Question for any Sirius radio subscribers.

[Swish]

I just got my new Sirius radio, and a pretty nice car that came with the package ;) , and I've been listening to a lot of satellite radio. One pretty good station is "Left of Center", which plays music by many of the bands we discuss on Rave Recordings, and some I've never heard.

So what is my question? Well, I guess it's more of a problem I have with them, and I'm wondering if you find the same issues with your favorite stations. It seems to me that, while I like what they play for the most part, they repeat the same songs instead of exploring other tracks on the cds. I don't spend my entire day in my car. In fact, I've been in it very little, but it seems that every song I hear is a repeat. My wife and I laughed like crazy at Ben Folds doing "Bit<a>ches Ain't S<a>hit" last Saturday. The next day we went for a nice drive and had Left of Center on and they played a couple good tunes, then I said "I want to hear Bit<c>ches Ain't S<a>hit", and guess what? It was the next song they played!

This is the same thing top 40 FM stations do, and I'm disappointed to find that Sirius is doing the same thing. It's cheap and all, but I expected more.

Swish

[MindGoneHaywire]

I think both Sirius & XM do the same thing. It seems like the choices are looped. I spent a weekend listening to nothing but the Little Steven channel, and I was getting the sense that the shows are prerecorded & rebroadcast. I mean, one guy's in Detroit, one guy's in California, one guy's in NYC...and they loop the shows because they don't have 24 hour coverage. I'm sure some of it is live, but some of it seems to be...not. Doesn't really bother me much since I got it 99.9% for Stern. The music is a bonus. But the same loops seem to exist on the Rolling Stones channel, and on the Bruce Springsteen channel as well, probably. It's an odd conundrum: yay! They're not playing the same old crap! Variety! And then the variety becomes repetition. Kind of makes sense, though--think about yr own heavy rotation at any given time, you'll be repeating stuff you've recently discovered just as these DJs are. So there is a human element, at least I see one, in the technology/computer/radio biz aspect of the repetition. Think about how much time they'd have to spend listening to nothing but relatively new & unheard music to come up with 24-7 stuff that DOESN'T involve repetition. In the real world, I don't think that exists, even if you spend years of yr life doing nothing but listening to new music. If you only listen to something once it either hasn't made an impression, or you're not interested in it making one on you or anyone else. If I'm a DJ, I'm either going to repeat something to get it across to people once in awhile, or I'm going to let the loop do it for me. I'm not defending this, mind you. But...make any sense?

[Swish]

They're not playing the same old crap! Variety! And then the variety becomes repetition. Kind of makes sense, though--think about yr own heavy rotation at any given time, you'll be repeating stuff you've recently discovered just as these DJs are.

when I play my favorite cds, I don't play just one track every stinking time and eject it. I listen to the entire record, or at least most of it, time permitting. I've only had my new car and Sirius for a week now, and I've heard the same song from The Sounds three times already. It's not a bad song, but for cryin' out loud would they play a different track?!

Also, when is the Stern show actually live? Is it still 6 AM to 11 AM M-F, or something like that? I only checked in a couple times so far.

Swish

[MindGoneHaywire]

Like I said, I'm not defending them, it just seemed like they're on a loop, and in a sense I understand it. If I'd gotten the service on the basis of the music I might be a little disappointed, but I'm not sure what people's expectations were. I do think it's a MAJOR improvement when it comes to radio, but it almost seems like people were hoping they'd hear DJs who'd do things exactly they way they'd do them & that ain't it. In time I think it'll shake out. Right now it reminds me of various media seen in early stages when formats were still shaping.

Particularly the Howard channels. Outside of the show, the wrap-up show, rotating guest shows, and Bubba The Love Sponge, the same news is looped continuously. They don't have enough content to fill two channels 24-7, but it's great that they have 2 channels to work with. It's a work-in-progress, and so are the music channels, though I don't think people are looking at it that way. The Sounds 3 times in a week doesn't sound all that crazy--track a given song in virtually any commercial radio format, something tells me that just about anything that's not on its way to being dropped from a top 40 format you'll hear 3 times in a week if you listen to nothing but the same station!

The Stern show is live 6-11, then they run a feed for the West Coast on 101 beginning at 9, that runs until 2 EST. Then the wrap-up show. The show's been better than I've ever heard, and I mean ever. I've been listening since 1989, and it's never been funnier, more engaging, more vital. A minimum of strippers, anal ring toss, gratuitous celeb interviews, WAY more of the stuff I like, which is just the people on the show interacting, the news, various personal details & observations. There's also a rebroadcast at 9 pm. To me it's very much worth the cost.