I know this may be a bit off topic, but with the tuners selling out so quickly, has anyone looked into getting an XM radio tuner? With the aux inputs that the empeg has, it seems like adding an xm would be pretty easy. Only one I know of is the sony one, and the appearance of that just doesn't work for me. Anyone know of others?

Pioneer makes one, aiwa makes one (i think), and I think sony does as well. It would be a great idea if you could have your own channel to stream your own music but your forced to listen to thier stations. Plus having to pay $200 or so just for the reciever and then having to pay $10 a month for service is rediculous to me. The only way i'd be cought dead paying for it is if i got to stream my own music as i listed above.

-Greg

For me, XM wouldn't replace local stations. Two local NPR outlets (double your chances of catching Car Talk!) and a decent "alternative" station (KEXP, formerly KCMU). Also, the more I thought about it, the more I got nervous about yet another cultural McDonalds. Things are already bad enough WRT corporate-driven radio programming; XM would have you believe it will make that better, but I'm not so sure.

The last nail in the coffin: $10 per month and I get to listen to *commercials*? Uh uh.

Yeah ive heard people saying there won't be commercials. Yeah Right!

When last I looked, XM's Web site said that there would be *some* channels without commercials, but I think fewer than half.

Initially, there weren't going to be any commercials, but now only some of the stations are commercial free. But even the commercial stations will have far fewer commercials than FM radio.

FM radio blows. I don't miss it at all. I wouldn't install a tuner if it was free. 80% or so of all the FM stations are owned by 3 companies. That is why they are all the same. FM makes me vomit. The only thing I do miss is NPR, but I am on the internet all day at work, so I just catch up on current affairs that way. I used to download technology news from... ZDNet I think, and listen to that too.

I actually think XM and Sirus radio is going to be cool if it is anything like the music stations I get with DirecTV. They play tons of stuff I have never heard. I don't think I have ever heard a song twice. In fact, I've discovered new bands this way. And once you are used to digital quality of the empeg, you don't want FM. And it is nice to have a "Seasonal" station for when the folks are over and want to hear Christmas music I would never buy (same goes for "soft rock") etc.

SE_Sport_Driver: FM radio blows. I don't miss it at all. I wouldn't install a tuner if it was free.

Well, I can't say I disagree with your assessment WRT FM. Isn't there *one* underpowered, underfunded college station in Detroit, though, that makes you want a tuner???

I should keep your more positive assessment of XM in mind and not be such a grump. I briefly had DMX with my cable about 7 years ago and it was nice to have. Even with repeats, I was exposed to some new stuff, and it was great to be able to retrieve artist/title info off the remote.

I guess I'm a prisoner of nostalgia. One of the great things about driving cross-country *used* to be twirling the dial to tune in local oddities. Not many of them left. I don't think it's just the U.S. I've driven across France a few times in the past decade and it seems like more and more spots on the dial are consumed by conglomerate programming like "Energie!"

Apparently one of the two sattelite radio providers (I think it was Sirius) is going to be *totally* commercial free, with a higher monthly fee ($12.95 or thereabouts.) Of course that also happens to be the one provider that doesn't yet have any markets up and running (as of the last time I read about it.)

I wouldn't even pay $9.95 a month for totally commercial free radio, but I am sure there are people who would. I see it as a niche market until the monthly fee goes down.

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I see it as a niche market until the monthly fee goes down.

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Yeah, right. Like CD's were supposed to go down.

I never subscribed to it so I cannot say for sure.. but you bring up a good point or two.

Regular radio stations in the US were 'deregulated' a few years ago. There used to be a law that said a company could only own two or three stations at most in any radio market. The bad thing about that was it suppressed the 'democratic idea' .. in other words, if I can afford to buy a station then why shouldn't I be allowed to. So the law was lifted. Enter Infinity Broadcasting, and some others, and they scooped up all the radio stations. Now the markets are flooded with stations that all sound and act the same. Gone is all the flavor of local shows, the 'screw you' attitudes of a lot of the once independant stations.

I had hoped that XM would not be this way, that they could string together a list of the more rebel radio stations of the past. I would pay the ten bucks a month to have radio the way it used to be instead of the corporate conglomerate that it is today. As far as paying $200 for the tuner.. may I remind you all that we have already spent what others would deem way too much for something equal (in their eyes) to a CD changer?

But this is mute, if XM is just an extension of the few individuals a thousand miles away from me telling me what I can listen to.

Sometimes, big business sucks.. and this is my favorite classic example of just that. They took a once thriving colorful industry and now its all washed out, and plain vanilla.

Even though I own a tuner for my player, I still rarely use it. I have all the benefits of XM now. No commercials, and coast to coast music without having to change stations. And, no monthly fee.

Yeah, Infinity Broadcasting and Clear Channel Communications have ruined radio. Payola is alive and well in 2002. Good thing we Empeg owners all have our own independent "stations" broadcasting in our own cars.

Dont the FCC or the RIAA hear you say that. The next thing you know we will have to pay royalties or get special licenses to operate our mobile personal radio station.

Yeah, Infinity Broadcasting and Clear Channel Communications have ruined radio

I think not.

I work for a group of four radio stations currently owned by Clear Channel. Clear Channel is the fourth owner of this group of stations in the last six years, and I can assure you that our programming did not change one little bit during *any* of the different ownerships.

We have total control over our formats and the music/news/information that we air. Nobody tells us what to play or when to play it. If Clear Channel radio stations in your area have "ruined radio" it is not due to any policies implemented by Clear Channel Communications!

That is not to say that we do not program in such a fashion as to give us the greatest possible market share of listeners on each of the stations, and in fact each of the four stations is dominant in its demographic group.

Perhaps if we did not have the pressure from "corporate" to produce maximum revenue, the programming would be different, but I doubt it. A radio station is a business, and as with any business the reason for existance is to make a profit. We don't arrange our programming to suit what any employee (or corporate big-wig) wants to hear; rather it is our best determination of what the majority of listeners want to hear. And if the majority of people are happy with what we play, then we must be doing something right.

tanstaafl.

I have to agree with Doug. Radio stations have all sounded the same to me for decades now.

I don't think it's the fault of any specific corporate conglomerates, just the corporate profit mentality. I will admit, in some cases, that mentality doesn't appear until after a large company buys a smaller one, but in general, all the radio stations sounded the same to me for a long time anyway.

Every town has always had the same AOR and Country stations. The AOR stations always have the same playlists, they're K-Zeppelin and K-Credence all the time. I never understood why, but that hasn't changed since I was in high school.

I somewhat agree with your comment that the programming of the stations hasn't changed. Here in San Diego we have a hard rock station that's now owned by Clear Channel (I don't think it was before). Nothing has really changed with them. The stuff they get away with amazes me. They play or say the F word quite a bit, and they're always talking about sex.

However, I do think that the law has ruined the diversity of the radio stations as well as killed the independent radio station. There used to be some great independent stations down here in San Diego. If you wanted to listen to a certain type of music, you even had a choice of stations. But, when they passed that law, all the big groups like Infinity and Clear Channel went and bought up their competitors and put them out of business. They changed their format to something that didn't already exist. So, we now have a station for every genre/demographic. If you're a Gen-X'er/Alternative listener, you listen to 91X. If you want Dance/Top 40, you listen to 93.3. You want Hard Rock, you listen to 105.3. You want Rap, you listen to 90.3. And they're ALL owned by Clear Channel!

What I wouldn't give for a station that actually played more than one genre. Well, I take that back. The one guy that has actually been responsible for the independent stations here in San Diego (before he was bought up by Clear Channel and fired...twice) recently started another "alternative" station. They play quite a diverse selection of music, including things you won't hear on any other station.

Here's their webpage:
http://www.independent.fm/

I am not so blind to think that a radio station should not play what a majority of people want to hear. That is obviously the intent, not only because of the advertising dollars, but because it makes no sense to play music nobody wants to hear.

However, radio stations have rotations of songs that *MUST* be played, and you cannot possibly tell me that the people who make those rotations have total free reign on what they play. I'm not saying that the program directors and jocks at the stations are puppets to the conglomerate, be it your beloved Clear Channel, Infinity, or whomever. What I am saying is that simply by virtue of being connected to the conglomerate, and having to answer to that company's direction, they do NOT have free reign.

I don't have any direct evidence that there is payola in the music industry right now. But clearly there is nervousness in the FCC. I had these three articles marked in my headline client from back when this first came up. I just reread them, and there is clearly some suspicious activity going on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23996-2002May28.html

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/2020/2020_payola_020524.html

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/03/14/payola/index.html

Is it direct pay-for-play? Maybe not. Clearly, you're of the mind that your group of stations has been unaffected, and I will defer to your advanced knowledge on the subject. But there are questions about other markets, and legitimate concerns about one entity controlling radio. No offense to you or any of our other friends up there in Alaska, but it's not DC, New York, or LA, and the same rules might not apply. I didn't say that Clear Channel enforces their will unilaterally, I just said that based on what I've read, it seems the big radio powerhouses have some questions to answer, and in my opinion, it's ruining radio.

Look, I know everybody hates the big guy and roots for the underdog. I might look like I'm piling on here. But this issue struck me enough back in March to look into it further, and having looked around, I think there is at least a grain of truth, and the government seems to think so too.

Just because I saw it in the news doesn't mean it's happening, but just because you aren't seeing it at your stations doesn't mean it's not happening, either. That's probably the one statement I've made so far that you'll agree with, and I guess we'll let the regulatory bodies to their work.

Just because I saw it in the news doesn't mean it's happening, but just because you aren't seeing it at your stations doesn't mean it's not happening, either.

Very well said, Tony.

tanstaafl.

Two guys I know who were both DJs at a Clear Channel station here in San Diego (one is still there, the other is at another station) have both told me that there is definitely payola in the radio industry. They said that many times the station was given "priveleges" or "special treatment" for playing certain songs. That's just wrong.

I also agree with Tony regarding how the stations are programmed. You call up a station and request a song and they tell you they can't play it because it's not in their current playlist. Yet they'll play some new song once an hour. I even faxed in my requests once during the "all request lunch", and they pick one person's choices to play during the hour and win a prize. Well, they picked mine, and when the DJ called me back, they asked if I could choose a different Oingo Boingo song because mine wasn't "popular" enough. They also told me they wouldn't play another band I requested because they weren't "popular" enough.

And people wonder why I don't listen to radio anymore.

and they tell you they can't play it because it's not in their current playlist.

This may be just a misunderstanding about what the "playlist" is.

Depending on the format of the station (i.e., Country, Soft Rock, etc.) the radio station will only have a small selection of music physically on hand (small compared to the literally mega-hours of music that exists in the world -- or in Paul Grzelak's empeg, for that matter.) When they said it wasn't on their playlist, they may well have meant that they literally did not have that song in their posession to play it.

In any case, the decision would have been made by the local program director, not by some evil corporate director in his penthouse suite in Austin, Texas, madly laughing Whuuaaaa haaaa haaa because he has made certain that nobody listening to any of his thousands of stations is going to hear anything good.

tanstaafl.

"We have total control over our formats and the music/news/information that we air. Nobody tells us what to play or when to play it. If Clear Channel radio stations in your area have "ruined radio" it is not due to any policies implemented by Clear Channel Communications! "

I did not mean to single out any one corporation in particular. my original comments were directed to big business in general. While I respect your comments I still disagree. When big business moved in, the smaller local flavors were snuffed out.

"That is not to say that we do not program in such a fashion as to give us the greatest possible market share of listeners on each of the stations, and in fact each of the four stations is dominant in its demographic group. "

Fine with me. If I owned a radio station I would not want anyone telling me what to play. However, I am willing to bet that the stations in the market you mention once played a wider variety of songs before they were bought out. Just a guess, I have no way of knowing.. but thats the way it went here in the Dallas market. In my humble opinion.

I can tell you that the playlist of my favorite station here has changed. They post it on their website for all to see. Its not like it was in the good ol days.

"Perhaps if we did not have the pressure from "corporate" to produce maximum revenue, the programming would be different, but I doubt it. A radio station is a business, and as with any business the reason for existance is to make a profit. We don't arrange our programming to suit what any employee (or corporate big-wig) wants to hear; rather it is our best determination of what the majority of listeners want to hear. And if the majority of people are happy with what we play, then we must be doing something right. "

Every company is out to make a proffit. It just sucks that sometimes some values are compromised for the all mighty dollar. Programming is for the masses and not for me anymore. Maybe I am just a minority now

This entire thread continues and no one's made mention of the stunning audio clarity (better stereo imaging than FM), Genre grouping, the ability to see who's singing what whenever, etc. These are features that I wouldn't ever want to give up anymore when listening to radio. The diversity of all the channels and the lack of censorship is another driver for me. While the business mentality may have taken over some FM radio and made it poor, I think the business mentality has take XM and made it good, assuming they can keep it that way. The subscriber's kit comes with a card with commercial-free stations highlighted, there's a good deal of them. I don't know the ratio. Previously, the only place to get certain programming *I* liked was at certain times of the day on AM stations. Now, channels like 76 (Frank's Place) play late 50's era music round the clock, and the decades stations do as well.

I think XM is a very, very good thing.

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Good thing we Empeg owners all have our own independent "stations" broadcasting in our own cars.

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Yeah, good point. I run my own digital radio station via the S/PDIF output on my RioCar and computer connected to a video transmitter/receiver system. Works well for short distances of about 10 feet. Anyway, it beats running interconnects across the carpet and really adds to the "wow" factor.

Stu