Many people purchase subscriptions to Sirius Radio on the attraction of commercial free music. This is arguably one of the biggest reasons people are drawn to Sirius Radio.

In order to bring in revenue, you can find advertisements on many Sirius Radio Stations. All outside of the music categories.  Advertising on Sirius Radio apparently is a pricey investment but as many company have attested, it can pay off tremendously.  Many companies advertise products on the channels of Howard Stern. When the King of All Media himself voices many of these commercials, the companies are able to even attract more of the audience to product.

There was some musing some time ago that SiriusXM would start allowing advertisements on the music stations. This discussion seems to now have thankfully waned. Surely SiriusXM PR people realized that there would be a major massive backlash if this were allowed to happen.

The risk would be too great. Many customers who were drawn to Sirius because of commercial free music would no doubt vacate their subscriptions.

Commercial free music provides a soundtrack. That soundtrack of having very little interruption provides the listener with the most enjoyable listening experience. This is the big separator which distances Sirius radio from terrestrial radio.

SiriusXM needs to continue making the music stations commercial free. Subscribers are now used to this, so changing this concept would spell disaster for the company.

With regulatory approval, the Sirius Canada Merger with XM Canada will likely take effect later this 2011 year. Both companies will follow suit with SiriusXM out of New York and become one company.

It is the hope of many Sirius radio and XM radio subscribers in Canada that they will now be able to access the best of packages for each respective entity.

Sirius subscribers will hopefully be able to obtain the Oprah channel along with full NHL hockey and Major League Baseball coverage which XM radio carries. In the same scenario, XM radio subscribers will hopefully be able to now access great programming on Sirius such as the Howard Stern and Martha Stewart channels, as well as Sirius NASCAR radio and the Sirius NFL football radio stations.

This kind of cross programming will allow many users to fully embrace the kind of entertainment available to them on satellite radio. How great for a hockey fan like myself to be able to find any NHL hockey game being broadcast for online listening. In addition to checking on my favourite teams I would love to be able to hear the commentary in between periods of these stations which are feeding the games through to XM radio subscribers. Hopefully this merger between the two entities will be of benefit to subscribers while the company works to gain and subsequently maintain a presence of profitability.

It is my understanding as well that Sirius radio units will be easily programmable in order to access the best of XM once that happens. Sirius customers will not be required to purchase new equipment.

I invite readers to comments and share opinions on what you think of the merger and if we will benefit from it.

The King of All Media triumphantly returned to his channels in the New Year after signing another deal with Sirius which keeps him on their airwaves for another 5 years guaranteed. Much to the delight of the majority of Howard Stern fans, and shareholders of SiriusXM.

There is one noticeable change in the format to the show. The show is now one hour less, with Robin Quivers starting the news block at 9 a.m. instead of 10. Despite the loud complaining of some fans on Stern Fan Network, this new formatting will actually work well for the show and here is why.

On the shows best days, you will have a great guest on where the interview is rolling along really well. Or, you could have no guest and the show could be on a roll by talking about some major event in the news world and having all of these great humours twists added in to it. On the busy days you have a ton of stuff crammed into a short period of time. What these scenarios do is take listeners up to levels where they are responding well to the humour, taking in the stories and listening to the interviewing. Then because of time constraints the listeners are left wanting more of what was going on.

Many will argue with me that this really is not different than the older formats of the show even dating back to the days on Terrestrial Radio. I suppose there is some truth to this. Think though for a minute if you can. What if the show is having an off day? So far 2011 has started out great for the Stern Show but there will be an off day. Even Howard will admit when he has an off day with the show. You could be listening to the show and the humour is not hitting out of the park like it usually does. Or you are listening to a really drab interview with some idiot who should not be on the show. In these instances listeners have the relief that they now there is a further time constraint now in place. So at some point a seemingly bad part of the show will have to wrap up sooner in order to meet that time deadline.

To the fans who complain, I am just happy to have Howard back and on the air. It is better right now than no Stern show at all.

In my quest to try and be up to date on much of the channel happenings I still find myself hoping that SiriusXM would expand on something they already have.

We have a Grateful Dead Channel, and several bands who appear on Jam_On that might be considered “Psychedelic Rock”. There is a ton of great music out there that was influenced and inspired by a culture that ran rampant on LSD as well as various powders. Space Rockers Hawkwind come to mind right away.

What much of this music has given listeners is surprisingly great insights into improvisational minds and electronic music experiments that modernized sound in some ways.

I wrote several weeks ago already about more electronic music. Recently I was thinking that having a channel that perhaps combined the best of both worlds would be something cool.

I strongly encourage readers to check out the music of Hawkwind. It is an interesting approach to rock and roll bordering on the bring of crazy crashing space metal. There is some great videos on YouTube of performances and interviews which sparked my interest a little while ago. I am now checking out similar bands as well as getting familiar with the Hawkwind catalogue.

Tough and Truth talking Radio jock Todd Clem (a.k.a. Bubba The Love Sponge) did not return to Sirius at the beginning of the year despite a barrage of e-mails to SiriusXM’s head office requesting that they give him a deal. Bubba and his crew host a wildly successful Terrestrial Radio show and featured their own uncensored show most Friday mornings on Sirius at Howard 101.

As of this post drafting (January 10, 2011) Howard Stern insisted that he would love to have a way to bring Bubba and his crew back to the channels in some way.

Bubba seems content with his new home at Radio IO where he has taken many of his loyal Bubba Army members with him.

Meanwhile Howard Stern has been filling in the space of time once occupied by Bubba’s show with “Mammary Lane” classic Stern moments.

Sirius 15 Classic Rewind and Sirius 14 Classic Vinyl recently started to bring forward new music by the classic artists. They say that it does not have to be old to be good, just has to be classic.

Nothing really could be further from the truth. I have said that many of the greats are the ones who are still putting out the better music. Most of the other music being put out by newer artists to be sounds unoriginal and has a been there done that sort of attitude. and feel.

I appreciate and value the format particularly on Classic Rewind. It is the second generation of Classic Rock. When you look at Classic Vinyl though as well, you have the absolute best format for a Classic Rock Station anywhere. This is the foundation of what and how a Classic Rock Station should be formatted.

The Boneyard Sirius 19 has the Breaking Bone segment, has had this for quite some time. Great to again hear newer music from classic hard and heavy acts.

Many of the newer releases are really worth hearing from these artists. SiriusXM is providing a launching pad for the spinning of this music which sadly is being ignored by most of Terrestrial Radio.

Hoping every-one’s holiday season is rolling along well as mine is.

I gave everyone some food for thought for this coming week surrounding pop music. Most of us have a subscription to Sirius or XM in order to get away from the drudgery of popular music that exists on Terrestrial Radio. In order for Sirius to capture that market share it makes sense to have a Top 40 Station which is easily accessible and located well on the dial.

I make no secret that I loathe most of the popular music that gets spun on this station, let alone Terrestrial Radio. For those that still need to have access to this format, Sirius has everything covered here. Including a somewhat cheesy yet entertaining to some morning show for the week.

Popular music still makes a ton of money. We have today an industry where there is less value placed on music. Fact is though that to the average listener, a catchy cook written by a slick producer who knows how to get things done can create something memorable.

Terrestrial Radio is a horrendous ground for spinning the stuff on a horrendous programming format every few hours. Where I have to salute SiriusXM on their version of the format is that they will bring in a mix of tracks that were Top 40 hits over the course of the last 2-3 years. They ultimately end up doing the record industry a major favour by keeping a few memories of some one-hit wonders alive, or alternatively they might play an earlier song from say, Taylor Swift, then within a same block play something newer to remind listeners she has new material that is catching ears.

If Top 40 Radio is not for you, as it really ain’t for me, Sirius 1 is not worth the time. At least it is covered for those who would actually use it.

Due to the extended holiday week, and my being on the road for the majority of this coming week, I will return to these pages in one week for the first column of the New Year. The best again to all readers, and thank you.

On December 13, 2010 Paul McCartney played a packed show at The Apollo Theater in New York. This was a SiriusXM event in recognition of the 20 millionth subscriber to SiriusXM.

The last 5 years has seen a tremendous amount of growth for the company. Finally the company seems to be turning a corner. Shareholders are starting to see dividend payments, albeit small, but they are a start.

Hopefully the next 5 years will see the company look to the long term for ways to keep listeners interested and entertained. Customer service issues hopefully will improve for those who are still finding difficulty in this area.

I will share my most recent experience. Keep in mind, that I do NOT work for the company, nor is this website affiliated directly with the company.

My vehicle kit stopped working in my car. I could not figure out why. My thinking was that it was so worn down it was just not going to work anymore. I was able to borrow the exact same type of vehicle kit from a work colleague and hooked up the radio to my other vehicle. It worked for a bit, then stopped working.

I went to Twitter with my frustration. I sent a Tweet directly to @siriuscanada , which was picked up by someone at the office in Toronto. Meanwhile as all this was going on, I contacted customer service who suggested it was the vehicle kits themselves. I ended up ordering a radio at a huge discount because I figured the one I had was causing the problems.

The Public Relations people who contacted me a few days later offered to send me two cig lighter adapters for free. I told them that I am sure it was the radio itself. Since I had already ordered the radio, it was ok and they did not have to send the adapters. Thankfully for my trouble, I was offered a small credit on my account, and in addition received two months free towards the 2011 subscription.

On December 15th, I ended up receiving the cig lighter adapters anyway. So I ended up with a couple of extra parts which is fine by me.

I appreciate that some of you have been experiencing some service issues. I say to you that you can and should escalate those issues to Public Relations at 1-866-347-4036 and they will go out of their way for you as they did for me. To Lillian and Neela, I thank you both for your courtesy!

In the meantime, I want to wish all readers a Merry Christmas. This is a time of year where I look around and reflect on how grateful I am for what I have. It is a privilege to write for this site. Please continue to send your kudos and criticisms my way. I read every message even though I am unable to respond to each one.

I will return to these pages on December 27 with a piece about “pop” music. Food for thought, we all listen to Sirius to escape the horror of Terrestrial Radio playing such horrendously unoriginal pop. Yet, Sirius smartly caters to that market with Sirius 1 Hits.

See you soon.

Dann

He will be back for 5 more years. Let the Revolution continue!

Howard Stern announced on Thursday, December 9th that he will return to Sirius after the two week Christmas break. The King of All Media was surrounded by most of his on-air staff, and guest announcer George Takei in the morning. The King pulled his usually brilliant move of suspense by dragging listeners and staff on by first suggesting he was going to be a professor at his Alma Mater Boston University.

The announcement comes at a great time of turnaround for SiriusXM. The company has acknowledged that Stern’s presence has increased subscribers and advertising revenue dramatically. Even those who may have shunned Stern in the past have acknowledged that he is one of, if not the most powerful force in radio.

Stern made it clear after he made the announcement that it will likely be his last 5 years in radio given his age. Stern also suggested that SiriusXM needs to look at things in the long term past these coming 5 years.

With Stern now coming back, Mel Karmizan and the other execs can sleep better knowing that the threatened subscriber boycott will now not happen.

In the great traditions of all things Stern, I will end this post with one word.

BABABOOEY

Fans of the show are elated at this news, and look forward to 5 more years

One year ago I had the pleasure of responding to an advertisement where the owners of this website were seeking content about Sirius Radio. I am pleased to have been at this since and hope to stick around for some time to come.

We have seen in this year that the state of Satellite Radio is again about to rapidly change. As of this writing, there is still no decision on any contract extension for Howard Stern, and a deal to finalize a merger between the Canadian Entities still sits with the bureaucracy of the CRTC.

Whatever happens in the next few weeks with SiriusXM, I will continue to use, enjoy and promote the product. I appreciate the feedback and comments that you have all sent me over the last 12 months. I am open to ideas about pieces to write and hearing your concerns about programming and things that are happening in the Satellite Radio world.

Recently my smoke lighter cavity in one of my vehicles burned out. So I could no longer hook-up my radio in the car. Certainly it was ok for me to return to listening to CD’s, yet I felt such a huge piece of my daily life was missing because I did not have access to programming handy. On the night I draft this post (November 26th) I was able to hook up a vehicle kit in our main vehicle while out. It was such a relief to be able to hear Sirius content in the car again.

This is how passionate I am about the product. The beauty about being a customer is we can criticize and comment on the positives and negatives we get from this product.

Looking forward to another interesting year. Thank you all for reading.