Satellite Radio. Are they Sirius?

[black roadster]

We got a 4 month free subscription of Sirius radio with the new car and I have to say, We are not impressed.

Not sure what all the hub-bub is with satellite radio.

1. It is not commercial free. What is the point of paying for a service that has advertisements?
2. The station selection is "poor". I didn't expect to have to flip through 10 stations to find a decent song. Radio 10 "The Pulse" seems good but the others are meh...
3. We had an interruption for with about a 10 second pause followed by the Emergency Broadcast System sounds and then went back to the music with no mention of it being a test. ???
4. All this and internet radio is optional?

Needless to say, at this point I don't see the benefit of Sirius as we are not really interested in the sports radio.

Are my experiences unique? What do you Sirius subscribers see in the service?

[goofygrin]

Looong and I mean loooong time subscriber. And I hate it now. In the new car I have a free 3 months and I'm not even listening to it.

The sound quality has gone way, way down since it first came out.

[OZMDD]

Tons of commercial-free channels. Programming your favorites is critical. Do you regularly watch all the tv channels one at a time in order until you find something you like?

With the advent of iPods, it is not nearly as great as it used to be for me, but I still really like it when traveling. I do like sports talk and news, so it offers that for me locally, and I think it's invaluable for a long trip into remote country. I listened to the uncensored comedy channel for 4 hours on the way to Marfa once, and the miles flew by. Nearly pissed myself a couple of times, but...

Its also nice for a change of pace. I hit the jazz channel at times, classical, my kid likes the kids music, and old radio serials are awesome driving long distance.

I bought the lifetime subscription for $300 ten years ago, but I'd still pay for it if I didn't live in a huge metro area.

+1 on the sound quality. Fine for talk, comedy, etc.

[fwMiata]

meh, beats regular radio though.

the test thing is a retarded FCC thing though.

Not sure about the commercials though, only seems to be on the news channels ect....

Quality is Great in wifes range rover. music is CD quality. Talk isnt that great but its talk.

[Squid]

I have a Stiletto and I love it. I can move it between vehicles, use it at the gym etc.
I wish the "DJ" would talk a little less, but the music channels don't have commercials.
I don't listen to talk or sports channels except for maybe 10 channels of simultaneous NASCAR.

[Rebel]

I only listen to it when they give me a free trial. Happens once or twice a year. I agree the sound quality isn't as good as terrestrial radio. Certainly won't ever pay for it. My BIL loves it though. He's in his car for work alot, traveling through areas with minimal radio, so it works for him.

[SirHustlerEsq]

Spotify crushes them all

[trickyrix]

I've had Sirius for almost 5 years and I love it on long trips. It's worth my money for the following reasons:

1. Perfect reception almost everywhere
2. More-than-decent music channels that hit just about every genre, niche, and category (you need to look at the channel guide and set up your presets... browsing won't get you there)
3. Stern
4. NFL Ticket
5. News, comedy, blah blah blah - lots of choices to mix it up

Yes, I have a well-stocked iPod, but I get tired of hearing the same shit I listen to every day. The SQ is on par with the CD or iPod hookup, but mine is hardwired into the radio, not puking through an FM converter. I redid my deal with them last year and I'm paying something like $50 a year for it, so cost is negligible. I like it, but some are haters... to each his own.

[black roadster]

When I looked online, the want $200 for the year. How do we get the TCB rate?

[p4R4d0x]

FWIW, I haven't heard any 'hub bub' about satellite radio in years.

That being said I had it early 2010 til middle of last year and I liked it, but downgraded cars and jobs so I don't anymore. I also had a stiletto, and liked that I found a lot of music that I liked and wouldn't normally have come across. I really loved the feature where you press the heart and it stores the currently playing song for you - I was able to build up quite the collection of good music, for the rare occasion where I lost service (only ever happened during bad storms). I don't remember there being commercials? Maybe the channels I listened to didn't have them, or maybe I just have a poor memory (could easily be the latter).

I wouldn't pay $200 for the year though.. I paid closer to $100.

[patf]

this was a godsend when i lived in Austin and had to do work in Corpus. not much between san antonio and corpus christi, especially those late drives back... it really does have its place. i was paying $7 a month then.

[trickyrix]

When I looked online, the want $200 for the year. How do we get the TCB rate?

Call and bitch.

My folks' cars came with Sirius, and when the trial period was up, the bargaining began. My dad got BOTH cars hooked up for some ridiculous rate, so I called and bitched about my account. Voila! TCB-approved! Typical of most services, if you call to cancel they'll try and keep you with a lowball rate. YMMV.

You'll also get a break if you pay for a whole year at a time...

[MadMonkey]

I had Sirius for a couple of months while I was training in Yuma... my rental Accent had it installed. I loved it because once I hit the foothills my cell reception went to crap and I couldn't listen to Pandora or Slacker.

In the metroplex, there would be roughly 0 reasons for me to use Sirius, but if I was traveling out in the sticks a lot it would be awesome.

If I didn't have my laptop, tablet, MP3 player, or CDs.

Which is unlikely, so it's doubtful I'll ever get it.

[creek]

I had XM until they were bought out by Sirius. The programming went down the toilet after the merger and I cancelled.