Date:         Tue, 25 May 2004 01:42:16 -0400
Reply-To:     caverat <caverat@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         caverat <caverat@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      OT RE - Non vanagon content-Annoying sirius DJ's-Does XM have
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

-- Is anyone as annoyed as I am at the hair enhancement/replacement drug =
-- commercials that they've been running on, among others, the "Raw Dog =
-- Comedy" stream?  On "supposedly" commercial free radio?!?!?!?  What =
-- gives???

-- Caverat, what's your take on this?

I'm Caverat, and here's my take.  Listmembers who don't like my long-winded comments or who aren't interested in this subject, delete this email now.

Sirius has always been commercial free on their music channels.  They say that they will always remain that way.  Whether or not they will will remain to be seen.  The trend and all public statements indicates that they will. XM did run commercials on their music channels for over two years.  They switched to commercial free music channels in February to counter Sirius' commercial free content since their surveys showed they were losing customers to Sirius due to the fact that nobody wants to pay for commercials.  XM was planning to always have limited commercials on many of their music channels, but figured out that might not be such a good ideal.  Hard to argue with that fact.  However, it is nice to know that instead of adding more commercials as some people have said was sure to happen they have actually removed them completely.

Non-music channels like comedy channels, news, and sports have never been promoted as commercial free and likely never will be, only the music channels have been promoted as commercial free.  I could be incorrect, but it is my understanding that satellite radio is the fastest selling consumer electronics product of all time.  Faster than cd-roms, faster than DVDs,  faster than the VCR, faster than satellite TV, faster than cable TV, faster than cell phones, etc.  There are 2 million or so people who decided that it is good enough to pay for in a little over 2 years.  Supposedly 3-5 thousand people are signing up for the service each and every day.  XM claims to have signed up around 24,000 people on Christmas day alone.  This new medium is still in its infancy though and many people don't know about it yet.  Advertisers do though, and both XM and Sirius accept limited advertisments on non-music channels.  It is my understanding that it is around 2 minutes an hour on non-music channels for Sirius, and 4-6 minutes an hour for XM.  When compared to the 20 minutes average for "free" radio, it is still a lot less.  Still, who wants to hear commercials?  It's a catch-22, as subscriber revenue grows the need for advertiser revenue decreases.  As subscriber counts grow the more advertisers want to advertise and will pay for it.  I've heard that advertisers may "sponsor" non-music channels or specific shows.  Still, the "promise" from both services is that on non-music channels the commercial content will always be a fraction of what is heard on "free" radio.

I listen to the comedy channel frequently, I've never heard an advertisement that wasn't a public service announcement or an "ad" describing a Sirius promotion (like free tickets to see Eric Clapton) or another Sirius channel.  I've never heard an ad for any products, but I do listen to music-only channels the majority of the time, which don't play ads.  I have three Sirius radios, all of which I have received free of charge from "friends and family" promotions I have usually passed on to this group.  I pay full price for one subscription, the other two are $6.99 a month due to the multi-receiver discount.  The day that I installed the radios was the last day I ever listened to "free" radio.  Many people don't bother with local stations anymore or even CDs due to the variety.

As far as "annoying DJs" are concerned, I'm not sure what you are talking about.  I heard that the XM DJs will talk about stupid sh*t like what they did last night, but I have never heard that from the Sirius DJs on the channels I usually listen to (mainly 2 classic rock (60-70, 70-90), bluegrass, blues, alternative rock, jam bands).  When the DJs talk, they are usually telling you items like where the band you just heard is playing that night or weekend, something about the album the song is on, or something about when their next album is due.  I've heard a lot of interesting comments, but never any annoying things.  It could be different on other stations,  I can only comment on what I hear each and every time I drive one of my cars.  Anyone who wants to check out any channel for themselves can go to www.sirius.com , where you can hear the music channels live (a high speed internet connection is recommended, expect some choppiness over a modem).

Sports - XM has NASCAR.  Sirius has most everything else.  They have exclusive rights and broadcast each and every NHL and NBA games live from the home team announcer.  They also have recently signed an exclusive 7 year deal with the NFL.  Starting this summer they will broadcast a 24 by 7 NFL channel and will broadcast each and every NFL game from the home team announcer.  You'll be able to listen to your favorite team live in the desert at Burning Man, no matter who they are.  It is my understanding that they hired the person that started the extremely-popular DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket to run the Sirius NFL channels.  Some people in that business will tell you that NFL Sunday Ticket is what made satellite TV as popular as it has become.  They also broadcast the MLB playoff games, but is it my understanding that their is some sort of revenue-sharing issue between the teams and league that is hindering the signing of that MLB for exclusive rights to broadcast all games.  Time will tell how that plays out.

NPR is important to some people.  Sirius has an exclusive deal with NPR and NPR produces two channels with unique content only for Sirius listeners.  They also broadcast many of NPR's more popular shows, but it is my understanding that there is some sort of contractual issue with "free" radio stations that prevents them from broadcasting all NPR programs.  Again, time will tell how that plays out.  NPR is not on XM though.

Mounting locations - under the luggage rack to one side is best in my opinion.  If you frequently carry metallic or dense wooded objects in your luggage rack, that can affect your reception.  Try to pack those on the other side or somewhere else.

Reception - reception is excellent in all of my vehicles.  Two are direct wired and one is with the wireless FM transmitter.  The wireless FM transmitter is strong enough to broadcast the Sirius signal to a non-Sirius radio in a car sitting next to it tuned to the broadcast frequency  (I've tried it, it works), but it is not strong enough to override a strong local signal on the same frequency.  All wireless transmitters allow you to change the broadcast frequency.  If you have a local station broadcasting on all of the available frequency options, then you may need to direct wire it and forgot about the wireless convenience.  If you are travelling through a bunch of cities (like heading down I-95 on the east coast), you may need to switch broadcast frequencies along the way if you encounter interference with the wireless setup.  It's easy to do.  Flip a switch on the unit and change the station on your car radio.  It's not really an issue in your local area, since you can usually figure out which frequency is the best to use there and you just have to set it up once.

Shock jocks like Howard Stern and Opie and Andy are hinting that their next move after their contracts are up is satellite radio.  They can pretty much do whatever they want on it because it is not subject to the same FCC regulations due to the paying subscriber aspect.  Again, time will tell how this will play out.  If you don't like these guys, turn the channel.

Automobile manufacturers are either already big into this or planning to be just around the corner.  GM is exclusive with XM and aggressively rolling it out and most of their subscribers are coming from this.  The attenna above the passenger's head is a satellite radio antenna.  Look for it in the next GM commercial you see.  Chrysler, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, and others are exclusive to Sirius.  Toyota, Nissan, VW, and others either currently offer or will offer soon both of them.  It's the car buyer's choice.  Chrysler has committed to putting Sirius in over 500,000 cars in the next year or so.

Your local Radio Shack will be selling Sirius in a month or so.  All 7,000 of them.  No XM allowed here.  You should start seeing ads for this soon.

How do I know this stuff?  -  I've invested a lot, lost a lot, and made a lot on both companies.  I follow them on a daily basis because I still have money riding on them.  XM was around $2 a share 18 months or so ago, they are $24 now.  Sirius was $.50 a share 14 months ago, it's $3.20 now.  Both used to be a lot higher before the dot com bubble burst.  If you listened to me at the wrong time, you lost a lot of money.  If you listened to me at the right time, you made a lot.  My problem is I don't know which time is right and which is wrong until it's too late, and my timing has been pretty bad.  I'm still in though because the future potential of this new medium is very big and time has already answered the main question of two years ago - will people pay for "free" radio.  They already are.  Well over a million have since I first posted a message to this group on this subject about a year ago.  Anyone who bought stock then should be real happy now.  Some people will tell you this is the next Microsoft or AOL.  Some would tell you that you would be a fool for investing in this.  Right now I'm looking more like a dunce than a someone ready to retire, but I look less stupid with each new subscriber who is willing to pay for "free" radio or each new car that has it factory-installed.  I still expect to look pretty stupid for a while though, so ignore my rants and listen to me at your own risk.

Enough of this.  Any requested updates to this will be short.

caverat

89 westy with Sirius satellite radio.