jerryr

This is not official yet but the Sat Radio forums have been talking about this for a couple of weeks. It looks like XM\Sirius is taking it's first steps to save money by starting to broadcast only one Music Channel line-up for both types of radios. I don't know how accurate the list below is but it came from USA Today. Again this is all speculation but at least one XM channel's promo over the weekend mentioned it would have a new channel number on Nov 12th. This is music only, it does not effect the Best of XM or Best of Sirius add-ons you will still have to pay for.

DECADES
4 – 40’S on 4
5 – 50’s on 5
6 – 60’s on 6
7 – 70’s on 7
8 – 80’s on 8
9 – 90’s on 9

COUNTRY
10 – The Roadhouse*
11 – Nashville^
12 – Outlaw Country*
13 – Willie’s Place
14 – Bluegrass Junction
15 – The Village
16 – The Highway*
17 – Prime Country*
18 – Elvis Radio+

POP/HITS
20 – 20 on 20
21 – KISS^
22 – MIX^
23 – SIRIUS XM Love*
24 – The Pink Channel^
25 – The Blend
26 – The Pulse*
28 – Escape*
29 – BBC Radio 1*
30 – Pop 2k*

CHRISTIAN
32 – The Message
33 – Praise*
34 – enlighten

ROCK
39 - Led Zep Radio
40 – Deep Tracks
41 – Hair Nation+
42 – XMLM
43 – SIRIUS XM U*
44 – 1st Wave*
45 – The Spectrum*
46 – Classic Vinyl*
47 - Alt Nation*
48 – Octane*
49 – Classic Rewind*
50 – The Loft
51 - The Coffeeshop
52 – Faction+
53 – Boneyard (returning in January)
54 – Lithium*
55 – Radio Margaritaville+
56 – Jam_On+
57 – Grateful Dead Radio+
58 – E Street Radio+
59 – Underground Garage+

R&B/URBAN/RAP
60 – Soul Town*
62 – Heart & Soul*
64 – The Groove
66 – Shade+
67 – Hip Hop Nation*
68 – The Heat

JAZZ/BLUES/LIFESTYLE
70 – Real Jazz
71 – Watercolors
72 – Spa*~
73 – SIRIUSLY Sinatra*
74 – BB King’s Bluesville
75 – On Broadway~
76 – Cinemagic~

CLASSICAL
77 – SIRIUS XM Pops*~
78 – Symphony Hall*~
79 – Metropolitan Opera Radio*~

DANCE
80 – Area
81 – BPM
84 – SIRIUS XM Chill*

INTERNATIONAL/LATIN
85 – Caliente~
86 – The Joint~
87 – The Verge~
88 – Air Musique~
89 – Sur La Route~

KEY:
* - merged/adjusted
^ - Clear Channel Music Channels, w/ commercials
~ - moved channel
+ - NEW channel

DiamondGCoupe

iTrader: (4)

Well as of right now we can add Best of Sirius for an extra ~$4 a month. You show XM84 as merged, so I will automatically be able to listen to this channel without incurring any additional fees? Or do I have to add a Sirius package on there? I only pay $6/month so it's not worth it to me to add $10 on there for one or two extra channels.. XM has really disappointed me, my recent road trip this weekend left me bored with XM. The comedy channels blow, they never play anything worth listening to on 8,9,20,21,67,68 and only live mixes on 81 are any good.

jerryr

Please take that list with a grain of salt as we won't really know how this will all shake out until the 12th. What complicates things is not all Sirius radio's can play all the XM channels although all XM radios can play any of the Sirius channels. Or Visa Versa...this is so complicated.

Here is a link to another interpretation of the combined channels.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...php?p=15038922

DiamondGCoupe

iTrader: (4)

They better figure something out, I can't imagine too many people are going to be happy about buying a new receiver and paying additional monthly subscriber fees. I hope our modules are able to receive Sirius channels just fine. Has anyone added the Best of Sirius yet? Xmradio.com says this is available NOW and should work..

DdotRoq

If that list is good, then I'm in. I've had XM expired and never renewed because I prefer Sirius. Octane is great and Shade 45 (Which looks like Shade 66 now) is great as well. It'd be nice if they add Comedy from Sirius, ie. Blue Collar Radio.

jerryr

Yes, I have the Best of Sirius and it works great, I am a NASCAR fan and I use to have a Sirius portable in the car (playing thorough the Aux) just to get that channel. It sure was nice to ditch the tacky Sirius portable add-on and antenna.

I am pretty sure our XM Radio's can play any Sirius channel and the Sirius radios are the ones that have the problems with some XM channels. These lists above seem to be the New XM radio play list. I assume the New Sirius playlist will be a little different but they will make them as close as they can I am sure.

I have subscriptions to both XM and Sirius right now but I will go to XM only as soon as I swap out the Sirius reciever in my wifes car which is under the rear seat and easy to do. The XM infrastructure is accepted to be superior to Sirius since it uses stationary satellites as opposed to the rovers that Sirius uses and that are harder to lock onto. If you happen to have a Sirius satellite reciever in your office you will notice the signal gets weaker and stronger depending on the time of day and position of the sats it has to track. The XM signal is the same strength all day long.

bfranks

Take it ALL with a grain of salt. There is so much misinformation out there right now it's not even funny. The only thing that appears to be 100% certain is that the XM ans Sirius lineups will change on the 12th. The music channel line up on XM and Sirius will NOT be identical, however there will be a large number of simulcast stations. There have been several channels that have publicly announced they will be moving channels, and several of them do not match up between XM / SIrius.

The business of Sirius radios not being able to broadcast XM channels is rubbish, which casts doubt on any information in these articles. The stations are being simulcast over both sets of satellites, so there is no barrier what so ever to either radio broadcasting the others stations.

The XM infrastructure is only superior in the southern US and even that is debatable. The Geostationary orbit over the equator makes the angle too high for good reception in the northern US. They got around this by using a huge network of terrestrial repeaters to fill in the gaps. However the FCC recently got involved after it discovered that XM was operating over 220 repeaters illegally (either expired or non existent licenses, operating at power levels higher then authorized, or not being located where the license authorized). Long story short, their repeater network took a hit. Sirius was also fined, though to a much lesser extent since they do not require near as many repeaters. The other issue XM has is that their current gen satellites are severely limited in bandwidth. This will really only start to show if the new combined company starts to roll out or expand new services such as the TV channels currently offered by Sirius. Since XM-3 and XM-4 were launched 05' and 06' with a life expectancy of 15 years, this will be an ongoing issue.

Moral of the story is that this mess won't be sorted out anytime soon.

rrrevin

wait wait.. let me give you a nascar play by play...

Yup folks, this is live NASCAR over Sat radio. We return now the show already in broadcast..

I can't keep track of all this excitement folks.. They are turning left, they are turning left again, whoa watch out, they are taking another left. Wait a sec.. I think up ahead is a suprise for the drivers.. who would a'thunk it.. they are taking a LEFT turn.. amazing folks..

.... 2 hours later...

Folks just when you thought you'd seen everything.. they are coming up on another left hand turn.. how do these drivers do it???

Who needs NASCAR on the radio.. it's easy.. lol... :-)

DiamondGCoupe

iTrader: (4)

Here's your Nascar Play-by-play free of charge..

They're making a left tuuuuuuurnnnn.. [What's happening next]

They're making a left tuuuuuuurnnnn.. I wonder what's next..

Come back in 10 minutes, you ain't going to miss a ****ing thing!

0:39

<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/JevDW11ZrF4&hl=en&fs=1 width=425 height=344 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></EMBED>

jerryr

bfranks this is from the Sirius Web Site FAQ

Will my current SIRIUS radio get The Best of XM?
Most radios will be able to add The Best of XM. Current subscribers should visit the "My Account" section on sirius.com to verify radio compatibility.
----------------
It is well documented that not all Sirius radios will recieve XM channels. Not sure where you got your information from. There is no such disclaimer on the XM site, if you have an XM radio it can always pick up Best of Sirius.

I called today to cancel the wifes Sirius radio and the lady did confirm the combining of the channels will happen tomorrow.

bfranks

Yes, there is a very small percentage of radios that can't receive the Best of XM. The radios in question have been obsolete for years. They don't even receive all of the Sirius channels. Some of the very first models produced are only able to receive 128 channels, so the best of XM (190 range) are excluded. Sirius has been offering deep discounts, and on several occasions free radios, for years trying to get these people upgraded. I had my original unit replaced with a free Starmate during one of these deals.

The articles mentioned most often state that the Sirius lineup is probably not changing much, due to the fact that Sirius radios can't receive XM stations. These "merged" stations will be simulcast on both networks, so again there is no barrier to Sirius radios receiving them as ALL of them fall under the 128 channel barrier.

My reason for pointing out that error in the first place was to cast doubt on the information in that post (not yours but the one you got the channel lineup from). The USA Today article, was actually just an add for the combined company with randomly scattered little icons of the radio stations all over it. It did not list channel numbers, and did not even depict all of the channels that are on the lists that have been posted. Some have been officially announced, but the rest are just guesses or from "leaked sources" that people on those boards supposedly know. How accurate they are remains to be seen. I have no reason to think they are either correct or wildly inaccurate. I was just trying to point out the fact that until it's official, these lists are (as you said) to be taken with a grain of salt.

EDIT:
This is the quote (from CNET) that I was referring to being rubbish.

And here is the ad in question
USA Today Ad

finagle69

iTrader: (3)

i just really want Blue Collar Comedy, and it seems I still can't get it.

bfranks

Well, that list turned out to be accurate. I guess that "leaked source" was legit.

Here is the official list.

bfranks

And Blue Collar Comedy is listed. So it seems they merged more then just music channels.....which makes sense.

BiskitG37

Added this last week during a 9 hour road trip so we could listen to the TB Bucs game and the NASCAR race. Usually can't get a NFL game if your out of the team's market - so that was especially good.