Channels updating...Uh Oh.
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.…
Article comments
26 - Hexagonal
Hi -- I'm with you on Disorder. Here's the text of the message I sent.
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I can live with the station changes, but it's very frustrating to me to have stations I like taken away. In fact the best predictor of what stations get the axe may be my presets: only 18 The Spectrum is left from my original faves: Boombox is gone; the world music station The Globe is gone; the folk station Folk Town is gone; and the softer rock station The Bridge keeps getting hijacked for single-band tie-ins. I'll have to listen to XMU to see if it does for me what Left of Center did, and if the new Chill is as trance-y as the old one.
The real blow to me is loosing Sirius Disorder. I spent over half my music time in the car on that station. I'm a two-radio subscriber, and I'm *incredibly* pissed off and upset about Sirius Disorder getting the axe. I'm in shock.
Getting rid of Disorder may have saved the company some pennies -- I'm sure those DJ's added up -- but I hate Sirius now. I deeply, sincerely hate the company. -- Not you, you're just doing your job, but the folks in charge. Of all the stations to cut! Disorder really stood out, and I know you know that.
If there's any way you can work to get Disorder back, my heartfelt thanks go out to you -- but I've worked at a large media company before, and I know that'll never happen. So, give Meg a hug for me, and pass along my disgust at the "deciders" you work for. Bastards.
27 - Mark Saleski
here's an article where they mention that the fans of Disorder have been the loudest.
i'm planning on writing something up on this soon.
28 - Paul Agostino
I wrote this letter to Sirius' head of programming and its biggest star.
Howard Stern and Scott Greenstein,
So much for the revolution, huh?
Overnight, Sirius went from “the new direction in radio” to Robot-World, with its pigeon-hole music stations.
And with no warning. “Here it is,” the company said; “Eat it and like it.”
I write to you, Howard, because I listened to your moral indignation about the blocked merger for over a year. I believed you when you said the merger would be better for subscribers. It has not been. If you don’t believe me, look at all the complaints that are piling up on the internet. Scott Greenstein, I hope someone can pass this letter along to you, since this is the only place I can hope to get my words to you.
I (for instance) want free-form, eclectic radio as an option. Meg Griffin’s Sirius Disorder was a beautiful station where human DJs and their tastes still lived. Judging from the complaints I’ve read on the internet, many others feel the same way. But for some reason, the suits in charge of the merger killed the channel.
They have given us something called “The Loft,” which is to Sirius Disorder what those ridiculous “morning zoos” are to the Howard Stern show.
Can you imagine how you’d feel if they pulled the plug on The Howard Stern Show, you complained, and received a computer-generated response telling you that Opie and Anthony should fill that particular listening void for you"“and thanks for writing; were you aware of all the exciting options for subscribers, sign up now for etc., etc., etc…?”
That is what is happening to us who loved Sirius Disorder, a station that introduced us to great new music, old music we’d never heard, and consistently surprised us. DJ-ing was an art on that station, and both the DJs and the music had personality. Now it’s back to music directors and demographics as satellite radio charts a path back to the dark ages.
No more bullshit, huh Howard? Sounds a lot like the same old bullshit to me.
Somebody do something.
29 - Eric L Terlizzi
I agree, Disorder was probably on 50 % of the time my Sirius was on which was pretty much 24/7. What I don't get is why they have 3 or 4 stations playing virtually indistinguishable playlists(how many "softrock" stations do they have?) yet they take the one absolutely unique and irreplaceable station and trash it. I had an inkling they might drop it with the way they have moved it around 24-32-70-33. I'm deeply sad. I gave "The Loft" a good listen and it ain't no Disorder. RIP
30 - Naomi
I was equally surprised to see the new line-up from XM the other day. I loved Fine Tuning, which played everything. People would ask what I was listening to when in my office. It sounds like the Sirius channel was a lot like Fine Tuning.
I don't think The Loft is anything like what any of you are discribing. Why would they choose not to get rid of either The Loft or Coffeehouse? They sound alike to me.
I do listen to The Loft, and have been introduced to a lot of artists I wouldn't have heard, though I co-host The Acoustic Edge in St. Louis, and get lots of CD service. The interview shows are very good, and Jerry Rubino does a great job choosing music for their new music program.
It's the dumbing down to make money syndrome. Let's hope some of the comments make a difference.
31 - Bonny Dunn
I'm very upset about the new sirius line up - -my favourite music is pretty much all gone!! Sirius had4-5 music of dance music--now down to 2!! Then there was Backspin--old school rap that--while I didn't listen to it a lot it was great when I did. What really upset me was losing Sirius Disorder - - that was the best group of ecclectric and different music--reminded me of an NPR radio station we used to have when I lived in Dallas--a music station that played a little world music, new alternative/indie stuff--Disorder was truly a one of a kind radio station--sirus suggestion is to try out the Loft and Spectrum--those stations are no where near Disorder!! I was really looking forward to the merge because I thought the hype was that there would be more options and the consumer would win--turns out there's more options for sports and rock but that's about it--
I had an xm receiver for a while and there were several channels on XM I was looking forward to being able to listen to on Sirius but I didn't expect to have to give up the stations I liked on Sirius for those channels--well now that there's the merge - -the channel I was most looking forward to hearing from XM, UPOP is not on the line-up either - -this whole new line up has really upset me - -I do still have a few channels to listen to - -but I hate that my choices of the music I like have significantly decreased--
I'm glad to know there are others out there who feel similarly -- keep sending emails to Sirius too--maybe they'll hear us!!
32 - Bob C.
Like everyone else, I'm disappointed about not being able to hear Meg and Larry. I lived for their shows! I immediately sent Sirius some "feedback" expressing my displeasure and just got an email back saying, "Robert, while SIRIUS Disorder was retired from our programming, fans can hear eclectic music from artists such as Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits on The Loft Ch. 29, which also includes shows from Lou Reed and Vin Scelsa. At this time we no longer have Celtic Crush. As far as The Black 47 being moving to a new home, we have no information on that either." Fortunately, I did a google search and just found this article saying it will return.
Hopefully this article is more accurate than the statement from Sirius!
33 - Mark Saleski
great, so they dribble bits and pieces of the features across a few channels. sorry, i'm not convinced. and as much as i like Meg, it was the Mansion of Fun show that absolutely killed.
34 - sam mento
Glad to see that I was not the only one. I miss disorder it was the best thing going my radio was always on. Mansion of fun was great i love the replays Vin Scelsa bench mark in radio broadcast,the kennedys ,larry kirwan,meg what the heck were they thinking. Man I'm ready to pull the plug I have 2 subscriptions was going to get a 3rd . Life is not the same bring back sirius disorder now,combine the coffe house and the loft. I listened to the loft I thought I was stuck in an elevator in hell hope this is short lived or sirius xm will be
35 - KDM
I am a four-year Sirius subscriber, and spent 75% of my time listening to Disorder. I feel like some thug broke into my house and stole one of my most precious possessions, then left a cheery note telling me that I have enough other stuff, just be happy and get over it. I've tried the new lineup, but every channel is so niche-programmed that I can't stay there more than fifteen minutes. A big part of my life is gone and I'm heartbroken. Sirius, please bring back my friends and their fabulous tastes in music or I'm going back to my iPod. But where will I discover new artists and be exposed to great music of the past I never knew existed?
36 - Mark
This is from a Rolling Stone blog:
The company claims that the programming decisions were largely not made with financial considerations in mind, and that the haters are outnumbered by the silent majority of happy listeners. "There are people who didn't like the Beatles or Elvis when they came out," says Sirius' Greenstein. "There were de minimis complaints, I mean minor. The ones that did complain were loud and had a lot of time on their hands to do it." Presumably because they weren't listening to the radio.
I have three jobs and I love Sirius Disorder, but that little email I sent as a three radio subscriber suddenly renders me out of touch and a slacker!! How arrogant and insulting! Way to go Sirius, you just insulted one of your strongest advocates and supporters.
37 - liz and pat
Just like old radio. I was amazed at how great Disorder was. 40 years ago FM was the greatest thing, for us in LA it was KMET. Disorder brought that back.
I had the radio on all day, every day. I kept saying "this is the answer!" Instantly gone. Talk about angry!! We have gone back to FM and lucky for us a new station that is playing vinyl!
If I can't find Kirwin, Ryan and Scelsa, I'm done with Sirius.
We are subscribers. That means we PAY for the entertainment. I'm stressing the point because after all this IS a business. If you have been looking around at corporate failures, the most common factors are bad judgement by administration. Those who receive a salary, at least in part, from the subscribers. The subscribers are unhappy with the removal of product.
O.K. so the result of the situation is going to be loss of income
and this is all about the business of radio? Come on. What's the real reason?
The real loss is the great music and DJ's that came together to form one of the most unique and wonderful "products" that any radio has seen in decades. Corporate destruction of the arts. One more time, we see a bad decision. Lets hope Meg can pull it back together somewhere else. For the good of the music. Or, just maybe someone will say "we made a mistake" and put disorder back together.
38 - Dave Onkels
IMPORTANT: If you have not already done so, please take 2 minutes to visit a site I pulled together to voice our concerns as listeners (and paying customers of Sirius and XM). The sole purpose of this site is to aggregate our comments and send a single package to the Sirius XM board of directors.
39 - Roger
I mourn the loss of XM FineTuning. It was eclectic as well. It sounds like I would have loved Disorder. But, I won't get the chance.
From an XMer perspective, it seems like the new combined service is very celebrity focused. Everything has a name of a person ... Howard, Martha, E-Street, etc. I also get outraged when I hear DJ's talking over the music. (I understand that commercial radio did this to get in more commercials. Why does subscription radio do this?)
I want the focus to be back on the music. It is the music that matters.
40 - Jane O'C
I am so disappointed that Disorder is not on the air. I loved, loved, loved Larry Kirwan's Celtic Crush, and listened on Sat. mornings and made a point to catch it again on Tuesday evenings. Please put this great show back on. Meg Griffin's choices in music were also outstanding, and nothing you've put up with this merger even comes close to touching the niche's and genre's that these two pro's got us all hooked on. Bring back the best, please!!!!
41 - Mark Saleski
news i received from Larry Kirwan:
Celtic Crush will return this coming Sunday, Nov. 23rd between 9am and noon ET on Spectrum Ch. 18. For those who listen through XM, Celtic Crush can be heard at the same time on Spectrum, Ch. 45.