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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Sirius/XM yanks BBC Radio 1 - I've got a big problem, here

Ok, I have a bone to pick. It's a rather important bone (!), at least to me, so I figured I'd nix a music post today to talk about it. I'm not sure if any of you are Sirius/XM Satellite Radio subscribers in North America, but if you are--and if your tastes are anything like mine--you've probably realized that the company yanked BBC Radio 1 from their service last week without warning. It's been replaced by some lame disco station. This simply isn't gonna do.

You Brits may scoff, but Radio 1 is very important to me. In fact, it's why I bought the service in the first place. Having lived in England for awhile, it recalls pleasant memories. More than that, though, it makes all the European music I post on this blog real. What I mean by that is, it places it in a real-life context. I don't only like to listen to music for music's sake. I like to understand where it's popular and why. I'm a chart junky and (surprise, surprise) like to know what people are thinking about the latest songs. Given that my taste tends to tilt very heavily towards European stuff, Radio 1 is really the best way to do that. And even though I'm very well-versed in music from around the world, I've made more than one discovery from the channel.

Now, the company's striving to pacify its customers by offering the channel for streaming on their website (a bit laughable, since you can already stream it for free on the Radio 1 website and Sirius charges $2.99 for the privilege), but I don't listen to radio on the internet. I listen to it in my car. I want Radio 1 in my car. End of. I'm paying for it, after all.

I realize this rant won't apply to all of you, but if it does, there's a movement afoot to get the channel back on satellite radio in North America. Heck, even if you're a listener in England and believe us Americans/Canadians deserve access, visit the following link and join the campaign. Email them. Call. I'm serious! >:)

http://www.facebook.com/SaveRadio1inNorthAmerica

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love you!!! Thousands of us feel the same way!

5:00 PM  
Anonymous Sarbie said...

My sentiments exactly!!!

5:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm happy that classic dance and disco is back on Sirius/XM, but sorry they took away your favorite channel.

8:58 PM  
Anonymous gmisk said...

You Brits may scoff...I am Irish and I would scoff too :).
Much better english stations about like 6music.
But it is very cheeky of them to just take it off...and replace with a disco station?!?! DISCO! WHA?!

1:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great article, sums it up perfectly. Coupleof things to add, (1)the only way SiriusXM are going to listen is when people actually cancel their subscription, and say they are going to cancel their subscription! (2) For those of us who only listen to R1 in our car, and none of the other channels, would we pay a premium of $1 or $2/month to get R1 premium content in our cars? The issue may be BBc Worldwide are asking SiriusXM for too much money...

9:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saturday, 8/20, a day after Radio One was supposed
to be added back to the lineup, it's nowhere to be found. Support knows nothing and tells me it's on ch.118 which is BBC World. Very shoddy!!! Taking off
popular channels and then adding them back for more money is like cable TV. CEO Mel Karmazan is not
up to running Wayne's World on cable access.

10:31 AM  

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