DirecTV adds XM Radio programming

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Rudy

¡Que siga la fiesta!
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Just found out that DirecTV will be dropping the Music Choice channels in favor of some of XM Radio's channels to their Total Choice and higher programming packages, at no additional cost. Total Choice subscribers will get 65 channels, with additional channels added to bigger DirecTV programming packages. From the channel lineup I've seen, most of XM's best music channels will be featured on DirecTV.
 
I got a notice on this but hadn't paid much attention to it because we don't sell satellite dishes here. If they're adding 65 channels, that'd be pretty much all of the XM music channels. I haven't counted them up lately, but that's around how many there are in total.

This is great news because I have a friend who's a Sirius freak and he's always going on about how cool it is that Sirius's music channels come in over the Dish Network. hee hee Always great to have another "weapon" in my ongoing good-natured arguments with him over which sat-radio is better.
 
Mike, here's the channel lineup I saw--some are left out, but it looks like the ones I listen to regularly are in there;

http://www.dbsinfo.us/DirecTV_XM.xml

It's odd they put in XM83 but not XM64 ("The Groove") into the basic package...but I am a Total Choice Plus subscriber. Since I don't have XM in the car, it is tempting to deactivate my XM receiver and just pay $5/month extra to have a DirecTV receiver in the audio systems.

I've heard a few compare Sirius to XM, and I've heard the DJs on the XM stations are better (less like the "talking heads" on Sirius, IOW). I know the XM DJs are radio veterans which, IMHO, really helps. I'm a big fan of XM5 ("50s on 5"), and their DJs have encyclopedic knowledge of the music they play.

XM hopes that people will like the music channels enough to subscribe to the XM service on portables or car systems. I sort of liked the Music Choice channels, but they played on loops and repeated quite a bit of music. XM repeats also, but not as regularly and predictably as Music Choice did.
 
I've heard a few compare Sirius to XM, and I've heard the DJs on the XM stations are better

Funny, that's one of the things my friend likes better about Sirius -- he says their DJs are better. Each to his own, I guess.

The most common complaint I hear about XM is, they don't have a "classic hit singles" station that plays 1975-1990 rock & roll. They have Top Tracks (46), but it plays too much older stuff and long songs like the full length of Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do." They need a station that's totally focused on the three-minute rock singles (not album versions) from '75 to '90 and then I think everyone would be happy.

My favorite channels are:

7 - The 70s on 7
22 - Mix
40 - Deep Tracks
45 - XM Cafe
46 - Top Tracks
50 - The Loft
150 & 151 - Comedy channels
165 - Ask (I really enjoy listening to Bruce Williams)
and Fine Tuning, wherever that is now.
 
One of the opinions I heard were that the Sirius DJs were more like the fast-talking "loudmouth" types we have on the air today who try to be "buddy buddy" with the listener but don't really know the music. IOW, one of the thing I disliked about many of today's DJs.

My own favorites:

5 - 50s on 5
83 - Chrome (dance/disco)
64 - The Groove (R&B from the mid 70s to mid 80s)
73 - Frank's Place
71 - Watercolors
216 - Detroit weather & traffic

The newest channel guide is here:

http://www.xmradio.com/pdf/channel_guide.pdf
 
I forgot 71, Watercolors. I like that one too, although I don't think it'd be desert-island material for me.
 
Mike Blakesley said:
I forgot 71, Watercolors. I like that one too, although I don't think it'd be desert-island material for me.

Me neither. I use it when I want something a little more calm than "50s on 5". Frank's Place also works for that, but it is more in an instrumental/pop vocal mood than Watercolors (which is contemporary jazz).

I like some of the special programming on the 50s channel, like Rockabilly Road Trip, Harlem (early R&B), Pink & Black Days, etc. Good way to hear lesser known tunes and learn more about the influences on all the later music we listen to.

I think "It" is playing right now, isnt' it? That is where they do a countdown across the Decades channels, playing all the most popular songs, starting on the 40s channel and working up through the 90s.
 
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