Sirius Radio

[DonaldsRump]

Hi All:

(Hope I'm posting in the right place. I couldn't figure out where else this goes).

I used to love Sirius radio in the car, listening to CNN etc.

However, these days, I'm getting a bit fed up with ads for underwear, tax audit advisors, health issues/supplements, accounting software, hair coloring, etc. The ads come very frequently and are frankly irritating. This may be an issue with Sirius, CNN, or both.

A few questions about Sirius programming and advertisements, as well as possible automobile alternatives to Sirius:

1) Is there any other way to get CNN on the car radio? I guess I could stream CNN through my ISP, but I would hope there is a better way.

2) Are the ads running on Sirius targeted to individuals? For example, I hear on occasion an ad for law firm accounting and billing on CNN, and I happen to be a lawyer. It strikes me that this is such a niche market that surely the advertiser is not running a general advertisement about law firm practice software.

3) For those familiar with Sirius, are there better stations than CNN to get a real sense of what's going on?

4) More generally, are there any alternatives to Sirius?

All guidance welcome.

Thank you!

[TomSlick]

1. I went to some expense and hassle to have Sirius in my truck.

I spend a lot of time on the road for work and enjoy listening to MSNBC all hours of the day or night.

I have come to accept the Sirius ads that play instead of the MSNBC ads. I hear the same ads over and over again but on balance, ads are ads.

[kennetha]

2. I like Sirius

But they killed the Insight Channel that used to play my favorite radio show ... bummer. They decided the channel was a hodgepodge with no coherence.

[customerserviceguy]

3. Being as SiriusXM

knows exactly which radio is turned on at any moment, and they know at least the name and address of the person owning that radio, I suppose it would be possible for them to target ads to specific people.

The problem you have with CNN is that it is advertising-supported programming. Your local cable company has blocks of time on CNN (and every other channel) that they can sell to local advertisers. SiriusXM uses those blocks to stream it's own advertisers.

I'd say that the vast majority of CNN consumers view it on TV, meaning that those who follow CNN in other ways are a less desirable audience for those hawking goods or services, and thus, the ad prices are cheaper, attracting the fringe of those who pay for advertising. That's why you get ads for things like you do.

[kennetha]

5. Not true actually. Sirius is a "one-way" technology.

They have no idea who is listening when or for how long or for what length of time.

They are not ratings driven but subscriber driven.

By the way, the only run commercials on their talk stations. their music stations are completely ad free.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Good to know!

I have suspicions about technology that are sometimes not founded on solid ground. In any case, the best strategy is to be resistant to advertising.

And, it is great that the music channels are indeed ad-free!

[Fla Dem]

4. I pretty much exclusively listen to MSNBC. But if there is someone on that I don't care for....

Last edited Mon Nov 25, 2019, 03:48 PM - Edit history (1)

I'll switch to another channel; CNN, Bloomberg, POTUS. They all have basically the same commercials. Tommy John underwear seems to be the one that is most prevalent right now. But wait a month and it'll be Madison Reed hair coloring, Roka Glasses, Dinovite Dog Food, Blink Door Camera or some other commercial. The music channels don't have as many. The News channels do because they're streaming live TV content so when the live channel breaks for commercials, the Sirius channel has to break too. Just the price you have to pay to listen to live TV over Sirius.

[NJCher]

6. mute or lower the volume

Then turn it back up when programming resumes.That's what I do with commercial tv. I never watch or listen to ads.

You won't have the visual cue that programming has resumed with radio, but what you learn after doing this for a while is that all the commercial breaks are pre-defined times. They don't vary unless there's breaking news or some other type of special circumstance. You learn, for example, that on the half hour it's "X" number of commercial minutes. Other times are 60" or 90". Once you get this down, it's a snap. I would rather listen to silence than somebody hawking underwear.

You can wear a headphone or earbuds that has a mute button on it so all you have to do is touch the button on the cord to mute it.

The other thing you can do is pull the headphone down on your neck. You can barely hear the commercial this way but you do know when programming resumes, so you pull the headphone back up.

I used to write and produce television commercials, which is why I do it. I know how commercials work, and that's why I won't listen to them--that and the fact that I detest commercialism and materialism in general and want no part of it.

Another option is podcasts, but I gather you want your info as it happens. However, Rachel has a podcast and so do a lot of the other shows. Here's a link:

https://www.msnbc.com/podcasts-and-newsletters

Cher

[rurallib]

7. Ch. 127 is left wing radio. Ch. 126 is Urban view

both are very good. Those are my main stations.
127 has Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Michaelangelo Signoreli, Dean Obedala and John Fugelsang.
126 has Karen Hunter, Joe Madison and I can't remember who else.

MSNBC has waaaay too many commercials. Didn't even know CNN was on Sirius.

When commercials come on I change the station.

We also have a couple of Canadian radio stations on to get their version of news plus a couple of public radio stations

[Roland99]

8. I just switch between 118, 116, and even Faux for a laugh

If they’re all on commercial I go for some new tunes on 36