In magazines with an active letters from readers section, you can almost count on having one "Cancel my subscription!" entry each issue. The problem usually involves: 1. one of the writers displaying too much political bias (this seems to make some readers especially crazy, particularly in non-political publications), 2. too much profanity in an article (shocking!!) or 3. a perceived slight against a reader's favorite artist.
I've always enjoyed the editor's response in Stereophile — they seem to have many creative ways saying "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!" Note that I've almost never been sympathetic to these people. As long as the copy is interesting, I don't have to agree with the content. And too much profanity? C'mon, you're kidding...right?
But now I'm pissed off. I got in the car this morning, switched on my Sirius radio, and noticed that the little box went into a channel update. No big deal, as that's happened many times before. Besides, I was there to listen to that last hour or so of Howard Stern.
On the way home though, the gravity of the situation hit me: I couldn't find my favorite channel — Disorder. Hmmm...maybe I just forgot my preset button? Well, I couldn't remember the real channel number so I listened to a CD on the way home, making a mental note to check the Sirius website when I got home.
Turns out that the Sirius/XM merger was going to hit more than just the back offices. The new channel lineup has been announced and the devices have been updated. It's understandable that there would be some fallout from the merger. This is corporate America, after all. But I'm here to tell you, Sirius executive and programming-type people, that you've shot yourselves in the foot, if not the heart.
Disorder was the one channel that set you apart, not only from XM, but from all radio. It was a modern throwback to the early days of FM radio, when a DJ could play absolutely anything. Before the merger, I lobbied for friends to chose Sirius, Disorder being one of the high points of their offerings.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Peter Katzur
I agree. I have lost my favorites as well. There is now nothing on there that I want. I will be cancelling my subscriptions as well.
2 - Brendel
I think they did a good job picking the best out of both services. I subscribe to both, and as to why I pay for radio? For one thing I can escape those mind-numbing, annoying commercials that seem to drag on and on, as Sirius-XM has NO commercials on the music channels; also, I get a dizzying variety of programming choices, many having name-brand, marquee value converstation, talk and news, and specialty music channels, nearly all of which are quite intersting; also, when I travel out of town in my car (which I do very frequently) I can enjoy the same programming in near-CD quality audio. It's radio for people who care about quality and choice. The phrase that sums it up for me: You get what you pay for.
3 - Mark Saleski
i hear an echo!
4 - Pico
Busted!
Brendel/Lassiter, at least change few words around so it appears halfway authentic ;-)
5 - Tom Johnson
You have Sirius, Mark? I'm surprised you weren't an XM subscriber, which seemed to be aimed at the more non-commercial music listeners. I'd love it, too, were it not for the horrific sound quality of satellite radio. Not to sound elitist, but I seriously can't listen to it. It's just . . . nasty sounding. "Near-CD quality." Brendel, at least you are a funny shill.
Anyway, my wife had much the same reaction, only on the XM end, yesterday. She was PISSED. Gone was nearly all the music she loved, replaced by a bunch of very commercial, very overplayed stuff you could hear on any terrestrial radio, for free, I might remind you. This is just one of those stunningly stupid moves that makes me wonder who the execs think their audience is. From what I gather, I think the expectation among most users, both Sirius and XM, was that the XM programming was going to take over. Guess not! They are clearly going to alienate much of the XM listeners. I would expect there will be a mass XM-odus over the next few months if things don't change. I think it's a little rash to dump it immediately and not wait to see if there's a change in the coming weeks or months, but if there's nothing good after that? Dump away!
But, please, everyone, do call/write and complain. They need to know that people are unhappy for SPECIFIC reasons. If they don't hear reasons why, they'll just see it as knee-jerk reactions to change, in general, and dismiss it. It could spell bad, bad things for satellite radio in general.
6 - Mark Saleski
yes. remember tom, i picked it because stern had gone over there (and despite what the yammerers may say, he's pretty interesting without the fcc breathing down his neck).
when i first started checking out the music, there was a modern jazz channel (can't remember the name)...but that disappears a long while ago. there's a traditional jazz channel that has way too many repeats on it. honestly, there shouldn't be a reason to repeat something over a 24 hr period. heck, a week for that matter!
and yeah, i'll have to figure out who to send mail to.
7 - David Shepard
Without Disorder Sirius is worthless
8 - Matt in Nyack
You're right on the money, Mark, Sirius Disorder was one of a kind, and my wife and I are literally sick over this loss. It wasn't just a radio station for us, it was "part of our family," as my wife put it. If there is any silver lining - Vin Scelsa immediately replied to my wife's e-mail this morning as follows:
"Dear Brooke,
Alas, Disorder is no more, a victim of the merger of Sirius and XM. I will continue to do Idiot's Delight starting next week (11/19) on The Loft 29, live Wed-Thurs Noon to 2, with 4-hour replays Friday and Sunday nights, same as it ever was. The Loft is an XM channel that will now be heard on both systems.) It is my understanding that the Dave Marsh, David Johansen and Lou Reed shows will also move to The Loft. Meg is now on Spectrum 18, 7 days a week, Noon to 6. It appears that everyone else on Disorder has been dismissed (although it is hoped that Larry Kirwin's Celtic Crush will surface somewhere else).
This all happened to us as unexpectedly and speedily as it happened to you. We Disorderlies are all very sad ... in fact, we find ourselves grieving along with our listeners. As you probably know, Disorder was Meg Griffin's baby; she was the soul of the channel. She created a wonderful oasis for us all and deserves our heartfelt tribute.
I thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for Idiot's Delight. Rest assured that I will continue to exert complete autonomy over the form and content of my show, as I always have. The show will rave on in true disorderly fashion, albeit at a new home.
Peace,
Vin Scelsa"
So, there we have it - a ray of sunshine in the darkness. Why the hell didn't they combine The Loft and Coffeehouse and leave our Disorder alone :'-(
9 - David
I fully agree with all the comments about Disorder. This is one of the saddest days in all of radio for me. All the great FM stations are long gone and satellite radio was a great breath of fresh air and programming.
To have the best station swept away is a shock.
I can tell you this, The Loft's listeners are not going to like the Scelsa and Johansen shows.
10 - Briz in Minneapolis
I own a quilt and bead shop in the middle of IOWA. DISORDER was the OFFICIAL shop music, each day, every day.
I banned big hair bands and country while I was there at least. Meg, Larry, Vin, David and the others were so great to listen to. I feel like I've lost friends.
This channel was the one channel I could listen to while sewing samples for the store. The whole staff is in mourning, (except the farmgirl, but we made her listen anyway).
Customers loved the channel and would often ask where it came from, which channel, so we were advertising for Sirius too. I wrote them and quoted Mark Saleski's article (hope that's OK, Mark). Hope they will change their minds, the fools that they are.
I have not found any reference to Megs, Vin's, Davids, or Larry's station on the Sirius website.
I learned so much about new music and would relish in the old when Vin would sneak in some old 'LOVE' songs, Jefferson Airplane, Leonard Cohen, along with so many others. Wow, I played that music incessently when I was 14-15, driving my parents wild...
I just bought speakers so I could listen to Disorder at home in Mpls.
COMPLAIN TO SIRIUS OVER AND OVER!!
11 - Tom Johnson
Well, to soften the blow, remember, you now get Oprah and her "friends" network. You can learn all about being your "best you" or whatever. That's got to ease the transition, right?
I was looking at the XMFan forums and they're complaining about the song repeats - someone mentioned hearing the same U2 song twice in a 30 minute time span! WTF? This is exactly why people went to satellite, to escape that kind of repetitive monotony.
My brother-in-law was upset that some online XM stations also got cut in this transition. He's missing his online-only hard-core prog station bad, I guess.
One interesting/funny thing I've notice, as a sort-of outsider, both sides are complaining that the other's had too much talk. "XM has too much talk," "Sirius has too much talk." I'm wondering if they both had similar levels of talk before, but now that they're combined, the Sirius-XM heads decided to add in a bunch of talk during the confusion and let users blame the "invading channel" on the rise in talk-time.
I found it especially scummy that XM, at least, didn't bother to alert its users that this change was coming until AFTER it happened. My wife got an email last night letting her know that they would be changing the lineup. Nice. Nothing like waiting until after the fact to prepare your users.
12 - Mark Saleski
i never really heard all that much talk. the stations i listen to other than Disorder were the grateful dead channel, jam on, and a few others. i didn't mind the announcing done on Disorder because they were talking about new, interesting music.
i did have problems with repeats, which is why i stopped listening to the jazz channel.
13 - Mark Saleski
i have yet to send them an email. did pop over to the site and couldn't find a good contact email to use.
14 - Murray ATL
I too am very disappointed to hear that Sirius Disorder has fallen by the wayside. I am a big listener of the Mansion of Fun and other programs as it introduced me to artists and sounds that I had never heard of ( though I'm hardly a musical erudite). Since I just renewed last month I will wait and hear what happens, but it was much easier to tune to just one station - Disorder. I appreciate the work and enthusiasm of all the Disorder DJs and I hope they will let us know on this blog (like Vince Scelsa has done) their whereabouts -- since Sirius just basically pulled the plug without telling us squat.
15 - Eric
In a world with iPods "on shuffle" all around us, the free-form thing shouldn't be so hard for the beancounters to grasp.
Heck, I go hang out at a national Internet cafe chain called "It's a Grind" and they have 3,000-song CDs that "shuffle" among blues, jazz and rock in a "watered down" Disorder sort of way. It's decent for a mainstream public kind of place.
Call it free-form where the beancounters can "get it."
Of course, there's always Vin Scelsa's alma-mater, WFMU.org. When they go down, you know we're living in the end times.
I logged my complaint with Sirius and got the autoresponder acknowledgment so far.
A Friday without the Mansion of Fun is cold. Way cold.
16 - dave
Great article Mark.
I have created a Facebook group for people who want Sirius XM to bring back Disorder.
I encourage all of you to join. We need Sirius to understand their mistake and bring back Disorder.
17 - Steve G
No more DISORDER?
Already miss Meg, David Johansen and Larry Kirwin. Loved the 'No Genre" format.
Heard the XMers had Fine Tuning - lost that too.
This has turned into modern FM without the commercials.
Oh well .....
18 - Veronica
Amen. I feel cheated. We won back our country only to lose our Disorder. THe Loft sucks, plain and simple. Good thing I made Mansion of Fun tapes because if you live long enough on this planet you know that all good things always do come to an end...a needless end in this case. I am so pissed and I really do feel like cancelling my subscription. I guess when you are a monopoly of mediocrity you can do anything you want. Bring back DISORDER. Thanks for the writing. We all feel the same way. Pay to be pained.
19 - Matt
Ah, kindred souls, all of you. Disorder was frankly the only reason I was keeping Sirius. I will now cancel. Pandora can scratch my itch for eclectic music, but where will I get my David J. philosophy fix?
20 - Wormtown Disorder
I got an email direct from Larry relating to Celtic Crush. He said spread the word that it will return on the Spectrum soon. Keen an eye on the Sirius web site. But he did say he was "a bit devastated" with the end of Disorder. As am I.
21 - Mark Saleski
interesting wormtown, i had larry's email because i had a short conversation with him about a month ago. so i sent him an email about this and i got a freaking autoresponder email shortly afterward.
22 - Tom Johnson
Complaints need to go to Sirius Customer Care. How effective it is, I can't say, since it is just a link and they can ignore that kind of input, but I think they'll be watching at least the amount of dissatisfied input.
Lots of unhappy Disorder listeners out there, Mark. You are not alone. Maybe if enough speak up it'll come back?
23 - Tom Johnson
XM users need to complain here.
24 - Wormtown Disorder
Mark, I believe all emails will get auto response but he does get them.
25 - Mark Saleski
the auto response is a new thing wormtown, as i had an un-mediated discussion with him a month or so ago.