how do you like it? what channels do you listen to?

I got a car used car recently and the subscription (that the previous owner was still paying for) expired. now I gotta decide if I actually want to pay for it. they're doing special for $5 a month for the year.

It came with a free two year subscription when I bought a car ten years ago, and I kept it going because I got hooked on certain shows and channels. Since then I have a new car as well as my wife's car, and I just kept it going.

Nowadays, though, I feel it might be an unnecessary expense. I don't have a very long commute to work, and I telework two days a week, so I'm not in the car as much these days.

Being a subscriber I can also stream through the phone app. So I can listen at work or in the gym. But I can get the same service and some of the same shows through iheart radio or various other free streaming services. For two cars, I pay a little under a $100 a quarter, and I can think of some more important things I can do with $400 a year.

Mostly I listen to sports radio. Local sports radio in Atlanta sucks, so on Sirius I can listen to ESPN Radio and Barstool Sports, as well as Fight Nation, for boxing and MMA talk. On a daily basis I listen to Dan Lebatard, Stephen A. Smith, and the Luke Thomas Show (MMA and guy talk).

Music-wise the stations are good, but nothing you can't get on every other streaming service out there.

I will admit that on a long road trip, satellite radio is imperative. I don't know how I drove cross country without it.

I'm considering just going with unlimited data on my phone and just streaming through my car stereo, and dropping Sirius. The extra bucks it would cost to upgrade my data plan is less than $400 a year.

I'd rather listen to my ipod since I can still hook up my ipod. itunes doesn't support my old ass device, so I can't put new music on it.

I might roll with it for $60 a year tho. and see what happens once the year is up.

After that deal is up to pay full price is total not worth it.

I'm gonna help you out tho.

Years ago I called to cancel. They asked me why and I told them it was way too expensive for what I was getting. They asked me did I want to try 6 months for $25 so I told them sure. The day before that six month period was over I called them and told them I wanted to cancel because the regular price was too high, they offered me the same $25 for six months again. I've been doing this for years now. Just call them and ask for the same deal and they give it to me without question.

They don't want to lose you as a customer once you're signed up. Use it to your advantage if you find that you really like it.

I'll sign up and call them once it's almost over.

preciate it.

i recall when they do promotional prices it doesn't include their top tier channels. Howard was one.

I don't check for Howard anyway so it doesn't really bother me.

Other than that I get everything.

just because my radio flips to the free preview channel when i turn on the car. so i have to hear their annoying commercials before i switch it to bluetooth. usually im trying to get a few things situated before focusing on the radio but those commercials force me to switch the source, sometimes to blank aux because bluetooth takes a while to connect.

straight to the music or whatever I was listening to. that would be annoying af.

I listen to Bluetooth some. I'll prolly start doing that more, but I don't feel like fumbling with the phone.

if i was listening to fm it will go back to fm when i turn it on. it obviously needs to switch to some source if bluetooth is no longer connected but ive been in rentals where its just in bluetooth waiting for a connection so there is a better way to do this.

typically when i connect my phone starts playing so no need to fumble. i have controls in the steering wheel so i can skip songs without a problem. i tried doing aux for a bit but not being able to switch songs without touching my phone was a no go.

as far as xm, i have done the trials a bit and there are some good stations but im too particular with my listening habits to leave it up to radio.

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https://astackofwax.com/

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

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The Greatest Story (N)ever Told (finished)

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I'm keeping my daughter's car while she's deployed. I pretty much only listen to music or podcasts bluetoothed from my phone. During the free preview periods, whenever I get back into the car...after having been using bluetooth function, it's back on the preview stations...EVERY TIME. It quickly gets flipped because there is a mode button on the steering wheel, but it's annoying that it won't stay. I have to think if I actually subscribed to the service, it wouldn't, but that's their push, I guess...to keep it in your face.

im pretty sure that if i switch to aux before i turn off the car it wont go to xm but i forget to do that.

when I pull up to the house, I just turn the car off.

I too, mostly listen for the sports (yeah, ATL sports stations are ass), so when driving Uber on Sundays, I kept it on the ESPN channel and got all the pregame I needed...but I'm too cheap to pay for the NFL package, so at 1, it sucked again, lol.


I do like the Volume channel (all music talk) and I like the NPR station...which always put me in a wierd place, cause I should be listening to local NPR...smh..

The music channels are mostly hit or miss, but the Rock the Bells station has started to get better, while the Jazz station is getting worse. I like XMU (new indie music) and 1st Wave (early new wave) prolly the most.

Yes, on road trips it's imperative...and yes, I do the cancellation shuffle with them as well




*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

https://astackofwax.com/

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/

The Greatest Story (N)ever Told (finished)

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=s

I'm don't listen to many stations. I do like rock the bells radio tho.

I just re-upped for a year. I upgraded on the $5 deal to the $8 deal. they were giving away an Amazon Echo so I figured I see what that's about too.

I get a 6 month for 30 bucks special then cancel it and then a couple months later they offer it again. Its worth it for that I think, listen to a lot of sports altho I noticed they completely removed NFL games this year unless you pay for a different package so that sucks.

I got the Mostly Music package for about $10 monthly. I don't listen to XM anywhere else besides the car so I don't need streaming (though I can add streaming if I want for $5). I don't listen to talk or sports either so this works for me. needless to say it's pretty amazing on road trips when you don't have to change/find stations every time you drive out of the area. channels I listen to...

Heart & Soul
The Groove
90's on 9
Chill
Kids Place Live
Rock The Bells
Real Jazz
Soul Town
The Joint

basically everything for less than $10 a month. only thing I didn't like was that I had to pay for the year up front.

I'm sure I won't take advantage of it all. don't really care about howard stern like that.

looking forward to a road trip like that lol. a little worried about the drop outs tho.

I'm in atl and it'll go silent way more that I'd like. wondering how it'll work going through mountains and such.

I don't mind it cause when it's free, I'll listen to it, but I'm always shuffling around from my preset stations, cause I'm very picky about what I hear.

I listen to the comedy channels more than anything but it's like six of them and even with those some channels just repeat the same routines over & over & over, so I'm skipping around & around every five minutes.

With the music channels, the "80's on 80's" is cool but it's a lot of crappy tunes from that era they slip in every 3rd or 4th song, same goes with "1st Wave" channel but at least they play a lot more non-singles cuts than the 80's channel.

The rap channels suck ass, it's basically two worth listening to, and those depend on when it's a hosted/Dj show instead of their random selections, "Rap Is Outta Control" with Dj Eclipse & Dj Riz, and "Live At Headqcourterz" with Dj Premier are the only two shows I would even want XM Radio for, they use to be on channel 44 but Shade45 invited them to come to their station now.

I do like Lord Sear's show on Shade45 cause he's just hilarious and once in a while will play some dope underground joints, I like Sway In The Morning, it's a decent morning show, but not every guest he has worth listening to, even Sway's dj isn't that good when it comes to song selection, but neither is Dj Envy on the Breakfast Club; but when these shows aren't on, 99% of the time these stations are playing nothing but trap music which I don't listen to.

The edm channels is what really irks me, there's like two channels that basically play the same shit, Diplo's channel is what you expect and the "Chill" channel is more like laid back trance, new tech-house, and euro-downtempo (they say deep house is play on this station too, but that's a damn lie, no chicago or ny deep house, no soulful house played at all, not even uk garage); and then there is "Studio 54" is just plain old disco classics playing the same shit over & over.

I'm not into sports so those channels are no use to me, and the news channels aren't really my thing cause I'm so use to listening to my local NPR stations if I want to listen to news channels and every city you go to has at least one you can pick up; I will say I do listen to "The Urban View" channel once in a while.

Overall XM Radio is still missing some sub-genres like underground hip-hop, there's no prog-rock station, the jazz station is getting into more 00's smooth jazz but no smooth jazz or jazz fusion from the 70's & 80's though; there's no real deep house tunes being played, not even 90's detroit acid house, they also need a afro-beat station too.

I guess I'm just too picky about what I would like to hear and that's why I still keep an USB stick in the car, I keep my usb's divided by genres depending on the mood I'm in.