steveo242

I hate commercials. That said, I have noticed on a few select XM channels, they are doing this thing where they say... "This hour brought to you buy so and so at so and so dot com".

Infuriated by the fact that I pay $ 13.00 per month and heard a commercial I wrote to XM and complained and threatened to discontinue service. Luckliy, they responded with the information that any channel with a "cm" in the info bar will have commercials, so at least I now know which channels to avoid.

The whole problem came to Clear Channel, who apparently got their hooks in Satellite Radio now as well.

Here is the response I got from XM:

Dear Steve,
Thank you for contacting XM Satellite Radio.

Recently XM Satellite Radio lost an arbitration with
a company called "Clear Channel" over the inclusion of
advertisements on some XM Satellite Radio channels. (Marked with "cm")
"Clear Channel" programs KISS, MIX, Nashville and
Sunny, will start to carry ads over the next
two months.The lack of song ID on these channels is temporary while
the display signal is reprogrammed to include
advertising information. We apologize for this unfortunate
turn of events. We have added more channels to try and
compensate our valued customers.

Just further proof Clear Channel is a real enemy...

movinlow

Interesting....guess that is why I don't pay for radio...

BigJoe

The Clear Channel business is just a red herring. They have had commericals for a loooong time. I listened to the comedy channels for a while and they had drug ads and ads for other things constantly. Also EVERY channel has ads about XM radio. You say they don't count? Sorry, an ad's an ad... I'll not renew, I'll not pay for ads and bad programming when I can get the same or better for free on FM or even AM if you like talk shows as I do...

steveo242

I fully understand talk, comedy and sports as having royalty and other rights to pay, but not music. Music should be safe from commercials.

That is how they have always advertised and it should stay safe for music.

not08crmanymore

XM and SIRIUS both have some commercials on certain CHANNELS.
Nascar channel you get commercials,but on deep tracks you get none.Depends on what you listen to.

AA2PR

Or will EVER
Remember when cable TV came to be ?? They told the same Lie.. commercial free..ha! I spend my TV time switching channels running from commercials, but i did manage to cut down on battery costs by buying rechargeable ones.

UberR32

I cancelled XM yesterday. They were supposed to bill be a reduced rate for 2 radios, and they didn't. And the icing on the cake, I had to wait on hold for an hour to cancel and request my refund.

With respect to the channels, the Fox News and CNN channels have always had ads.

[triumph the insult dog] I poop on your XM radio [/triumph]

double eagle

50s on 5 only has a few self promotions - will gladly take that over "free" FM whose MOs are commercials occasionally interrupted by music.

TheKomoman

XM and Sirius are two of the largest payers of royalties for music in the country, part of the RIAA's digital paranoia.

The music channels run by XM are free of commercials aside from XM promos and channel idents. Only the Clear Channel stations have commercials - those are easy to avoid, if it says "cm" after the station name, switch the station.

CMEPASU

I paid the $77.00/yr for XM on my wife's car because she enjoys it but I'm looking into an ipod setup on the Vette for myself.

TiVoManiac

Ya here's what happened (long time XM owner here)...

Clear Channel decided to flex it's muscle on some channels it was supplying to XM and require the commercials.

XM did so but also added similar commercial free channels for each of the clear channel ones. You just need to find the counter part. I think it's just like 6 channels don't panic.

tv_dir

Would you EVER go back to a three network only way of life?? (I'm old enough to remember them)
I live by the theory.....you get what you pay for.

PappyTinker

XM sent me letter offering to extend my 3 month trial subscription for another year a the rate of $12.95 per month. I wrote back to XM offering to pay $12.95 per YEAR because that was all it was worth to me. I wonder why I haven't heard back from them.

cg205

I agree, same thing happened to me. I'm glad to be XM free now.

One question, though. Is there any way to eliminate the 2 XM bands on the radio so you don't have to scroll through something you don't have in order to check the other FM and AM bands???

Gray Ghost

None of the XM channels that I listen to regularly (except baseball) carry commercials. I'm still happy with mine.

Landru

HA!!
Was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

Not unlike cable TV.
One pays to get the signal, pays to watch programming that's essentially an "informercial" & then has to watch what's tantamount to commercials inside of commercials.

Oh yea, and while we pay for the crap "program" quality & content continues to deteriorate with every passing week.

Lightning Coyote

You can find commercials on some DVD's and CD's also. Its like we just can't get away from them, which does not make me very happy.

BLUZ51

I thought there was a thread about this same thing a couple of weeks ago.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1407517

Also of note those channels that have commercials have a cm after the station ID. KISS.cm

xs650

The Nashville channel isn't showing cm in the display even though they have commercials.

DrivnXcitment

Only the most listened to stations seem to have commercials. I am F*#%ing sick of hearing about the F*$&ing Orek XL vacuum cleaner. The reason we pay for XM service is not for the stellar music (they play less of todays music than does regular radio), its for the lack of annoying commercials. I too am infuriated in case anyone can't tell.

Does Sirius have commercials on any stations??? Maybe we can figure out a way to get the "wart" on the cars used with a sirius system.