Sirius

Stern stinks. Plus, he puts out a live show only three or four days a week now.

And who listens to the NFL on radio? Baseball, sure, but not NFL. Most people are at a bar or in front of the TV at home for NFL games. Do people just drive around on Sunday afternoons listening to the NFL on Sirius? Doubtful.

Baseball is a far better selling point for XM because there's games every night of the week.

 

I love my Sirius... and Stern... he's on Monday-Thursday for about five hours each day.

I have the S50 receiver and love it. If you spend any time in airports or on planes, you NEED to get either the S50 or the new Stiletto. The Stiletto is a lot more expensive (it just came out) but it looks awesome. You can get an S50 pretty cheap these days, I think.

 

Stern's show is the greatest... Sirius had 500K subscribers before they signed Stern and now they have more than six million. As someone else said, he's more than paid for himself.

I love Sirius. I go crazy without it. I got the Stiletto for Christmas and it's just fucking incredible...

 

The Visor also works in a boombox, although it's a different box than the Sportster uses because the receivers are made by different companies.

 

Stern is the reason I got Sirius. Stern's show now is funnier, more irreverent and more of a must-listen than it ever has been. And geez, the guy has set parameters, spawned imitators (O&A the most well-known of the bunch), and fought with the government and radio assholes for 25-plus years. In my estimation, he has earned a right to work a four-day week.

As far as the sports offered, I can agree that MLB would be a nice thing to have, but on a Sunday afternoon, if I am out and about, I have no problem listening to an NFL game, as I did Saturday night.

And then there's commercial-free music, unlike what can be found on XM.

 

Just got a 2005 Mazda 3 that is satellite ready (I think ... it has a SAT button on the deck). Anyone have experience with satellite-ready cars (such as where to find the ID number Sirius needs)? Mazda is among the many cars makers that have a deal with Sirius.

 

I don't think your 500k number is accurate, but he's clearly driven a lot of folks to Sirius. From today's NY Times:

 

I do like the unit's portability, but don't drop it on the ground. It is fragile. I am now on my second unit, which, unsurprisingly, I had to fix after another drop (born klutz I am), but a soldering iron came through for me.

 

I have had XM (MyFi which I use at home and portably) for about three years and my girlfriend has Sirius in her car. One thing I can't stand about Sirius is how they have live sporting events just sprinkled throughout the dial. XM has a chunk of consecutive channels for baseball, another for colleges, another for NHL, etc. Sirius is just a huge pain in the ass to search for games while driving.

 

Mazda is Ford. All the Ford brands are Sirius-only. Toyota and Nissan have deals with both XM and Sirius. The American half of DaimlerChrysler throws in a year's worth of Sirius for every satellite-ready Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep car or truck it sells.

As for your car, it may not have come with a satellite receiver preinstalled if you don't have it working already on some sort of a trial deal. You can probably have the dealer or a third-party installer put one in.

 

I might argue your argument. If the quote if from today's Times, "one year ago" suggests Jan. 2, 2006, where I'm sure he had a buildup of new subscriptions since his announcement date (where the 500K subscriber number probably originates).

 

Just b/c Howie says something doesn't make it true. Sirius has nothing close to 6 million listeners. Even if it did, do all 6 million listen exclusively to HOwie or subscribe to Sirius b/c of Howie. I can't find anything more recent but unless Sirius had a monumental year (their stock values would say otherwise) here's something close to the truth.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1393&CFID=2819713&CFTOKEN=53826299

From Feb. 22, 2006

Since announcing on October 6, 2004, that it had signed Howard Stern to a five-year deal, Sirius Satellite Radio has added approximately 2.7 million subscribers and become a household name in the satellite radio world. The tab: Close to $700 million.

I used to love Howie until he became tired old Howie. Opie and Anthony stole from Howie but revolutionized radio by becoming the largest broadcasters in the US and A. Howie is a commodore 64 and O&A are PS3. Howie couldn't hold Ron's cigar or Fez's jock.

Don't know about Sirius but XM's comedy station 150 is wonderful.