Siriusly Bad
December 6th, 2006, 12:54 AM
I made my way here because I wanted to find some place to sound-off about Sirius Radio, and to see if there's anyone else out there who shares my views, or not.
I am most dissatisfied with the Sirius thing. The receiver, the reception, the cost, the programming, the calibre of customer service, the wiring..., let's see, could there possibly be anything else? No, that about covers everything Sirius Radio is all about and what you receive for your purchase price.
However, this thread is about programming, so I'll confine my remarks here to this topic alone. I'll post my other gripes in their respective threads; ie, hardware, technical, customer support, etc.
My hope beyond all hope is that some dweeb from Sirius might stumble into this thread and bother to care about the issues I raise, maybe even act on them!
So. Programming, eh? First, I'm Canadian (you could probably tell by the "eh"). What this means is that I feel that signals beamed into Canada should reflect a certain respect for our existence. Since Canadians comprise roughly 10 percent of Sirius' potential market, hence 10 percent of their profit potential, it would only be appropriate for the DJ's on the main stations to recognize (in a polite, positive manner!), oh, say, can you see (get the pun?), about 1/10 of 1 percent of their listeners.
I'm sick and tired of hearing mentions about concert tours to every backwater hicktown in middle america while appearances in major Canadian cities barely gets a burp. And, when the burp comes up, it reflects the mindnumbing ignorance of certain Americans by being peppered with some sort of stereotypical derogatory remark like; BRRRRR, as if Minnesota or New York never see snow!
Hey, dumb yankee DJ! Canada has heated indoor coliseums just like yours, the big name bands don't arrive in dogsleds, and they don't have to worry about getting shot or mobbed by hysterical fans! Plus, since we have only a dozen or so major cities, it should not be beyond any IQ's reading level to add the names of our cities to your cheat sheet.
On another rant, I find it really annoying how certian DJ's play the same, same, same songs ALL THE TIME. If I never hear "Oh lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz" again, I'll die a happy man. For the record, I love Janis! But she recorded more than one song. I'd like to hear all of the others at some time or another. Same goes for Lynnrd, Dylan, Traffic, Tull, Young, The Ramones, B-52's, and a whole host of other truly fantastic artists.
Then there are the DJ's who pull all their music selection from the same bin, day after day, show after show. Always the same tired 20 or so bands. Depeche Mode, Bronsky Beat, Billy Joel, the Doors, Springsteen, CCR, Elton John, the incomparable Jimi H, etc. All are great artists, however, I expect better than a steady relentless diet of the same bands all the time. All the Sirius rock stations suffer from this same problem.
I say; Fire the lame DJ's and replace them with some good old fashioned early FM style jocks who knew how to put a decent music set together! The current crop of Sirius Idiots are stuck in an AM radio timewarp, you know the one - All The Hits All The Time. They haven't yet realized that the 45's they're used to playing actually had a Side 2, and that those 45's where usually payola influenced teasers for the 12" LP - an album which always contained better songs elsewhere on it than the Top 40 commercial crap pressed onto the 45's.
We have been fortunate enough to be living during a time in mankind's history when the most profound and enduring music ever created has been performed and recorded in all its glorious diversity and abundance! So why does the most advanced transmission system in the known universe, with over a hundred available stations, play such an insignificantly small and limited variety? I don't get it!
I want album rock played on the classic rock stations, not Top Hits from the 70's and 80's. I want World Music like I was promised. I want to hear Klesmir, Zydico, Zimbabwian dance, Gregorian chant, Celtic, Medieval lute, Australian didgeridoo, Norwegian folk, Chilean guitar, Egyptian songs, Russian laments,... I want more than the mainstream Ameri-Brit pablum from Woodstock, Haight Ashbury and Leeds. None of the above is available anywhere on Sirius Radio.
And while your at it, lose the greying bimbo with the WKRP nickname who thinks her listeners all want to "party". She sometimes plays decent music, but her personna is truly lame and she never has anything intelligent to say when the mike comes on. Is she, or should I say, was she once, a blonde? Dusty Street? More like Dusty Relic! And tell her she smokes too much and to get some PolyGrip for her dentures.
Finally, Sirius advertises "Commercial Free Radio". What an outright lie!!! What they broadcast is 100% Sirius Commercials. No one else is allowed to advertise on their stations except them, which is fine. But, I most definitely don't want to hear any advertising whatsoever when I've paid for a service which claimed to be commercial free when they cashed my cheque. What's happening is subscribers are having to pay Sirius for the privilege of hearing ads exclusively for Sirius Radio. This is just plain dead wrong!! I can't believe legislators, regulators and anti-trust officials let them get away with this.
There, I'm done... for now.......
I'm going out to buy an I-Pod.
I am most dissatisfied with the Sirius thing. The receiver, the reception, the cost, the programming, the calibre of customer service, the wiring..., let's see, could there possibly be anything else? No, that about covers everything Sirius Radio is all about and what you receive for your purchase price.
However, this thread is about programming, so I'll confine my remarks here to this topic alone. I'll post my other gripes in their respective threads; ie, hardware, technical, customer support, etc.
My hope beyond all hope is that some dweeb from Sirius might stumble into this thread and bother to care about the issues I raise, maybe even act on them!
So. Programming, eh? First, I'm Canadian (you could probably tell by the "eh"). What this means is that I feel that signals beamed into Canada should reflect a certain respect for our existence. Since Canadians comprise roughly 10 percent of Sirius' potential market, hence 10 percent of their profit potential, it would only be appropriate for the DJ's on the main stations to recognize (in a polite, positive manner!), oh, say, can you see (get the pun?), about 1/10 of 1 percent of their listeners.
I'm sick and tired of hearing mentions about concert tours to every backwater hicktown in middle america while appearances in major Canadian cities barely gets a burp. And, when the burp comes up, it reflects the mindnumbing ignorance of certain Americans by being peppered with some sort of stereotypical derogatory remark like; BRRRRR, as if Minnesota or New York never see snow!
Hey, dumb yankee DJ! Canada has heated indoor coliseums just like yours, the big name bands don't arrive in dogsleds, and they don't have to worry about getting shot or mobbed by hysterical fans! Plus, since we have only a dozen or so major cities, it should not be beyond any IQ's reading level to add the names of our cities to your cheat sheet.
On another rant, I find it really annoying how certian DJ's play the same, same, same songs ALL THE TIME. If I never hear "Oh lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz" again, I'll die a happy man. For the record, I love Janis! But she recorded more than one song. I'd like to hear all of the others at some time or another. Same goes for Lynnrd, Dylan, Traffic, Tull, Young, The Ramones, B-52's, and a whole host of other truly fantastic artists.
Then there are the DJ's who pull all their music selection from the same bin, day after day, show after show. Always the same tired 20 or so bands. Depeche Mode, Bronsky Beat, Billy Joel, the Doors, Springsteen, CCR, Elton John, the incomparable Jimi H, etc. All are great artists, however, I expect better than a steady relentless diet of the same bands all the time. All the Sirius rock stations suffer from this same problem.
I say; Fire the lame DJ's and replace them with some good old fashioned early FM style jocks who knew how to put a decent music set together! The current crop of Sirius Idiots are stuck in an AM radio timewarp, you know the one - All The Hits All The Time. They haven't yet realized that the 45's they're used to playing actually had a Side 2, and that those 45's where usually payola influenced teasers for the 12" LP - an album which always contained better songs elsewhere on it than the Top 40 commercial crap pressed onto the 45's.
We have been fortunate enough to be living during a time in mankind's history when the most profound and enduring music ever created has been performed and recorded in all its glorious diversity and abundance! So why does the most advanced transmission system in the known universe, with over a hundred available stations, play such an insignificantly small and limited variety? I don't get it!
I want album rock played on the classic rock stations, not Top Hits from the 70's and 80's. I want World Music like I was promised. I want to hear Klesmir, Zydico, Zimbabwian dance, Gregorian chant, Celtic, Medieval lute, Australian didgeridoo, Norwegian folk, Chilean guitar, Egyptian songs, Russian laments,... I want more than the mainstream Ameri-Brit pablum from Woodstock, Haight Ashbury and Leeds. None of the above is available anywhere on Sirius Radio.
And while your at it, lose the greying bimbo with the WKRP nickname who thinks her listeners all want to "party". She sometimes plays decent music, but her personna is truly lame and she never has anything intelligent to say when the mike comes on. Is she, or should I say, was she once, a blonde? Dusty Street? More like Dusty Relic! And tell her she smokes too much and to get some PolyGrip for her dentures.
Finally, Sirius advertises "Commercial Free Radio". What an outright lie!!! What they broadcast is 100% Sirius Commercials. No one else is allowed to advertise on their stations except them, which is fine. But, I most definitely don't want to hear any advertising whatsoever when I've paid for a service which claimed to be commercial free when they cashed my cheque. What's happening is subscribers are having to pay Sirius for the privilege of hearing ads exclusively for Sirius Radio. This is just plain dead wrong!! I can't believe legislators, regulators and anti-trust officials let them get away with this.
There, I'm done... for now.......
I'm going out to buy an I-Pod.