I purchased Sirius radio partly as a result of on-line revues selecting Sirius as better overall ,and “Edgierâ€. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since the big hype of bringing Howard Stern on board, they have dropped some popular stations.
This is an attempt to let people know that there is quite a difference in musical quality of the 2 networks and little is available on the net to Subjectively review. Please do not take offense or flame, but there are big holes in programming on Sirius.
They have No Folk Channel, No Americana, No Alt Country channel, No World Music, No African Music, No Big Band, No Funk, Little Black R&B from the 40s & 50s, and no New Age Channel.(For my wife)..
These are major musical Genres which more or less are featured on XM.
Sirius does have Latin and Reggae channels, but again only music from this hemisphere is featured. When Sirius dropped the Folk Channel, "Folktown", they replaced it with "Coffeehouse" (Nora Jones,Coldplay ad nauseum), mostly boring Adult Alternative Rock with a few folk tunes thrown in. The new CEO of Sirius has really hurt what was a promising entry, and I suppose music is less important than talk.
The Rock channels all play the same hits over and over, and the selections are as bland as bland can be. As well there is an amazing amount of repitition.I know that some resent the clear channel connection on XM, but the music on Sirius often is more like a clear channel Urban Adult rock station ,(Can you spell boring??)
As for the hip hop ,Punk, or heavy metal it seems the 2 stations are about par.
While Sirius has 3 PRI NPR feeds many of the shows are 3rd tier like the Diane Rheem show, and there is no “Morning Edition†or “All things consideredâ€.(Niether are on XM as well) On the XM side there is the Bob Edwards show which is much like the old morning Edition. With 2 NPR and 1 PRI feeds on Sirius, there are however better time slots and opportunity for such mainstays as McNiel Lehr, Fresh Air ,This American Life etc. so the nod for Public Radio feeds must got to Sirius. Air America is no longer on Sirius but can be found on XM.
To its Sirius’ credit the Jazz, Blues and Classical are Very good, and there are a few very good Sirius DJs on the eclectic side- Mojo Nixon on "Outlaw Country" and Meg Simonds & others on "Disorder" are excellent.The talk is good on Sirius, but unless you really need Howard, Martha or Richard Simmonds, I would say XM is a much better choice. To have the same "Hit" songs on all the Sirius stations played over and over is really annoying. When on long trips the quality of the music is what really gets the nod, and for this Sirius really disapoints. Look at all the Rock stations and realize they are all playing the same songs...
My installer later told me if you want FM hit radio get Sirius if you want more eclectic and a variety of music choose XM. I wish he had said it prior to my choice. I thought the benefit of Satelitte was to have a deeper and more diverse playlist than what was found on local FM radio. Sirius choice of music is so similar to your average FM station, why pay for it? Someone earlier posted their observation that both stations were being "Dumbed Down" as they get more popular. The millions Sirius are paying for Howard Stern are certainly hurting the music side.
I have no affiliation with XM,but I made the mistake as of getting a 1 year contract for Sirius and I cannot wait to switch to XM. This is a big investment, my radio alone was $650.00 installed, and since the 2 are not interchangeable one is stuck with the choice for a long while. Please consider your choice carefully. While some revues state Sirius as the "edgier" choice ,nothing could be further from the truth. While they started out promising, the corporate suits have taken Sirius and gutted its creativity.
