u/Wrong-Jeweler-8034

It’s almost like they were planning a cookbook someday! I’d love to see all of these published including their tips and notes. I’d buy it!

In 2011 I was asked by a now defunct publication to write a piece about satellite radio. Long story but it never ended up published. Randomly stumbled upon it today and thought I’d share. It’s clearly not proofread and edited, so take it as it is.

I've worked in the rado broadcasting industry since I was 19 - I'm now 31. I'm a huge fan of satellite radio; always have been and the idea of having so many genres and formats available has always excited me about sat radio. 

Initially I had XM just months after it launched, and then for a while both services. I was a huge Stern fan in high school, but I ended up dropping Sirius just before his debut because after listening to the programing on both services, I was in love with the XM Sound. I wasn't thrilled that XM had already dropped On the Rocks, Special X, and even Luna, BUT they were still offering some things that I couldn't experience anyplace else, including Sirius.

Anyone who listened to XM in those early days knew how unique XM made things - the 40s on 4, 50s on 5, Fungus, Lucy, XMX, Cinemagic… the list can go on and on. The microchannels? They always were awesome (except maybe Car-B-Q) and timely. Igor was the best Halloween channel ever, and I say that as a Halloween hater! I was always excited to see what channel they'd do next and even more excited to experience it. XM created an experience. Sirius was just status quo radio. 

The 60s on 6 was AMAZING. Stunning. Spectacular. For someone in their 20s to be able to hear something that was so close to 1960s pop radio happening NOW was the sort of quality that made XM great. Sonic Salutes? GENIUS! I could share a part of my parents youth years in my own youth. 

The seven note XM indent - that was great too. XM was great at branding, and they created an audio brand logo. Everything XM did went beyond the liners. There was excitement about XM, passion you could hear. XM did a great job on the channels with no DJs at creating that experience as they did on the channels with the DJs. (Personally I find many of the current DJs are quite annoying because they just talk at you). 60s on 6 was an experience because their DJs put on a PERFORMANCE. 40s on 4 did mock news updates and jukebox spin countdowns. On the Rocks had 'instructional' audio for having a better golf game or what to do if the bomb falls. Special X… well that was an audio adventure. Lucy had the live Saturday night show with Bill Hutton, a truly talented man. Whatever XM did, they made it an experience, DJs or not. 

And then it ended.

Granted the combined companies weren't as bad as Sirius alone, nor as unique as XM, they have found a somewhat Sirius leaning middle ground. I used to always tell any friends that if they were considering the sat radio, that XM was for music fans and Sirius was for talk and entertainment. I wish they'd kept that in the merger because we did lose something truly remarkable when XM stopped being the XM in the evolution from AM to FM to XM.