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runnoft
XM 24/7
Joined: 10 Jun 2008
Posts: 744
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 Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:06 am Post subject: |
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| dbarth wrote: | I apologize publicly to Jack07, who I mocked in this thread. It certainly appears that his information is very much correct, and I was wrong. Sorry.
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There are a number of people here who owe Jack07 an apology. I understand that a lot of anonymous-source posts that read, like Jack's, like they could be coming from insiders don't pan out if you check back on them later, so a little skepticism from regulars here is understandable. But on the other hand, I find all these "WHO'S YOUR SOURCE??!!?" demands to be unreasonable. Why would anybody expect any real insider to go on the record at times like this? It's ridiculous. Of course, anybody is free to not take seriously any unsourced information. Mocking people who dare to post unsourced inside information, though, solely because the info is unsourced, is probably not a good idea if the goal is free flow of information.
What Jack predicted for this week did come true. A reminder: here's what Jack07 had to say about the near future:
The "blended" music channels will launch Wednesday, November 5. They will be on both platforms. Expect little in the way of announcements or PR on this, because they don't want to seem like they deceived people (especially the FCC) when they announced merger plans. The new channels will be more "Sirius like" than anything and originiate from NY, not DC. New logos are already being developed for the channels.
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If Sirius played ALL the top 10 hits on their decades channels, that would be a MAJOR expansion of their playlists!
They don't care about people on the message boards. They expect that people on the boards will complain, but they don't think we represent the average listener.
It's all about doing whatever is the cheapest thing they can do right now to cut costs and prevent going into bankruptcy.
Not good, for music lovers. Not when you look at Mel's slash-and-burn-the-playlist record as a way of putting profit ahead of niche programming. |
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MNXMFan
RIP XM, you will be missed!
Joined: 01 Nov 2002
Posts: 1053
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:11 am Post subject: |
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| runnoft wrote: | | dbarth wrote: | I apologize publicly to Jack07, who I mocked in this thread. It certainly appears that his information is very much correct, and I was wrong. Sorry.
|
There are a number of people here who owe Jack07 an apology. I understand that a lot of anonymous-source posts that read, like Jack's, like they could be coming from insiders don't pan out if you check back on them later, so a little skepticism from regulars here is understandable. But on the other hand, I find all these "WHO'S YOUR SOURCE??!!?" demands to be unreasonable. Why would anybody expect any real insider to go on the record at times like this? It's ridiculous. Of course, anybody is free to not take seriously any unsourced information. Mocking people who dare to post unsourced inside information, though, solely because the info is unsourced, is probably not a good idea if the goal is free flow of information.
What Jack predicted for this week did come true. A reminder: here's what Jack07 had to say about the near future:
The "blended" music channels will launch Wednesday, November 5. They will be on both platforms. Expect little in the way of announcements or PR on this, because they don't want to seem like they deceived people (especially the FCC) when they announced merger plans. The new channels will be more "Sirius like" than anything and originiate from NY, not DC. New logos are already being developed for the channels.
and
If Sirius played ALL the top 10 hits on their decades channels, that would be a MAJOR expansion of their playlists!
They don't care about people on the message boards. They expect that people on the boards will complain, but they don't think we represent the average listener.
It's all about doing whatever is the cheapest thing they can do right now to cut costs and prevent going into bankruptcy.
Not good, for music lovers. Not when you look at Mel's slash-and-burn-the-playlist record as a way of putting profit ahead of niche programming. |
Niche programming? Hell, judging from Sirius, most of the mainstream programming we get is gone. Forget about the niches. I understand there are a few gems on Sirius, a few I wouldn't mind having on XM. But 98% of the channels on Sirius have half the playlist or less of the XM counterparts.
Like many, this might keep me happy for a month (I had Sirius for about two months a while back before it burnt on me and I sold my reciever) but after that, even with 70 channels, I'm likely to get bored.
I will wait and see just how bad it gets. Holding out a tiny hope that some of the XM philosophy will make it. |
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runnoft
XM 24/7
Joined: 10 Jun 2008
Posts: 744
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:19 am Post subject: |
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| MNXMFan wrote: | | runnoft wrote: |
Not good, for music lovers. Not when you look at Mel's slash-and-burn-the-playlist record as a way of putting profit ahead of niche programming. |
Niche programming? Hell, judging from Sirius, most of the mainstream programming we get is gone. Forget about the niches. I understand there are a few gems on Sirius, a few I wouldn't mind having on XM. But 98% of the channels on Sirius have half the playlist or less of the XM counterparts.
Like many, this might keep me happy for a month (I had Sirius for about two months a while back before it burnt on me and I sold my reciever) but after that, even with 70 channels, I'm likely to get bored.
I will wait and see just how bad it gets. Holding out a tiny hope that some of the XM philosophy will make it. |
If you ever subscribed to a pay movie channel like HBO on cable, you'll remember that at first, because you may be seeing movies new-to-you, you think, wow, this is really cool. But then, after a few months (weeks?), you realize that you've seen the few good movies that were new-to-you on their playlist, and now that everything's in heavy rotation, you realize how narrow it is. I'll bet the same thing happens with Sirius. The narrowness of the playlist may not be obvious at first because there may be some music XM didn't have, but then after a few months, it becomes increasingly obvious that this is just like FM radio, only we're paying for it. |
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CafeSSJ
Moderator
Joined: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 27545
Location: Coming To A Theater Near You
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:23 am Post subject: |
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All true expect for Deep Tracks. 11,000 song library and growing.
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NY YANKEES 2009 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!!!! |
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Thomps2525
I'd rather be smart than stupid.
Joined: 26 May 2005
Posts: 10209
Location: Glendale CA
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: |
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I'm not really good at math...but if I took the 11,000 figure and changed the comma to a decimal point, would that be the approximate number of songs on the playlists of each of the other channels?  |
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top40fan
Extreme Fan
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 161
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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| In all this discussion about shrinking playlists and XM becoming like Sirius, I don't understand one basic thing - XM has had a far greater music audience. This was their strength. Why would the new approach scale this back to a format that has attracted less listeners? This makes absolutely no sense to me, no matter how you look at it. |
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MNXMFan
RIP XM, you will be missed!
Joined: 01 Nov 2002
Posts: 1053
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject: |
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| top40fan wrote: | | In all this discussion about shrinking playlists and XM becoming like Sirius, I don't understand one basic thing - XM has had a far greater music audience. This was their strength. Why would the new approach scale this back to a format that has attracted less listeners? This makes absolutely no sense to me, no matter how you look at it. |
It's cheaper to have people that don't care. When you can have 7 PD's and 50 liner card readers, its cheaper than having 20 PD's and 60 DJ's.
I don't agree with it at all. And it really does not make sense to run all of your channels out of a leased space when you have Eck. |
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Xm Fetishist
Addicted Listener
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
Posts: 149
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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It's disgusting how the music is taking a backseat in this merger. People like me who've been with XM since the beginning and remember the pioneering spirit the DJs had, with the endless playlists, almost feel like throwing up thinking about our channels all being axed and replaced. And really, it's all over already- most of the DJs that brought the music and life to the channels have been let go. I'm especially sick to think of what will happen to dance music programming. Yes, BPM was a little repetitious, but they are literally a YEAR ahead of Sirius in what they play, and more than 75% is NEVER played on Sirius's mainstream dance. Will Air 81 be gone?
The only thing we can hope for, and I don't know how realistic this is, but maybe this merger will lead the way for a new entreprenuer to create a new company that has XM's initial mission, focusing on music and sound quality. Not sure how viable it is, but I'd like to see someone try. It wasn't that long ago that XM was praised universally for it's "near-CD sound quality" and "deep playlists." Maybe someone else can adopt the same strategy and not lose sight of it- remember, XM was probably going to be ok until they got into a spending race for TALK content with Sirius. |
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gilpdawg
Insane Fan!
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
Posts: 1628
Location: New Paris, OH/Richmond, IN (right on the state line)
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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| MNXMFan wrote: |
I don't agree with it at all. And it really does not make sense to run all of your channels out of a leased space when you have Eck. |
That's the thing I don't understand. Why wouldn't they move everything to the building they OWN? Unless they think they'll make more money by selling it eventually.
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runnoft
XM 24/7
Joined: 10 Jun 2008
Posts: 744
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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| top40fan wrote: | | In all this discussion about shrinking playlists and XM becoming like Sirius, I don't understand one basic thing - XM has had a far greater music audience. This was their strength. Why would the new approach scale this back to a format that has attracted less listeners? This makes absolutely no sense to me, no matter how you look at it. |
Mel is coming from the FM world where cheaper costs fuel greater stockholder profits, and where heavy-rotation playlists bring more of a different type of listener. Those will be his priorities, even if paring staff and playlists loses people like us. |
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Jack07
Addicted Listener
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 102
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| Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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The November 5th merged channels date has been pushed back to Nov. 17. They simply aren't ready to pull it off on 11/5. They can't push it back any further than 11/15 because of holiday promos and sales.
Last edited by Jack07 on Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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GatorDJ
XM 24/7
Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Posts: 858
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| Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Jack07 wrote: | | The November 5th merged channels date has been pushed back to Nov, 14. They simply aren't ready to pull it off on 11/5. They can't push it back any further than 11/15 because of holiday promos and sales. |
Thanks for the update. You've earned a fair amount of credibility. If you can safely answer this, what happens with the staff that's sticking around until 11/4 and/or what happens with the lack of staffing on the channels until 11/15 after 11/4? Autopilot? |
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Jack07
Addicted Listener
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 102
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| Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Sorry about the typo. The change should occur between the 15th (Sat) and 17th (Mon). |
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marker101
Super XM Fan
Joined: 02 Mar 2006
Posts: 10612
Location: Northeast PA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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oooh.... a weekend change. no one will ever know 
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With XM from Jan '03 until the bitter end!
Looking like a fool wit ya pants on the ground. |
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Clinton984
Strobing my Groove on Xmp3
Joined: 07 Sep 2006
Posts: 919
Location: Columbus, OH
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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I'm in this thread late but these decade channels have been long going downhill. When I joined in Jan '05, I know they were less repetitious and over time got watered over.
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XM sub from 1/31/05 to 8/02/08 and 10/21/09 to present. XM everything + Best of Sirius
Keep on funkin' in the freeworld. |
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