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Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: jjks on October 6, 2004, 03:26 PM
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Just read on the CNN/Money page that Howard Stern has inked a deal to ditch radio and move to satellite radio beginning in 2006. I'm not the biggest Stern fan (grew up with Kevin & Bean in LA), but I am a Sirius subscriber and am happy for anything positive they can muster.
I've had Sirius for almost a year now and it's probably my favorite purchase of the year. I travel for work very often, and it's so convienent to just take it with me and plug it into my rental car and not have to worry about carrying around cases of CD's or finding something on local radio. Not to mention I can log in at work and listen on my laptop, which makes work much more enjoyable!
If Kevin and Bean ever take their show onto satellite I will be one happy camper, but for now i guess I'll settle for Stern over the crap I currently have on local radio...Bob and Tom.
Complete crap their show is...
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Dammit, I have XM at home and in the car, and no way I'm switching. Bummer.
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Man, we just got STern back... :-\ I wanna get the system he's on, because he's all I listen to on the ride to school, plus his show would be uninterrupted to an extent I'd think... At least less anyway. And unrated, which is incredible because his PPV's were always good.
I can't justify paying for it just for Stern, but I'd like to have it nonetheless, just for Stern.
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This thread's mostly just for the fans of Stern... If you're like me, and still love listening to him every morning, today is the last day you're going to do so without paying for it...
I'm actually getting Sirius Satelite Radio for Christmas this year, and I'm excited... I wasn't going to, but my buddy Dan got it last year and I've listened to his and it's really just fun to have. I could listen to the comedy channel all the time actually just by itself, so Stern's move there is just really gravy to me since he's who I've always liked listening to in the mornings... Stern's show hasn't lost anything to me. It's as funny as ever, and with what he's allowed to do he makes it as funny as he can. I am excited to listen to him at Sirius though, and hear the show as he intends...
I'm really sorta sad though. The Stern show is something I've actually had as a big part of my life since I first saw/heard Stern when he did his old "Channel 9 Show". That was when we really got true "Cable" in my area and Channel 25 carried Stern's show. I had no clue who he was till then as he wasn't on in Pittsburgh on the radio.
When he came to Pittsburgh under Clear Channel's new alternative rock station "The X", I loved listening to him daily when I was able to. His show of course got canned when Clear Channel basically were pussies, and we did without him in the city of Pittsburgh till K-Rock bought out one of the HORRIBLE Top 40 Stations our city was plagued with. They've made one of the only listenable stations in Pittsburgh, but come the 25th I'm done listening to the BS in my car for anything but local information I maybe need (traffic, etc.).
I'm listening right now... The show just started here. Sounds insane with the crowds for it up in NYC for the final show. The show yesterday with Jackie Martling coming back to say bye was GREAT, it was really funny and you remembered great stuff from just a couple years ago that really they can't even say/get away with now. That's ****** just to think about but even their PC descriptions of these past events had me laughing early in the a.m., which isn't something I do much... Not a morning guy, but I have to say that it sounds funny but Stern's show really did make my morning existance easier, more lighthearted... It always gave me fuel for jokes and conversation with my buddies when we'd all get together on the weekend... It meant a lot to me, in a weird way.
I'm happy and sad right now... It's weird listening to what is his last show as the fans know it. It's something that really was a big part of my teen to adult life actually.
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Hah... By the way, a Star Wars moment...
Stern's producer (for non-fan's) Gary Del'Abate is basically never called by his name, he's just "Ba Ba Booey" which is a joke that goes back to like the 80's.
Anyway, one of the staffers sets Gary's nickname to every song imaginable... The one that is easily the most used/popular is the Imperial March... It's basically just "ba ba ba ba booey, ba booey... ba ba ba, ba booey, ba booey..." you get the picture.
Well Gary was just doing his speech and the whole crowd was chanting the Ba Ba Booey Imperial March at him. That was just great. :)
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I've always like Stern, but sropped listening basically because there are way too may commercials out here. I will be listening today though.
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Oh the commercials were the same everywhere Anton... Man they sucked hard. You'd get seriously a good 15 minute span at times of commercials I think. It was sometimes hard to deal with if you had short commutes, haha.
They whored the hell out of his show while they could but man it was over the top really. And with Sirius only costing $13 a month it's not bad at all... Especially given all the other programming too. I got to mess with my buddy Dan's Sirius Radio and the comedy channel alone was worth it to me, but yeah there's all kinds of good stuff... My buddy always jokes that what he'd hear on the Sirius I'd hear (music wise) about 3 months later, but really he wasn't kidding... Pittsburgh was just that out of touch musically really.
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The best part about Sirius is that you don't have commercials every 10 minutes... I think it's one every hour or so, depending on what station you listen to. Comedy Channel is probably my favorite.
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Howard Stern... I admit he's funny at times, but usually not my type of humor and I am not a fan of him.
:P
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I'm actually seriously considering getting Sattelite now too. Not just for Stern, but because radio is so lame these days and he's yet another thing I'd like to listen to over there.
I can't listen to his last show because my radio on my desk is broken. Agh.
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Josh, I listened through Yahoo. I tried listening to K-Rock in Pittsburgh but they butchered his show... yes, even his last show, so I just gave up and listened to the Yahoo broadcast which lasted into the afternoon.
Sirius is seriously worth it I think if you are looking for radio OTHER than Stern. It's kinda like buying a gaming console for one game. To me that's not good thinking, but if you're sure you'll want other games coming out then to me it's a good smart purchase. The Comedy Channel (dirty of course) was enough to sell me on Sirius... Other channels I'm sure will appeal to me, and Stern was just what solidified me wanting it then.
It's funny, but a local station that played classic rock just turned to the "Bob" Format and it's really unlistenable. Just horrid. Other than K-Rock I've been listening to just Christmas music on the oldies channel... I just can't take the dribble on the top 40 station, the classic rock station's playing "other" stuff now, the other CR station went to the BOB format... And from what I understand K-Rock isn't gonna be the same after Stern leaves as far as what they play, so I'm basically happy to be done with this... It is just such a steaming turd around here really.
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Hey Jesse, I listened to a lot of the show and was lucky to be in the car when Howard was giving his last speach. However, it's three hours later so I strongly suspect that much of his speech was cut or censored. Was it? I got the impression he was letting some swears fly due to some very abrubt edits. Do tell.
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Yup but I couldn't see him swearing really... It didn't fit with where the edits were coming in. He kept the "eh eh eh eh" going for a euphamism for Sirius too so I think he was being careful but either crowd noise was needing the edits or he slipped up with some stuff.
It was weird, I was listening to it here and then I just heard this dead air and then it was back but made ZERO sense. The conversation was butchered obviously, so I had Yahoo open but minimized and low volume. I just turned it up and turned K-Rock off.
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Ugh... I saw, for the first time, commercials on my local CBS station for David Lee Roth who takes over for Stern in the mornings here... They're horrible commercials and really are just the kind of thing to give you a hint of the bad taste in your mouth that Roth is about to leave across the nation I think... or at least where they're airing him. I know Pittsburgh's one of the unfortunate cities to get his lame ass.
Looks like it's time to turn my dial to the oldies station till I get my Sirius... I can only fathom how bad his show will be. I may listen the first day just to see if he gets pounded by prank calls.
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We're getting Adam Corolla out here. :P
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Well Boozley Friggin' Bop for you. >:(
(http://content.clearchannel.com/Photos/musicians/david_lee_roth/david_lee_roth_GI.jpg)
This is our Tool Du Jour... ::) It's unfathomable really.
Though... And I'm a big Carolla fan overall, but I still think he's gonna suck. His show on Comedy Central is a HUGE failure and just is painful to watch when it (was) on.
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1/9/06 and Stern's on... God it's refreshing too, and was a great show.
Lots of technical difficulties which was to be expected. They started the show early over their holiday break a couple times trying to work out kinks in "test runs" but it didn't fix everything...
The show was good though. Very funny... They have George "Mr. Sulu" Takei as their announcer and boy that guy's funny and jumped right into the fun himself. Very amusing.
Commercials/breaks are infrequent, lots of great stuff... I'm loving their revelations bit that they started over on boring old radio, and are continuing here. Great stuff being revealed. Anyone get a Sirius Radio for X-Mas?
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Been meaning to pick up a reciever for today, but have been finding that 99% of the hardware is junk. Like K-mart quality stuff compared to XM kits. I've had a hard time finding one that fits my needs.
I've had XM for a couple years now and love it, but would gladly switch so I can tune into Stern. It's too bad that Sirius has such poor hardware partners that making the switch is nearly impossible.
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I didn't get to listen to Stern as much as I would have liked over the years but the last month he was on the publlic airwaves were just great. It was excellent radio with many great segments and guests from years past.
I tired to get onto one of Howard Stern websites tonight but I htink everyone out here wants to know what the first show of 2006 was like. From what I can tell from the watered down accounts in the media that it was out of sight!
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Been meaning to pick up a reciever for today, but have been finding that 99% of the hardware is junk. Like K-mart quality stuff compared to XM kits. I've had a hard time finding one that fits my needs.
I've had XM for a couple years now and love it, but would gladly switch so I can tune into Stern. It's too bad that Sirius has such poor hardware partners that making the switch is nearly impossible.
I'm not totally sure I follow you Jared, but I'm not wise on much of this stuff... I got a receiver and a car kit and that was about all I needed. Looks and sounds great... I'm wishing I had a walkman I could like plug it to or something though because I'd like it for at school when I'm there. Not sure how I can do that.
As far as today's show I've caught it a couple times today/tonight now and that alone is great... I wasn't always up early enough to catch the old show.
Today's show was fantastic though... Lots of glitches early on, still ironing out technical kinks because that's just to be expected. Stern actually was on twice over his downtime trying to iron them out early and there was basically just little 3 hour test runs of the show that were really funny unto themselves.
They announced what the things were that the staff were to reveal today... Great stuff, though some really seemed like it would be a letdown if tied to certain members of the show. One of the revealed items was that someone cheated on their wife, someone had plastic surgery too, and another one was that someone has a half-sister that they don't care to know... Also someone paid for an abortion at one point in their life.
They didn't say who's revelation belonged to who though, that's tomorrow, but I'm curious now... A lot are saying Stern's the one who cheated, and now that makes me curious. That'll actually change my view of him completely if it is true.
There were some things revealed I really don't want to get into here, but suffice it to say, there's some disturbing stuff and it belongs to one of them... Some of it was just gross and I could see it coming from a couple of the staff just because it's how they are all the time and not really revealing a whole lot.
The press interviews were funny... Stern took all questions, including hostile ones, and retorted with a lot of funny stuff...
Anyway, as far as this goes my Sirius has been a great gift besides Stern... The comedy channel Raw Dog is worth it alone, but there's lots of music channels too. I'm not a big music guy though so I'm hardly good to ask for an opinion. Lots of talk radio though, both sides of the fence, and the Stern channels are really enough for me to enjoy. I like the news, the roundtable shows, and now that the regular show is here I'm glad I can listen to it almost any time. I'm having fun.
I just gotta figure out how to get this in my car because there's an antenna thing and I have a conertible... It's not easy to figure out where I need to put the antenna as I don't want it on my trunk really. My buddy has a jeep and put it on the roll bar. I'm trying to figure if I can mount it inside to the roof bracing so it'll move with the roof, I dunno. I really don't want it on my trunk lid though really. :-\
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I just gotta figure out how to get this in my car because there's an antenna thing and I have a conertible... It's not easy to figure out where I need to put the antenna as I don't want it on my trunk really. My buddy has a jeep and put it on the roll bar. I'm trying to figure if I can mount it inside to the roof bracing so it'll move with the roof, I dunno. I really don't want it on my trunk lid though really. :-\
I just finished installing an XM antenna in my wife's car and if it's anything like Sirius, you'll basically get no reception if the antenna is installed inside the car. Without a clear view to the sky, you're fubar'd. The trunk might be your only option.
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You might want to consider ordering a painted antenna, Jesse. There are shops on the net that paint them matched to the color code of your car. I had a silver one done for my car since it's a convertible as well. You can hardly notice it.
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I bet the sheep noticed it :-X
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I actually went out looking for Sirius radio last weekend. The radios are sold out everywhere. I figured there might be a jump in demand since Stern was about to come on, and boy...was I right.
I couldn't find one anywhere in my area that I wanted. They had some of the less "cool" models, but I was thinking the sportster or one of the walkman ones would be the one I wanted to get.
Oh well....guess I continue on with regular radio for now.
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So how was the swearing and such? Was it natural or has evenyone been cursing up a storm just becuase they can?
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Natural on one hand, unnatural for a few...
For instance, Sal (the stockbroker) was f this, c that, etc... A real dip**** with the swearing and it went overboard. Howard regulated him because it was too much. Howard regulated himself because he didn't want it to be unnatural but he has been swearing here and there. Sometimes slips out, sometimes it's what he wanted to say, and it's not bad at all. His first day I think he barely swore at all.
Artie's sorta going all out with swearing but it sounds right coming from him because that's him. If you've seen his stand-up, it's foul, and Artie's foul, so Artie talking foul on the show is natural.
Robin's good... I haven't heard her swear yet that I can think of off hand.
Richard Christy's been surprisingly good. Better than Sal.
Benjy I haven't heard talk yet.
Fred doesn't talk, but hasn't sworn much either when he has spoken.
Ba Ba Booey has said, at worst, "**** happens" I think. He's been alright...
It's really a natural flow of things. I'd say you get more swearing out of the public than anyone, and I think with them it's natural too. I mean I know I swear a bit, and turn it off when appropriate, but do incorporate it into my normal speech fairly routinely just because that's me.
The show's been great... George Tekae (sp) is fan-frickin'-tastic though, and I am hoping he becomes a fixture. That guy rocks it. He's the best thing for the show since Stuttering John quit, serioulsy. He's just amazingly funny, quick witted but has class and stuff so he doesn't always get the jokes but then does and jumps in with his own stuff... He fits right in with the crowd there ultimately, and keeps up with them, adds his own thoughts... I love that guy, and his voice just has you laughing every time you hear him add something.
The show's great, and they've been making fun of DLR in a very classy manner. Like in a way Roth can't counter it without really looking like a massive tool in the process.
They played a really funny prank call on Roth today from this other DJ Howard brought over (Bubba the Love Sponge?) to Roth, and it just basically ripped Roth a new one throughout and the moron either didn't get it, or he's so pathetically lame that he got it and took it thinking who he was talking to was an important person. I love it! :)
This was worth the price... Josh, I got the Starmate, it's very cool. I have the home kit, and I'm hoping they develope a walkman technology, however they're saying you'll be able to stream the show from your phone instead of doing walkman technology and basically you'll only need the car kit (came with it) and the house kit, and then use your cellie to stream it like if you have a class or some such. If you have an office just picking up a 2nd home kit is easy enough.
As far as mounting my antenna, that's not a bad idea Jared, I may look into that. My buddy's jeep he has his mounted to the rollbar, and he gets signal, so I'm not sure you can't necessarilly get signal inside a car (Jesse), but I'm just gonna have to tinker around and try some things. I'm really reluctant to have htis on my trunk, I keep thinking someone will steal it. :-\
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So the first week ended... Well, I think it did anyway, it seems like Stern's not doing Friday's maybe, but it was a good week and lots of good stuff.
Some rag that rates radio shows gave Corolla a B-, DLR a D (and whoa what a deserved grade that was. I'd have given him worse) and Stern got an A-. I'd say A should've been Stern's grade... Not plus, just A, and my only complaint was his tech difficulties that sometimes interrupted the show. Sparse as they were I can see a half point coming off for it.
That said, it was some of Stern's best air this week... Reading some people's comments at another site with a Stern thread I felt it was interesting to note that some felt Stern COULD have done better on Old Style Radio... I, having listened this week, 100% now disagree with that statement.
Stern's not abusing his freedoms, but I will say that hearing things unedited, not hearing big cuts out of the show, not having them pause to ponder if they can, or cannot, say something... Yes, Stern's show is better on Sirius. It's not that vulgarity = funny, but it's that vulgarity cut from things is just butchery and pretty much takes a piss on any humor that was in the bit.
When the show's people want to describe Martha Stewart's daughter as being something that rhymes with "punty", they should be allowed to because it was damn funny. And Artie Lange is a whole other person when he's not censored. He's like night and day really.
The show was good, I hope George Takei is kept on in some permanent capacity though because that guy stole the show. He was hysterical and fit right in. Really seemed like a great guy too, just a good humor, and good spirit. He added to the show and didn't take away at all. They need to pay him and bring him on full time because he kicked much ass.
I hope you guys are checking it out, it's really better than even a lot that's on TV so I'm just listening to the show sometimes at night since I'm not always up when it's airing live.
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I finally picked up a radio over the weekend - not quite an ideal one, but I realized I was being way too picky. I listened to about an hour of the show this morning and am listening to the replay right now.
I think the show is much improved. Like you said, Jesse, it's not a wall to wall swear fest, but instead a much more natural conversation flow. It feels as though you're finally hearing what you imagined the discussions would be like with that crew in person. What a great start, and I really wish I had done this last week so I could hear George Takai. From the brief bits I've heard listening to the news shows on the channel over the weekend, he sounded like a great surprise addition.
I'll be interested to hear how it evolves, as the absense of all those years of quips, live recordings, and sounds that have given the show so much texture is noticeable, and it will take a while for the new show to develop its own vibe.
It's nice to not have 15-20 minute commercial breaks as well. The LA station would pack in more commercials in its 6am taped broadcast over the live feed that they'd run beforehand. It made it unlistenable and I gave up for several years. So this new format is doubly liberating for me.
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I have heard that about the LA stations. One guy said he'd listen, and they'd go to commercial shortly after he left on his commute and he'd be to work by the time they came back from commercial sometimes. That would have sucked.
Pitt had it live, but you still got huge commercial breaks, and on my 50 minute commute I'd still only get a short ammount of show to listen to.
The revelations show today was funny but brief. They're doing a part 2 to it for tomorrow which sorta sucks, I'd rather have heard it all today but whatever. It's funny what I've heard so far, or just surprising... Richard Christie knocked up some girl and had to pay for an abortion? Who even knew he was having sex? That's sad because he sounded sad, but at the same time the fact he's been hiding that he gets some is funny.
Sal's was lame. I'm wondering now who had plastic surgery. I thought for sure the cheating one was Stern, but turns out it was Scott the Engineer... Which is shocking given who he is and what he looks like, but at the same time he's just sorta meh. Shocking, but he sucks so who cares.
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Just a bump so Jesse and I can talk about things no one else cares about. ;) Both of the Howard channels are now streaming online for subscribers, and I've been at my desk all day listening, and so far the stream is flawless. I'm really happy to be able to listen at work, at last.
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XM has had free streaming for subscribers for some time now. I really enjoy their service and I finally listen to radio now, and not CD's. I thought XM offered a better overall package, and as much of a Stern fan as I had been (listening steadily from 1988 - about 2000 or so), it just got tired to me. I liked some of the personalities and the programming on XM more, so I went with their offering.
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Sirius has had free streaming to subscribers for a long time too. I believe they are specifically talking about streaming Howards show, which I guess wasn't available until recently.
I'm still REALLY glad I chose Sirius over XM. I've rented cars with XM several times, and have been consistenly underwhelmed with their music channels. Their sports selection however is quite impressive!
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I saw a recent episode of Attack of the Show where they were discussing Sirius and XM versus local radio and wether or not people would subscribe. One of the hosts mentioned that the sound quality for satellite radio was not all that great, comparing it to listening to an iPod through a wet sock. Is the sound quality really poor on satellite radio?
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I'm still REALLY glad I chose Sirius over XM. I've rented cars with XM several times, and have been consistenly underwhelmed with their music channels. Their sports selection however is quite impressive!
Really? I've found that if anything there are almost too many music channels to choose from. I've locked in on about half a dozen music channels that I listen to regularly along with their High Voltage channel. The celebrity DJ's are cool, but I never seem to catch Bob Dylan's show or Tom Petty's Buried Treasure.
I really like the sports package overall. They've got MLB, the NHL, NASCAR, they've got two channels for the World Cup...I'm pretty happy with it. When I compared the sports packages I had to think about it. But when it came down to the NFL vs MLB, I had to side with XM and their MLB package. There are just so many more games, and I always make a point of watching the NFL on television. The only downside I've found to the MLB package is that when the Yankees are on the road I have to listen to the home team's announcer. But the fact that I can listen to the Yanks all over the country is great, especially since I tend to listen to more baseball games on the radio.
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I saw a recent episode of Attack of the Show where they were discussing Sirius and XM versus local radio and wether or not people would subscribe. One of the hosts mentioned that the sound quality for satellite radio was not all that great, comparing it to listening to an iPod through a wet sock. Is the sound quality really poor on satellite radio?
It depends on the bandwidth that's assigned to a particular channel. With some channels, mainly the sports ones, there is definitely some digital compression evident. But one of the things I wind up listening to is baseball. Locally, I can hear the games on an AM station, but when I listen on my XM unit the game is broadcast in stereo, so that' actually better than what I had been listening to. I can sometimes hear it on some music channels. Where I tend to notice it the most is in some higher frequencies, such as how cymbals on a drum set sound. I would characterize it as a kind of audio "shimmer", whereas some others might call it refer to it as an audio phenonmena similar to phasing.
But in the case of satellite radio, the more bandwidth assigned to a channel, the better the audio quality. The higher profile channels will tend to get more bandwidth.
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Matt, I've not personally found that to be true in the slightest on my radio... I've listened to a variety of channels and actually I'd say my quality on my stereo surpasses anything else I've listened to, but that's me.
I've not had any channel sound bad at all though... Very clear, very high quality (to me at least).
I'm glad I made the Sirius choice as well... NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, Stern... If I want O&A I can listen to them on Testicle Radio if need be but their show's never impressed me... Stern's not someone I always agree with and not everything he does is god's gift to the world but he's by far the funniest person on air if you ask me. His show has only gotten better since he moved.
Now that he has rights to all his tapes off of his old gig, I'm sure it's only about to get better since his best stuff will be on-air once more...
I got my Sirius as a gift for X-Mas from my mother... I've not regretted it in the slightest. It's truly the future of radio to me... I am hoping they put out a 3rd Stern channel with just old stuff on it at some point... I listen to Howard 100 the most right now, I don't flip over to 101 much, but I do check out some of the music channels (they're really nice if you're a music buff I think, I'm more into comedy/talk though) and I dig the sports stuff tremendously. To me the NFL deal is almost worth the price of Sirius alone because I find I'm in my car a bit on Sundays it seems (good toy run day. ;) ).
I was just listening about 30 minutes ago on my way down here to my gf's place... Catching up on some stuff I'd missed, and loving every second of it. :)
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I tried listening to Stern again on the radio, and it was so damned graphic and vulgar, I had to turn it off. It was a re-run of an April show, the 4th I believe. It was not the Stern I learned to enjoy at times. :-\
Kevin
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I'm glad I made the Sirius choice as well... NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, NASCAR,
FYI, Major League Baseball is only available on XM Satellite Radio, much in the same way the NFL is only on Sirius.
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Ah that's right, they tried the MLB deal to counter when Sirius signed Stern but then they lost NASCAR and I think the NFL contract shortly thereafter...
I loathe baseball so I don't keep up with it. It's tough to watch much less listen to. ;D
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The Stern fans seem very much like a bunch of kooks with recent news. One of them actually physically attacked a producer from the Opie & Anthony show (http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/stern-fan-attacks-oa-producer-during-walk-over.html). Apparently he was dealt with "swiftly" by their security staff.
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Yes because of course large groups of people all act alike.
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(http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/4894/jumptoconclusions2xk.jpg)
??? ??? ???
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The Stern fans seem very much like a bunch of kooks with recent news. One of them actually physically attacked a producer from the Opie & Anthony show.
Since you said "The Stern Fans", and "seem like a bunch of kooks" for a news story that some person who may perhaps be a Stern Fan attacked someone from O&A, call me crazy but I just thought that sounded like a generalization... IE: One guy's actions denote the behavior of a large group's actions, etc., etc.
I'm just bustin' balls on it Nick, but I'm sorry it confused you what I was getting at with my reply though about generalizations. I'll make sure and pull quotes next time and use all appropriate smiley faces for clarity.
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Listen to the audio clip in the article. The guy praises Howard Stern before he attacks the producer. That's just a fact.
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Just to confirm, yes, I was just pointing out that the Howard channels specifically began streaming.
I've had XM for years now, and now having had Sirius for some 6 months or so, I can certainly say that XM's music catalogue depth and programming is vastly superior to Sirius.
XM's channels (that I frequented) would play obscure tracks and bands while the comparable channel on Sirius plays the equivalent of any generic "Hits of the 19xxs" CD -- this is where Sirius really shows that it is staffed by radio employees instead of new media pioneers.
As far as audio quality, they're both not so hot if you're a serious music enthusiast, IMO. XM is better and like Nick mentioned, will allocate more bandwidth to channels when necessary. They all still sound pretty tinny to me, though, when I listen at home. Sirius sounds just awful at home. I believe the highest bandwidth they allocate is 96k per second.
That's the setting I use on my VOIP phone. :-\
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The thing with the music channels that doesn't bother me, and honestly I see it as advantageous for my tastes really, is that I'm not a huge music buff... I like what I like, but I don't delve into it a lot. I've heard the same things about XM/Sirius though Jared so your opinion pretty much solidifies the things I've heard too but just never really known about...
For me that is ok though because, as I said, I'm just not that into music to really want to hear the obscurity in all genres of music... The "hits of" are fine for me for the most part... I hear some stuff I know I didn't hear on the local radio stations too on some of the Sirius channels so I am sure I'm still getting something better than regular radio, but I think if there was tons of obscure music I'm not sure I'd be happy... Flipping channels more and more.
The gift of Satellite is one of my favorite X-Mas gifts in a long time... I had wanted it but wasn't gonna shell the money out for the hook-up simply because I didn't think it was something I'd need, but as the time came for Stern to go I was sorta griping more and more and got one then as a gift... I'm happy I griped and got one. ;)
I gotta do some streaming of the show now that I can... I am the kind that is lazy about new features on stuff and just don't look into them... I have to take advantage of everything that's offered though I think. Get off my duff on it.
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As far as audio quality, they're both not so hot if you're a serious music enthusiast, IMO. XM is better and like Nick mentioned, will allocate more bandwidth to channels when necessary. They all still sound pretty tinny to me, though, when I listen at home. Sirius sounds just awful at home. I believe the highest bandwidth they allocate is 96k per second.
That's the setting I use on my VOIP phone. :-\
Audio quality is eventually going to matter a lot more to satellite radio subscribers. Why? Well, competition is on the way. Terrestrial stations are delving into HD radio now. I don't know the ins and outs of the technology, but it sounds like the stations are broadcasting multiple, narrower bandwidth digital signals. But now you need a radio capable of tuning these stations. This technology is in it's infancy right now, and it's going to take a major push by both broadcasters and consumer electronics companies for it to take off.
And then there's surround sound radio. This is starting to take off in Europe and Korea, and you're actually receiving a Dolby 5.1 signal with your radio. The end result is surround sound quality in your car! But again, it all depends on what the market can bear.
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For those who haven't been into checking out Satellite Radio because of cost or those who just are curious about it a little, Sirius is having a free trial of Satellite for the next couple days via the net... You can check it out
RIGHT FRIGGIN' HERE (http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Page&cid=1018209032790) to sign up.
A couple friends of mine are going to check it out because they've been on the fence about it... It's been worth every penny I've paid for it though, I must say so it may be something you guys want to listen to, to see what's up with the service and stuff. It comes through well online too, I listen to it at home like this and leave my radio in my car most of the time now actually.
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Any new developments in the world of satellite radio lately?
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They're merging. SiriusXM.
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No ****?
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Thats been the word for some time, not sure how or when its going to happen though.
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The merger was just approved in the last day or so by the US government.
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What a serendipitous thread-bump this was!
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Almost....planned. ;)