don't complain to Sirius about losing AAR

[pstokely]

but do complain to them about not filling channel 144 with anything new

[Peace Patriot]

1. What do you mean "losing AAR"? Please explain. n/t

[Born Free]

2. I disagree, drop Sirius

It's a dog eat dog world, when Sirius dropped Air America, it is time to decide how important Air America is to you. We called and canceled and reminded the people at Sirius we only switched from XM to Sirius to get ALL of Air America. Now you can buy into the spin that this was all a plan of Air America because XM wanted them soooo much they paid an ungodly amount for exclusive rights, but that doesn't fit with the past history of XM only airing part of Air America. As I posted before - neither XM nor Sirius has any idea how many customers listen to any particular channel , it's all a guesses game, and the right wingers at Sirius are betting no one will care if Sirius no longer has Air America. Unfortunately, the more (former) Air America listeners on Sirius turn against AAR rather than support Air America, the more the right wingers win the argument. Personally; Sirius knows how we feel and we talked with our wallets - the language they understand.

[ET Awful]

3. Actually they both have the ability to track who listens to what

everytime you change channels, it renegotiates the connection with the satellite which authenticates your receiver as being authorized to receive or not. They know what channel you tune into at any time.

[pstokely]

5. how?

I thought it was a one-way transmission

[Born Free]

6. he is suggesting each receiver is also a transmitter

[pstokely]

7. can it be used like a GPS to track you?

[Born Free]

9. NO

[Born Free]

8. The party of spineless democrats

I often complain about our elected spineless democrats because they always accept defeat and live with the consequences rather than fight back for what they know is right, but they are no different than many of those now advocating giving up on Air America. Can you imagine what the right wingers would do in the same situation? That is where the difference is, and this is why the majority of Americans trust security issues more to the right as opposed to the left. The general perception is the "left" would quickly adapt to any occupation, whereas the "right" would fight back even if they knew all was lost. Some times it hurts to fight back, yes it's a financial hit but if you want to make sure you view is taken seriously you must be willing to risk the financial loss.

[ET Awful]

10. Not exactly. It doesn't transmit so much as it just tries to tune in

the stream.

Edit: I should add that this is how it was explained to me. I could be wrong, but this is how I was told it works.

[Born Free]

13. more like a digital squelch control

The satelite sends a "hit" , a digital signal that opens the squelch, allowing the receiver to receive the signals. Under normal circumstances it stays open until another digital signal closes it. XM has a nice feature that you can call and have another "hit" sent to your reciever. It's not like a cell phone that communicates back and forth. As I posted previously they have no way of knowing what you are listening to, any more thant satelitite tv knows what you are watching unless your reciever phones in - individuals that use pirated satelite don't hook up phone lines to their recievers.

[pstokely]

4. I'm waiting to see what Sirius does with 144

and if XM will carry the full AAR lineup

[tritsofme]

11. Stern dwarfs any overwhelming attraction to Sirius that might have been

caused by AAR.

I got Sirius mostly for Howard, but the music stations have grown on me.

I find I hardly ever listen to talk on Sirius, even when AAR was still there.

Whatever number of subscribers they lose because of AAR will be dwarfed by the number of new people Howard brings with him.

[Born Free]

14. Sirius is betting you are right

They are betting everything on Howard Stern...

[ET Awful]

15. Stern and their sports licenses such as NASCAR, NFL, NBA, etc.

Hell, if you wanted a clue that Sirius wants the red-state crowd more than the blue-states, look no further than the NASCAR license :) (granted, there are a few blue-staters that like NASCAR, but nowhere near as many as there are rednec. . . I mean red-staters) :)

[KharmaTrain]

12. Is XM doing anything to lure AAR Listeners?

Although I've been involved with radio almost all my life, I have ZERO interest in owning a satellite radio. It's a matter of principal as I see how many people (great talents and good friends) who have lost careers thanks to the corporate destruction of radio. All of these forces that destroyed a creative industry I loved are now trying to take control of digital broadcasting through ownership of the satellites and technology thus the formats. With little to no real competition, they arbitrarily decided what you hear and what you don't...or do so with strictly financial interests in mind. Sorry, no sale here.

This AAR situation is a case in point. This was strictly a money deal and listeners be damned. Neither AAR or XM appears to have reached out to Sirius users to encourage them to switch and Sirius is slow to find any suitable replacement. Again, another reason, I won't own a satellite radio...way too much control by others over what I hear...and I'm gonna pay for this??? I have troubles enough with 700 worthless cable TV channels.

My suggestion first is to support any and all local AAR stations. Let the station and advertisers you listen...a purchase at a local advertiser with the mention you heard it on that station goes a long way...and then encourage those stations to bring on local Progressive voices (if they haven't already).

If you're not in an area where there's an AAR signal, the internet offers great options. Besides listening on your PC or laptop, there's a new generation of Internet Radio that work off of local and wide area wi-fi devices...that will pick up the AAR stream without any congestion. I have a Linksys Studio link...it cost about $130 or so at CompUSA and listen to AAR 24/7 on a little radio on my desk as well as my favorite Pacifica stations, KGO, BBC and a dozen college and public stations. The great thing is all you need to "subscribe" is an existing internet account and an access point.

Expect more changes ahead. Financially radio is in bad shape and the debt on these satellite networks pile up higher than the subscriptions are rolling in. I'm glad I'm long retired from any of that insanity.