XM or Sirius

[PedroBourbon]

I prefer Sirius. It won't matter what you choose after the merger, but since MLB is a priority, go with XM.

[EddieMilner]

I have both Sirius and XM (Sirius for my car, XM on the family boat).
Sirius (in my opinion) has better programming. I find the music channels meet my preferences better than XM. Especially Left of Center, it may be the greatest music station ever created. Also, I am a Howard fan. And I can't live without Howard on the way to work.

I have XM, because there is nothing better on a hot Saturday in August than listening to the Reds and drinking a cold beer on a boat. And it works great for that. XM doesn't have both the home and away radio broadcast for baseball games (I don't understand why), so you will be listening to someone else rather than Marty (which some view as a benefit). Also, listening to Dibble's afternoon baseball show is really good.

So if you want it for baseball - go XM. If you want it for programming - I'd go with Sirius. But that is just my only opinion.

On another note, I think the length of time for the merger is the most ridiculous political bs to happen to this country. It shows how broke our political system is, when they can approve oil company mergers in less than a month but take over a year for a merger of two companies that are hemorrhaging money. Sorry, rant over.

[RedsBaron]

I bought a new car in February that came with 3 free months of XM; I liked it well enough that I kept it after the 3 months were up.

[RBA]

Also, if you are far from the WLW signal, XM carries WLW on channel 173 (minus the games). So you get great Reds coverage on XM. The games are on different channels and you don't always get the Reds broadcasters.

[KronoRed]

Originally Posted by RBA

The games are on different channels and you don't always get the Reds broadcasters.

I've found that to be a mega plus, MrsK will listen to the Reds with me when they are on the road now

[IslandRed]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

I've found that to be a mega plus, MrsK will listen to the Reds with me when they are on the road now

Regardless of people's opinions about our broadcasters, hearing the game called by some of the other greats around the league can be a real treat.

[goreds2]

Originally Posted by EddieMilner

XM doesn't have both the home and away radio broadcast for baseball games (I don't understand why),

BANDWIDTH my friend. (I hate it also.)

[LoganBuck]

My mother got a new car that has XM. She wants to get a portable player as well, because she likes it so much. What advice to you guys have about that? Any things to look for or watch out for?

[OldRightHander]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

My mother got a new car that has XM. She wants to get a portable player as well, because she likes it so much. What advice to you guys have about that? Any things to look for or watch out for?

I have the xm2go and I like it. I have it in the vehicle and then I have a home kit to hook it up in the house when I'm home. It charges when it's on the cradle so you can unhook it and plug headphones into it if you're out walking about.

[goreds2]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

My mother got a new car that has XM. She wants to get a portable player as well, because she likes it so much. What advice to you guys have about that? Any things to look for or watch out for?

Do you mean a portable that records? I have the older MyFi XM2GO receiver (actually tow of them). They are hard to find now. I have heard the XM INNO is a great portable. Here are some great deals on radios.

http://www.myradiostore.com/

[bucksfan]

We initially got "hooked" on XM when it came as a free trial in my wife's new Honda. We even bought a home unit. Then they took away our far-and-away favorite station (X-country) and the DJs we hear now on some of the stations (especially our former favorite) are ridiculous. And now they are saying we will no longer be able to listen free on-line in conjunction with our single subscription (which was one of the selling points to us originally).

We cancelled our 2nd unit. We'll probably keep the car subscription since it is still better than our normal OTA radio, but we have changed from enthralled to borderline disenchanted since the merger.

[mth123]

I love XM for the baseball content (most of the music you get on there can be found over the air) and prefer any baseball content to going without (though Dibble and Kennedy have spurred me to turn to music on the drive home many times). Not sure if its just me, but the baseball channel has really taken a dive since the merger. They've filled the air with new hosts who seem to think that New York is the only place that has a team. The other guys could be lame, but the information was superior and much more balanced. Now we have three or four guys who are all obvious New York guys (especially on the week-end) and the entire day is filled with nothing but Yankee's talk. Even when its not about the Yankee's the discussion gets back around to it. I thought the old hosts were mediocre, but deliver me from Casey Stern, Jody McDonald and Ed Randall.

What happened to Buck Martinez? Joe Castellano and Holden Kushner can both get a little annoying, but they seem to be the only ones with a somewhat informed and objective opinion on what's going on these days. I do like Minors and Majors on Saturday morning, but they cut it to one hour so Ed Randall can get more time. Yuck.

[bucksfan]

Originally Posted by mth123

I love XM for the baseball content (most of the music you get on there can be found over the air) ....

I have not found a lot of the XM-type music on normal OTA radio, but I agree it certainly it is available on many many streamed internet radio stations. That is the other reason for cancelling our home XM subscription. Since I got my Squeezebox Duet up and running, we can play any of thousands of streamed stations through our home stereo via a simple handheld remote. It is really sweet. Nothing like listeing to some folk station from Prague to change things up a bit.

Unfortunately I don't get the "sports benefit" of XM as it is in my wife's car, so rarely would I force baseball talk on her in her vehicle. And we get 700 for Reds games anyways so I'm good there. There are still good stations on XM but elimination of X-country and some of the other stuff previously mentioned makes it certain I won't have more than the one subscription unless something changes drastically.

[wolfboy]

Originally Posted by bucksfan

We initially got "hooked" on XM when it came as a free trial in my wife's new Honda. We even bought a home unit. Then they took away our far-and-away favorite station (X-country) and the DJs we hear now on some of the stations (especially our former favorite) are ridiculous. And now they are saying we will no longer be able to listen free on-line in conjunction with our single subscription (which was one of the selling points to us originally).

We cancelled our 2nd unit. We'll probably keep the car subscription since it is still better than our normal OTA radio, but we have changed from enthralled to borderline disenchanted since the merger.

We're in the exact same boat. We loved XM when we first bought it (car unit). Later, we added the home unit. Since the station merge, I can't stand it. The DJs are obnoxious, they play the same songs over and over (can't I get that OTA?), and the playlists are unoriginal.

We also canceled the home unit. We've hung on to the car unit since it's still nice for road trips. If they decide to get aggressive with their rates, it will be an easy decision to dump the car unit as well.

[Sea Ray]

What kind of trouble is XM/Sirius in these days? Their stock price is about 14 cents a share. You can buy a thousand shares for a little over 100 bucks.