the time, and it is gone. I listened to stations that played songs I had never heard before. Now they are replaced with stations that play songs I've heard on my regular radio many times. Nothing fresh.]]>Nov 19th 2008 1:04PMhttp://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/http://www.switched.com/2008/11/18/new-sirius-xm-radio-rankling-subscriber-sentiments/Nov 19th 2008 1:17PM