XM radio...who has it?

[wmackleit]

We were thinking of getting xm radio.....do you like it. What does it cost and does it cost the same where ever you buy it from?

Thank you

 

[sunshinegirl]

I've had it for about 18 months and do not really use it that much. I got the car part and the boom box for Christmas 2004. I think I actually use the internet version more than the actual radio!

That said, I am not in the car much. Except for daycare/school runs, I am pretty much in my home office all day. And I do not tend to listen to much music or watch tv at all when I work. I do really love the programming, in particular the 70/80/90s stations. And a couple of the mixture stations like Blend. My kids like Radio Disney a lot. When we do travel, we listen to the comedy stations.

I'm more likely to use the iPod attachment in my car than the XM. However, it is the portable XM, not the kind that is built into the radio.

I could live without it, that's for sure. It is on the short list of things to get rid of in a money crunch. But it is inexpensive enough (maybe $5-$10 a month?), that it would not really help much to cut it out anyway!

 

[JR6ooo4]

I prefer sirius satelite radio. XM has problems with improper licensing of music content and just lowered their expected earnings for this year. More car manufacturers are adding sirius. Also new portable radios to be announced, shortly?
I am paying $15 monthly. and have not listened to commerical radio in 2 months. Terrestrial radio has 20-40 minutes of commercials each hour! I get more out af my 45 minute ride to-from work then I could in two hours of listening with commercials.

Mikeeee

 

[MyGoofy26]

I have it and it's getting cancelled in about a month when my contract is up. It was fun at first but I found myself switching stations as much as with regular radio. It actually hasn't been used in a couple months.

There are lots of options, but there really isn't much more than I can get for free. Sure you have commercials on regular radio (not 40 minutes - I've worked in radio for years and at most we run 3 five minute blocks and they're usually closer to 3 minutes . . . most stations prefer to charge more and run less - except in the case of paid programming) And you aren't completely commercial free with satellite - they still interrupt here and there to remind you about their other programs.

I prefer my iPod. I let that run while I'm in the car. Sure it's pricy, but after a year or two of paying subscription fees, an iPod is paid for. Plus you can get cheaper MP3 players. I use my iPod every day and can't imagine life without it now, LOL. I get to put exactly what I want to listen to on there and don't have to worry about surfing a bunch of channels to catch the end of a song I wanted to hear, LOL

 

[diznee]

After buying into all the hype and waiting years for the price to become reasonable, my DH got the "portable" and supposedly-new-and-improved one for me last Christmas.
First off...it's pretty difficult to set up and here in the wide open prairie getting a signal into your house is a crap-shoot. It requires yards and yards of wires strewn about the house and a receiver to be set in the windowsill. That said, we can now turn any radio in the house to the a particular number on the dial and get that one station that is tuned in on the "portable" unit on whereever we happen to be inside the house.
The "portable" unit un-prongs from the house cradle and can be taken into the car where it sits in another pronged cradle held precariously on the air vents. Not a great set-up to say the least.... Again, yards and yards of wires are under, around, and through the minivan and connect to a satellite receiver stuck to the back outside top of the minivan in order to get a good strong signal....after much trial and error I might add here.
Also, don't believe the part about NO COMMERCIALS!! About every 2 or 3 minutes on every station I've ever listened to, there's commercials galore and some not so savory ads you really don't want your kids listening too..ie. "Performance enhancing so-and-so..."
You know how they have shown the sales ads on tv about how you can go from home to car to foot and on into buildings, the office, etc and keep on listening to your music?? It's completely a LIE! We've lost signal again and again and again...turning a corner in rural areas, under a gas station awning, on a cloudy day...etc, etc, etc.
Don't even get me started about the rigamarole needed to use while you are working out...suffice it to say...your body becomes a walking, talking receiver for the satellite. Not even remotely comfortable and something I'm not even sure is considered medically safe.
If my dear husband hadn't been such a sweetie and paid me up for the year, it'd definitely be boxed up and outta here!!

 

[maverick9six]

I love Sirius!
I could NEVER go back to regular radio after having satellite- especially if you live in a smaller town-
We paid the whole year in advance after having 1 free year when we bought our Jeep.
I think it was around 140$ for the year.
You get free internet radio access too, commercial free-
When you listen to Yahoo radio there are tons of annoying commercials- there is none of that with Sirius-
I highly recommend it!

 

[tmt martins]

I have had the Roady for a while.We have 2 systems on our XM DsF was a long haul trucker so we bought him one for the road.I did the roady so I could move it from car to car and into the house I like it .Even use it for car rentals if I'm going to be driving them alot.

Yes the monthly fees are the same no matter where you buy the units at.We get a discount on our 2nd unit.

 

[grimley1968]

I have it and I absolutely love it. There's something for just about anyone to listen to. Keep in mind, though, that only the music channels are commercial free. If you listen to a lot of talk and sports radio, as I do, they have commercials.

I love that

- it's all digital, so no static. I only lose it when I'm either under a garage, or something blocks the southern sky, which is very rare, even in the hilly area I live in
- Since I receive it nationwide, I can literally drive to California if I wanted and listen to the same station the whole time. No need to tune in in different markets to find the same program.

It costs about $15/month for a single unit, with a price break if you get the family plan (multiple units).

Some things to consider: if you want sheer numbers of channels, XM probably beats Sirius. If you want some specific type of programming, you may like Sirius better. For instance, Sirius spent half a billion on Howard Stern alone. So if you like Stern, Sirius is for you. However, if XM spent a half billion, they'll spend it on a lot more people for that amount rather than one guy, so you get a little more choice that way, but no Stern. I can't stand Stern, so it doesn't affect me.

Sirius has NFL. XM has Major League Baseball, every single game. XM has some college football. I'm not sure if Sirius has college football.

Another thing to consider is the number of subscribers. XM, even after Sirius signed Stern, has far, far more subscribers than Sirius. It is more likely to be able to withstand some lean times. Sirius spent much of its available cash to sign Stern, so I don't know how they're going to survive for very long unless they start offering some more variety like XM does. Stern brought Sirius a lot of subscribers, but even that number is but a drop in the bucket, compared to their cost of doing business by paying Stern so much money, while still having to operate satellites, etc. XM, so far (IMHO) has done a better job of appealing to more and varied demographic groups with programming.

Sirius may be offering a portable radio device, but I've had one with XM for about 2 years now. That's a huge head start for XM, for a device that would seem so inevitable.

Of course, the companies could merge someday. I hope not, because the relatively cheap monthly prices for these services would go away then.

 

[maverick9six]

Also, don't believe the part about NO COMMERCIALS!! About every 2 or 3 minutes on every station I've ever listened to, there's commercials galore and some not so savory ads you really don't want your kids listening too..ie. "Performance enhancing so-and-so..."
You know how they have shown the sales ads on tv about how you can go from home to car to foot and on into buildings, the office, etc and keep on listening to your music?? It's completely a LIE! We've lost signal again and again and again...turning a corner in rural areas, under a gas station awning, on a cloudy day...

Sirius has no commercials- the closest thing is a station ID that says something like "Big 80's...blah blah" but no ads for anything.

I only have it in the car, but I only lose signal for 1-2 seconds when you drive under the bridge- never on a cloudy day, or rainy day or in rural areas...

do you have Sirius or XM?

 

[CinRell]

I got XM free with my GM.... did NOT like it. I'm a huge 80s fan and their music selection was awful. I thought the quality was bad too and this was a satelite installed in my car.. so I know I didn't have it set up wrong. I listened to it for about 2 weeks and the rest of my free trial went unused. Heck if I could've cancelled it earlier I would've...

Then I got sirius for Xmas this past year and I listen to it CONSTANTLY. I'm a stern fan.. so I have that... but their music selection is WONDERFUL and even though my sirius is self-installed.... and I installed it half-a$$... it's CRYSTAL clear.

I love my Sirius!

 

[barbeml]

I got XM free with my GM car two years ago and took the two-year subscription after my trial was up. I love it, I don't listen to anything else. Since we use my car for road trips, we especially appreciate the variety, good reception and traffic/weather channels.

 

[disnutt]

LOVE IT! I drive a lot for work and enjoy the variety including the talk radio options.

 

[holycow]

We've had it for years...have one in the house, one in car and small travel one. I love it...haven't had any problems ever! Enjoy!

Holycow

 

[maddhatir]

I have had SIRIUS since the christmas after Howard made his announcement- i bought the radio AND the stock! 2years now i think.

stocks not doing too well right now- but i LOVE the channels on SIRIUS- (16- the vault is incredible) there are no commercials on the music stations- however, Howard does take them often. (bathroom break!) but they are NOT as bad as when he was on regular radio- i used to be able to take a shower and when i got out THE COMMERCIALS WERE STILL RUNNING!

i did read on the internet that both XM and SIRIUS are having porblems with the FCC regulations etc:
http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/30/sirius-xm-0530markets06.html?partner=msn wherever Howard goes...the FCC follows!

my DH won an XM radio at one of his auto "get togethers" and i told him how dare he bring in the competition to our home!

i love satellite- i have not listened to regular radio in some time.

 

[rigs32]

From what I hear, both satellite radio stocks aren't doing so great because they were overpriced. People jumped on the bandwagon of the new "it" technology that's still growing, but it pushed up the stock price.

Programming:
I think everyone's view of variety in programming is dependant on what you listen to. XM does not have NPR. Sirius has three public radio channels. I get to list to my favorite show that I am not going to wake up at 7am to listen to on my local NPR station. If you like showtunes, Sirius has an amazing DJ on their broadway channel that I love - Seth Rudetsky. Sirius also has Out Q. I might be a straight woman, but I love me some Derek & Romaine. DH would never go to XM because he loves being able to listen to his Vikings games that aren't broadcast in NY.

Signal:
The only times I've ever lost signal is when inside a covered parking ramp away from the sides and when our tuner malfunctioned. I've gotten signal throughout southern Ontario, too.

Commercials:
Some of the talk stations do have commercials. That's not because of the provider, but because of the station. Court TV Radio (strange name, eh?), E! Radio, etc all have commercials. I just flip to another station via my presets. Our car kit came with a little remote, so it's super easy to change channels.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Another XM subscriber here-I would turn off my cable TV before getting rid of XM. I travel for my job though and last week spent 17 hours on the road 3 consecutive days-at no point did I turn the XM off. The radio selection is VERY poor here, and in southern KY it is even worse. XM comes in crystal clear.

We pay 12.95 a month-had free activation and 3 months free through a promo code. I told my wife it was the best Christmas present I ever received.

 

[penguingirlie]

Well I have to add in my plug for Sirius. XM does have a lot more subscribers but only because they rushed to be the first on the market. Sirius has more coverage and 3 satellites (as of a few months ago XM only had 2). Sirius has continued to grow and is adding more options (Blue Collar Comedy, Playboy, Martha Radio) I listen to it everyday and I absolutely love it. We have it in both cars and love the fact we don't have to listen to commercials. I suggest doing your research and picking the company that has the most stations you will listen to. I think you wouldn't be disappointed with Sirius.

 

[powellrj]

I really enjoy my XM radio. I travel in small towns and out in the county and I hated that I never got consistant radio coverage. Now I can listen to the same stations no matter where I am. I enjoy listening to E!, Take 5 and the comedy channels.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Sirius also has original (live) content that XM does not. And the other way around I am sure, but sirius currently has what I want. When I got mine as a x-mas ggift they had an offer= $500 for lifetime subscription! Not sure if that is still available.
Mikeeee

 

[nbodyhome]

My husband had XM for many months, and cancelled his subscription because customer service was horrid.

It was nice, but not essential.