I love my Sirius radio. It doesn’t get reception in the usual places(banks, car washes) but for some reason it also bugs out in a certain spot in my driveway. Still, love the thing.
After having Rhapsody, MOG, Pandora, and Slacker, XM music programming drives me crazy. The music selection tends to suck on XM IMHO. It is OK for talk radio, though the transitions between programs on the same channel can be abrupt with no announcement the shows are changing. My take on it is that XM is just tolerable.
My sister and brother-in-law are truckers and they have it in their truck. Works great.
There are Canadian and US packages, and I believe they are slightly different. I’m not sure whether the packages you subscribe to in your country will ‘follow’ you if you cross the border into the other country; I would assume so, but I now know not to assume anything.
For a long time Sirius was the only place you could listen to CBC Radio 3 over the air; otherwise Radio 3 was an online service.
Minor cool points: the two satellites of one of the pre-merger companies (don’t remember whether it was Sirius or XM) were named “Rock” and “Roll”. 
I’m a big fan, though I don’t have it personally anymore because my wife is anal about the bills, and $13/month seemed entirely wasteful to her, despite the amount of time we spend in our car.
But before I did that, there were a couple of times I called to cancel because I couldn’t afford it, and the customer service lady just said “We’ll give it to you for free for six months. Call us back in January if you still want to cancel.”
They used to be over the top awesome for customer service like that. Also, back when they were almost going out of business, you could get $200 radios for ~$20. They were literally giving radios and subscriptions away. They were pushing for customers like crazy back then (3-4 years ago?). I doubt they’re still so generous now that they’re more successful.
I’m sad to hear they got rid of lifetime plans. I was totally planning on signing up for that if I ever bought an XM-enabled car.
Also, I preferred XM back when they were competing against Sirius. Now that they’re one big monopolistic family, I don’t know if they’re as good. But like I said, I haven’t been a subscriber for a few years, although I still rent cars with XM radio fairly often.
This is the part that really bugs me about it, I shouldn’t be paying for a subscription to listen to commercials. And I would hardly call it ‘relatively commercial free’ as they seem to run commercials constantly.
I’m in the U.S., and, at least some of the Canadian stations are part of my package. I recently discovered CBC Radio 3, and CBC Radio Sonica on Sirius, and they’ve become some of my favorite music stations on the service (the latter, in particular).
Depends entirely on the station. A number of the talk, sports, and news stations do run commercials; most, if not all, of the music stations run no commercials at all.
I have a StarMate 8, one of two models that let you buy channels ala-cart (I don’t know if they’ve moved on to StarMate 9 yet). I can’t remember the other one, but my wife got it for me, and said it was really the only choice for me if I wanted ala-cart.
I got it for Christmas this past year. I think it’s gone up a few cents, but at the time it was $7.95 / month for 50 channels. A few channels are premium, and cost $0.25 per month extra (pretty sure Howard Stern is more than that, not that I care). I’m pretty sure this is the cheapest rate without calling them every few months. There are some added fees, but my total is still under $10 per month. It was hard coming up with 50 channels that I or anyone I know might ever want to listen to, so I don’t feel limited by my selection.
It’s an aftermarket radio, that you have to be able to listen to with your existing radio. In my case, my car radio has an aux-in headphone jack (the earbud sized jack) that I plug it into. It can also transmit on a clear FM frequency, or you can buy a cassette tape adapter. It’s powered by the car’s [del]cigarette lighter[/del] power socket.
I really like it, and I don’t even drive that much per year. I just ordered an in-house dock, AC adapter, and indoor/outdoor antenna. That was a pain, figuring out which models of each would work together with my tuner.
It seems to me that the stations that are produced by XMSirius - the music stations, mostly - are commercial-free. (I love the 80s station by the way, with the original MTV veejays hosting). Content from other networks like Fox or Disney or NBC usually have commercials, as they would if you were listening over the air.
I used to have XM on a radio that I could carry between my car and the house - I had bolted the radio mount to my car’s dashboard. Later I bought a new car that came equipped with Sirius and I was able to transfer my subscription. I think I preferred XM, but they’re comparable.
Hi ThelmaLou -
We are sorry to hear you had a poor experience with our website. We have read through the comments posted on this page and we appreciate everyone’s insight. As several member’s have posted, we do offer both factory installed and what we call plug and play (portable) radios. We would be happy to help you select a plan and radio that best suits your needs. When you have a moment, send us an email with your contact info to sxm_help@siriusxm.com and we’ll be more than happy to assist you.
Thanks,
SiriusXM Digital Care Team
At least one exception to that rule that I can think of: the NFL Radio station. It’s produced by Sirius, as far as I can tell (save for when they simulcast the NFL Network’s TV show “Total Access”), but it’s pretty commercial-ridden.
If I tune into the “Radio Classics” channel, and I catch the beginning of a Johnny Dollar 5 segment marathon, I know I’ll be entertained for the next hour of travel time!
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
The Radio Classics channel gave me one of the best noir lines I’ve ever heard: “The room was well appointed, if you’re into dead blondes.”
WTF?? <Thelma looks over her shoulder>
The “Welcome” page on your site is based on a good concept, looks friendly, and the questions are good, but the main thing I wanted to find out right up front was what will this cost me. Like infomercials, you want to sell the product first and convince the buyer s/he cannot live without it, and THEN tell them what it’s going to cost. If something is what I consider “too expensive” (and I realize people’s ideas about this vary), then I won’t read any further, and you won’t be able to sell me.
From the Dopers I’ve found out that it’s not all that expensive. You might consider putting that right on the front page. Yeah, I know Pandora is free, but your price is reasonable.
I might get in touch. The plug-in thing sounds interesting.
*This is weird. *
FYI, you said, “As several** member’s** have posted…” It’s just “members” with no apostrophe. Please note.
It’s the damn NSA. Reported you they did.
Uh-oh, somebody’s watching you.
That was my first thought. :eek: Confession: sometimes I read the Dope in the bathroom on my kindlefire. Ewww. (But I always wash my hands and my kindle afterward.)
Yes. They already know this. And they know you don’t always wash your hands for the recommended time. This will be addressed.
I sing the alphabet song while I wash my hands. Isn’t that what you’re 'posed to do?
Your Kindle smells funny, though.:dubious: