Anyone with satellite radio?

[FierceAXboi]

Was wondering which provides better service I belive the major two are XM and Sirrius. ALso what kind of music can I listen two...For those who have AOL is it like there Radio meaning can I listen to stations like 80's music, Broadway, TV soundtracks? Is there a Disney only music station?

 

[Tracey1974]

We have XM in our new Jetta. I really wanted Sirius since I like to listen to Howard Stern once in a while but the only car that was available for us was with XM. The channels are good- you can see a list of their channels on their website I think. I usually have it set to the 80's channel! The only problem with our XM is that the unit is defective- we have had to bring it in to VW 3 times so they are just replacing the thing for us this week. Other than that, it was kind of cool to listen to the same stations the whole ride down to Fla in Sept without having any static!

 

[FierceAXboi]

First glad you like howard and arent afraid to admit. Good to know there still people out there who belive if you dont like it change the channel. i dont want to turn this into a Howard debate so lets go back to satellite radio talk.

When I listen to stations am I listening to music from stations in other parts of the US? Meaning I will here a DJ and commercials?

 

[FierceAXboi]

Friendly BUMP

 

[Tracey1974]

There are DJs but you don't hear them very often. It is a centralized thing- I'm pretty sure the programming is the same all over the country on the channels. Some channels are exactly like their TV ones. I know listening to MSNBC and their Katrina coverage I heard the exact coverage plus commercials than I did on TV. The music stations don't really have commericials unless they are plugging their own station.

ps- I have been listening to Howard since I got my own car- I was never allowed to listen to it before when I was in the car with my parents even though my Dad was a big fan!

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I have XM and love it!! Would personally choose XM over Sirius.

 

[LordAthens]

I have both (BTW, XM and Sirius are the only 2, not just the major 2 well, atleast in the states...) and like most things, they both have their pro's and con's.

XM's news and traffic is better, in my opinion for the simple fact that they don't combine 2 area's onto one channel. For example, I live in Pittsburgh and on XM channel 215, I get Pittsburgh area weather and traffic. Where as with Sirius, on channel 155 I get Pittsburgh... and Detroit... It's kind of nifty, as my dad lives in Detroit, but otherwise I find it to be a pain in the rear.

Because we're on a Disney board, I should mention they both offer Radio Disney.

Other big differences are sports programming. XM has Nascar and MLB, where Sirius has NFL, NBA and NHL. Of course if you want Stern, say hello to Sirius.

I personally like Sirius's music programming better, especially for country (though keep in mind, I listen to everything from metal to classical to pop to bluegrass...). In my opinion, XM sticks to a specific genre to much, IE XM's "metal" channel Liquid Metal was very hardcore HEAVY metal. While I like metal, this is a bit to hardcore for my liking. Of course, that reason may be why Liquid Metal no longer exsists on XM. Sirius seems to mix it up a bit more in their stations, bringing in artist's that might borderline a specific genre.

XM does have a few channels that I wish Sirius would duplicate, one of which being Cinemagic. The channel does nothing buy play movie soundtracks, which is very cool (atleast I think so ) I've heard everything from Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. to Aliens and Star Wars.

This bothers some people and some it doesn't, but Sirius doesn't have "live" DJ's. For the most part, everything is pre-recorded and additionally, you can never speak to a DJ. If you want to say something to them, you leave them a voicemail. Occasionally they'll play that voicemail, but cleverly edit it and "script" what the DJ says to make it sound live.

Lastly, hardware wise, XM's is IMO a bit nicer. The Roady2 and SkyFi2 are both topnotch XM units. XM DEFINATELY has Sirius beat in the size arena. XM's units are packed with as many features* but are considerably smaller and especially thinner. *Sirius does have one huge benefit, they now have their Replay units out. Basically, think Tivo for your radio. You can pause, rewind and fast forward your station. GREAT for talk-shows when you get out to pump gas, stop at the drive thru, etc etc.

As I said at the beginning, they both have their pro's and con's. I would highly recommend checking out a retailer that carries both so that you can compare side by side. I started with XM and picked up Sirius about a year later. At this point, I listen to Sirius ~65% of the time and XM 35% of the time. I doubt i'll ever get rid of either one of them.

HTH

 

[LordAthens]

There are DJs but you don't hear them very often. It is a centralized thing- I'm pretty sure the programming is the same all over the country on the channels. Some channels are exactly like their TV ones.

This is true, what you hear on the east coast is exactly what you'll hear in the mid-west or west coast. Sirius nor XM does any type of local spot broadcasting to paticular regions. Almost all of XM's broadcasts and DJ's are based out of DC which sends the signal up to 2 satellites, cleverly named "Rock" and "Roll". Both satellites operate in a Geostationary Earth Orbit. Additionally, they have a 3rd satellite sitting on the ground, waiting to be launched, should either "Rock" or "Roll" fail.

Sirius has 3 birds that operate in a Inclined Elliptical Satellite Constellation. Like XM, they have a spare on the ground, awaiting launch should one of the three fail. Sirius broadcasts out of Rockefeller Center in New York.

On a side note, you won't get any better reception with Sirius over XM just because they have one more satellite. Infact, I get consistantly better reception with XM over my Sirius. (And for those about to question that, the antennas are directly next to each other, under my soft top so one isn't getting a better line to the birds than another).

 

[2BigKIdz]

We have Sirius and love it, definitely makes a road trip a lot easier. We have friends with XM who are equally satisfied. We have Sirius because we are NFL fans.


Sirius does have Radio Disney, don't know about XM programming if they have a Disney program or not- here's a link to the Sirius programming
http://www.sirius.com/pdf/channelguide.pdf

 

[Miss Jasmine]

We have Sirius and LOVE it. We bought it for the NFL and Howard Stern, but really enjoy all the music and some of the talk shows. DH has the Sportster IR, which is really nice. I am saving up for the new S50.
For great Sirius information check out www.siriusbackstage.com

 

[Martha7]

I love my Sirius as well. I listen to Howard and love CNN on the radio, (I'm kind of a news junkie!)

 

[Jamesbyr]

Is this thread gone already? Well I just need to say we discovered XM in the car we rented in Florida to escape Wilma two weeks ago. We listened to mostly Broadway tunes (no repititions) but tested a lot of other channels. There are many options. Cars are where this format will dominate. Local drive time radio is dominated by whoever is there, and quality in the last thing they think of. Just lots of ads, captive audience, Top Twelve, and some raunchy DJs.
We drove overnight, and listened to game 3 of the World Series. This was a feed from a local Houston station. Very home-team biased, but a lot of fun. There were local commercials. kept us occupied until 2:30 AM, if you recall.

 

[Charade]

I have XM in my car. Came with it and a 3 month trial. I found a deal for 1/2 off an annual subscription so I got it for $77. I like it but I get drop outs in areas where there are no obstructions. Doesn't happen that often but unlike FM (or AM), the sat signal disappears instead of fading. They should have an "anti-fade" system (like anti-skip in a portable CD player) where it records about 30 seconds ahead of the actual broadcast to prevent fade outs.

I wish there were more talk radio (like Rush and Glenn Beck) but I can get Air America (and that lovely Randi Rhodes ) to hear the "other side".

I like the different decades channels. I wish the unit in my car displayed more channel/artist information like a regular XM radio does.

 

[LoraJ]

I have Sirius and love it. The new Sirius radios are really cool. My Starmate Replay 2 is much smaller than most of the XM radios.

I have XM through AOL. I prefer the Sirius music stations over XM. Not really a fan of Howard Stern, but I may listen once in a while. I'm also curious about the new upcoming MArtha Stewart station.

When I don't know what mood I am in, I turn on Sirius Supper Shuffle which hits all of the decades.

I love my Sirius!

 

[accomp]

I wish there were more talk radio (like Rush and Glenn Beck)

XM has Glenn Beck. It would be great if they had Rush.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

We have Sirius as well, breathlessly anticipating the arrival of Howard Stern...although right now on channel 100, they are playing Stern News, which is alright for now! If you like comedy, Sirius has 2 stations, one clean, one blue. Jim Bruer has a show on Raw Dog Comedy which is great, hammer! You also get all NFL games, which is nice.

Either way you go, either XM or Sirius, satellite has it all over radio, for sure!

 

[Figment22]

We drove overnight, and listened to game 3 of the World Series. This was a feed from a local Houston station. Very home-team biased, but a lot of fun. There were local commercials. kept us occupied until 2:30 AM, if you recall.

Actually, and I thought this was terrific, during the World Series (and the LCS, too I think) XM had three different broadcasts of the World Series, one for each of the teams playing plus the ESPN Radio broadcast. (They also had the WS Spanish language broadcast.) I really found that to be great. During the regular MLB season, you only get the broadcast of the home team, so having all three was excellent.