THE JOE LIBERAL REVIEW OF
"SirusXM RADIO"
OK...so yeah yeah...I told everyone I'd never pay for radio. But here I am with a lifetime subscription and wouldn't live without it.
How did this happen?
as for me ..I became interested when I bought stock. I became interested about content and I was won over.
It's all about content and the alternative.
Remember when people took TV for granted...then "cable TV" came out? "Who the hell would PAY for something they get for free?"
Well that's before they took just about anything worth watching off "free TV". Cable TV companies are on the top of my list of biggest snakes in the universe but they've turned in to the only game in town.. and they know it.
I hope radio doesn't follow the same path but it looks like its going to with the lack of much interesting to listen to on free radio.
WHAT DID I GET?
I got the Sirius "STARMATE" receiver for the car. One extra car kit. One extra home kit. My radio comes to work (I drive a company car) and drives in my personal car. I rarely bring it inside the house. My subscription gives me "basic internet" listening with a computer but not the high quality internet that you have to pay extra for (Apps for the Iphones or Ipods will not work with basic) But I do have an aftermarket program for my Windows Mobile phone which keeps me attached to my hated T-mobile phone (for now)
Sound quality is great.... I do hate that its back to the AM days where you speed up and almost rear-end cars when you lose your signal under bridges.
As someone who works out of my car... my favorite feature is the "rewind/playback" option which lets you stretch out your listening by pausing and replaying things you missed when you were working away from the radio.
WHAT DO I LISTEN TO?
They have MANY music channels which pretty much cover everyone's interest.
My music listening time is mostly spent on:
"Coffee House"
- acoustic versions of good songs
"80's channel" - "Takeeeee On Meeeeeeeeeeee"
"SPA Channel" - new age stuff and nature sounds
( that makes me fall asleep when Im driving...If you see someone in the fast
lane doing 19MPH..its probably me and the SPA channel)
"The Bridge" - easy listening ..melow folk stuff
( JT , Eagles, Gordon lightfoot etc.)
My "talk show" listening time changed over the year but I'll list several shows and just give you my thoughts on them:
Howard Stern:
I used to listen to Howard Stern way
back when he was on afternoons on AM radio in New York. I followed him to
FM then finally to Sirius.
Sometimes his show gets "dull" and I stop listening for months at
a time but eventually I'm back to tuning in.
Right now, Ive been in one of those cycles where I haven't heard him in months...
but I will grieve the day he actually does leave.
Why? I guess because after listening to him talk about his private life 4 hours a day for over30 years, you get to know him better than you do your own family. And when he is still on the air.... even if you don't listen...its the same feeling as not visiting your uncle but knowing he's still there and just a phone call away.
Just my opinion but I think his show has lost a lot of humor.
Actually let me rephraise...his show has lost a lot of the humor that "I" like.
And I think I know the reason:
Howard is a VERY funny guy. Most comedians will think up a stand up act and play that act everywhere.... like a music album. Then a year later come up with a new "act". Howard has had to dream up funny stuff EVERY SINGLE MORNING through his whole career. As popular as he is... he is a VERY VERY underrated comedian.
Why do I think he's not funny now?
I think he's STILL very funny. but I think the difference is that in the OLD days...he did his own "bits" and made his own jokes and performed himself.
Now he has a staff of other people who do phony phone calls, come up with song parodys and comedy skits... and they rarely involve him. He's become more of a MC than a player. And I think that's why his show has lost the humor that "I' like. I'm not saying those guys aren't good at what they do....I'm saying that his staff's humor is less to my taste as Howard's humor. I wish he was more involved in it like the old days.
Oh well...
Other than Howard...I listen to SIRIUS LEFT
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By the way... you know what pisses me off? You know how the right wing has completely hijacked the flag and the notion of being patriotic? And you know how us on the left just let that happen and are even embarrassed to tell people we are liberals because we are labeled as hating our country? Well it's also carried over to Sirius radio. The political channel from the left is called "Sirius Left". The channel from the right is called "Sirius Patriot" Why is that? Who's idea is that? If I worked there I would be livid over that. I wonder if anyone ever addressed that BS? I know it seems like such a trivial issue but its the root of why us liberals never speak up...ever.
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I listen at work... so I only really hear from 9AM to about 5PM Monday to Friday
If I go out at night, I'll put on the feed from MSNBC or a music channel.
So I'll go backwards from 5PM
Ed Schultz
Ed is the left's version of Rush Limbaugh
minus the lies and spin.
While most liberals are putting you to sleep with stats and intelligent boring
snoring Al Gore -John Kerry debate....Ed gets you fired up. Makes you want
to take action. That is what is ALWAYS missing from the left.
There was a time when he was passed over by Air America Radio for Thom Hartmann and it started a war between AAR and Ed. I took Air America's side then because all I knew about Ed was what they were saying on AAR about him. They made the wrong decision and they bored everyone right out of their existence so maybe it worked out best for Ed.
There's more people out there that want things to change for the better.. 2008 proved that....they only need to stay active and not run out of energy. As long as Ed Shultz is out there fighting....we'll always have a place to re-charge.
Lynn Samuels
Lynn is one of those hosts that you
love or hate....
People either hate her because of her whiny grating Brooklyn accent turns
them off like a switch...or love her because they find her voice loveable
like a liberal "Edith Bunker" .... I admit I find her voice amusing...but
I don't judge her for her accent...
I'll be nice here....I don't care for the show for a couple reasons.
1 - I think part of her on air "character"
is playing a "uninformed wishy-washy lady who can't debate facts with
the other side and ends up playing dumb
(I hope its an act....otherwise ..yikes)
Anyway people tune in to the show and hear her hang up on right wingers she
could have debated or worse hear her lose debates she could have won if she
knew her topics.
2 - Her dislike of Obama is irrational.
If everyone thought like her, we would have Republicans in office for life.
I criticize Obama when it's warranted..And it is a LOT... She is still fighting
the 2008 primary for Hillary. She tells you Obama wasnt born here... like
the Teabaggers.... and that he's worse than Bush, which is INSANE. I agree
with some of her points about him but for her it's personal.
Lynn... the Primary is over.. Hillary accepted it... its over. Move on.
Her good points...
She has a great heart... she always means well..... she is a gifted "talker" and can make the most dull thing interesting.
Thom Hartmann
Where Ed Shultz is the guy you want at the rally to get your people off their butts....Thom is the guy you want at the podium on your side during a debate. He's a calm..always thinking...sometimes boring.... fact filled history lesson. You'll learn more about the political history of America from one week of the show then 4 years of American History class. His excitement level is very low but its his personality. Even when he yells....it's so non-motivating that it sounds fake.
The best thing he did for me is introduce me to Sen. Bernie Sanders when nobody outside of Vermont ever heard of him. He's on the show weekly and gives hope that not everyone in Congress is a crook.
anyway...
Thom Hartmann knows his shit.... If you listen to him you'll learn a lot.
Alex Bennett
Back when I was VERY young...my parents used to listen to WMCA 570AM radio...for all the talk shows. They loved all the mainstream talk shows that gave advice and some political discussion. They let me listen and I found most of it boring....and of course... I was like 8 years old.
But at night...there was this guy named Alex Bennett.... he came on when it was close to my bed time and I don't really remember anything about his show back then..I do remember that the show used to make me laugh. All I remember was that he was the funniest thing on the radio... and my parents HATED him.
In fact I was banned from listening to the show.
They'd say "Alex Bennett is a communist" "Listen to him....interviewing Timothy Leary....a DRUG ADDICT that is banned from the country!" "What a damn commie"
So I had to wait for bedtime and listen to a transistor radio under my pillow....
Funniest thing on the air till he left the station.....
I forgot about him completely....
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THEN
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This year when I took my hiatus from Howard Stern... I put on Sirius Left at 9AM and THERE HE WAS....
You know those movies where the kid gets kidnapped when he's 6 and then the cops find him when he's 16 and he's returned home and kinda remembers his old family but now has to re-discover them? Ummm.. this is nothing like that.
The Alex Bennett show is my favorite show on Sirius. Its just a few people sitting around talking and they all have fun and its fun to listen to. Very funny... Very informative... Very entertaining. You listen and become part of their family. They have a few "regular callers" that have become a part of the show as well.
Back when I was a little kid... Alex was the edgy radical type that I would bet everything was the inspiration for everything from Howard Stern to O&A to anyone that ever tried to be different on the radio. He gets way too little credit for this. Unlike Stern's show there are no "bits"... no crazy phone calls.... no song parodies.... There is just sitting around and a lot of friendly and very funny talk. Now that he's older, Alex has become VERY WISE and is essential listening for anyone who want's to know why we are where we are today and what is going to happen next.
And it's not just politics.... They just talk about whatever comes up... Food....medical stuff.....everything.....and it's always fun and interesting.
Best show on the radio.
I think the only beef I have with Alex is that he kinda paints "Liberals" with a broad brush and considers them as robotic democratic party following whimpy snobs that are all talk and no action and wont take a real stand for anything... I feel the same way about those people but I just think we differ when he calls them "liberals".
I guess its just different perspective of who he is talking about and our different definitions of the term "liberal". I am sickened by those people too but I never put them in a whole group and labeled them. I think if he ever read joeliberal.com, I hope he could get passed the site's name and what I call myself and see that what he brands as liberals are a very mixed bag of the people he resents AS WELL AS people that think exactly like he does. Im proud of the tag "liberal" but im not the liberal in his definition.
My definition of liberal is probably what an average Democrat would call a "leftist" or "socialist" but I just think liberal works for what I think I am... And nobody owned the Joeliberal.com domain name when I was looking for a website... so I'm stuck with the whole "liberal" thing for decades.
Haha... I'm defending myself against someone that will never know joeliberal.com exsists...and if he did come across this review...he'd have to know that I now have less readers than he has callers at 9AM in the morning... so this review isn't really like getting a Marconi Award.
Also want to mention an upcoming future star on the radio works on the Alex Bennett show. Christina Palumbo was the part time call screener for the show... when a co-host left the show, they gave her a mic and now she's a huge part of the show (while still screening calls). She's funny, interesting, Always in a good mood....and has the best radio voice I've heard on a woman ever....If I could buy stock in a person I'd bet the ranch that she'll have her own show some day and be mega popular. What ever they pay her now is not enough. They should take half of what they pay Robin Quivers for giggling for 5 hours a day and give it to Christina.
I'm also biased because after decades I think I found my "soul mate" when it comes to junk food! If there's ANY regulars left of Joeliberal.com...you know about me and crappy food... well.....She'll talk for an hour about JUNK FOOD! Burgers!! Pizza!! Everything...she's the female ME! I'll be driving and hear her talk about McDonalds and Big Macs and almost pull over and scream "Same HERE!!!" She loves what I love... she hates what I hate.....It's almost creepy.
Well that's about it for my SiriusXM review...
I still intend to one day get XM because Im missing that "Coast to Coast" show about UFOs and "nessie" etc... I think all the music channels are the same. So I'd be paying to hear one show.
I love the stations....I have yet to have to deal with customer service. I guess thats a good thing.
I'm no longer a stock holder because I had to cash it all in when I was taking care of Mom and my car died and I've been helping out someone with an addiction problem...and I needed money. I still need more..(thats another story)
I think they have a great future....
as long as the content stays there and I don't see any real competition anyway.
And like the scumbags at Comcast...
They can probably raise their rates CONSIDERABLY and still keep most of their listeners....
They've become the only game in town
For me at least.
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Opinions? got your own review of Sirius Radio? let me know.