My level of crankiness seems directly proportional to my caffeine intake, and I’ve been cutting back… Perhaps that’s why XM is also getting a second chance this week.
One of the reasons I canceled my satellite subscription last year was due to the encroaching ’80s pop onto some of my favored niche stations (Chrome, Groove). Not that I have anything against ’80s pop (my musical tastes are both eclectic and poor), but I thought the (selling) point of satellite radio is to provide unique content not commonly found on FM… Why would they dilute these musical genres?
Well before killing my sub, in January 2006, I emailed the station programmer at Chrome and this is how it played out:
What’s up with Chrome? Why am I hearing Madonna and Lisa Lisa on a disco channel?
We have expanded to play disco and classic dance by audience and subscriber request. We hope you are enjoying.
No, I am NOT enjoying – boo!
And that was the end of it. Until yesterday:
We have made more changes and hope you are enjoying it better.
Actually, I had canceled XM due to lineup changes. But I’m always willing to reconsider. What sort of changes have you made?
We have moved the special dance music, such as 80s and 90s and freestyle to new special shows heard only on the weekends. We would love to have you back.. you will not regret it!
I still prefer media subscriptions (and rentals) over purchases (iTunes isn’t playing along) and I’ve been hankering for new toys… So I checked in with Ryan, the satrad guru behind Orbitcast, to find a good deal on XM hardware. He made a few suggestions and I’ve settled on the Samsung Helix (pictured above) for $60 after rebate from MyRadioStore. It’s a bit of a downer they had to disable the integrated FM transmitter (when not in the car dock) because it exceeds FCC specs, but otherwise I’m looking forward to receiving my new musical gadget (plus XM web access).