The Steel Guitar Forum

...has changed my life...anybody else?

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 01:19 AM.]</p></FONT>

I had the competition, Sirius, put in my car about a year ago. You're right, it is "life changing" for a music buff. You might as well throw out every am and fm radio I own. No stupid commercials, no political adds, no searching the dial to find the type of music I want. Also outstanding for long trips. I'm buying my 80 year old Mom a home unit for Christmas so she can listen to the classic country stream and WSM and the opry.

I love to listen to"Hank's Place"on xm...Lloyd Green,Pete Drake,and Weldon Myrick are on several records every hour,as well as a lot of great Ray Price stuff with Jimmy Day and Buddy Emmons...a lot of Conway and Loretta with John Hughey and Hal Rugg...Mooney is well represented with the old"West Coast"stuff...and others too numerous to mention...I think ten bucks a month is CHEAP for this kind of entertainment...

How do I subscribe to xm satellite radio? It sounds fantastic for only $10.00 bucks a month!!!!

Leigh

I bought my first XM receiver in February of this year. Found "Hank's Place" (XM-Channel 13) and have been an advocate of that channel since. Only Country Music up to and thru the mid-60's. (Once in a while I've heard a more recent George Strait tune or something but it's really rare and only if the tune fits the format.

I first bought the stereo interface unit so I could record the PSG laced tunes to my PC and then use them for practise or to just listen to when I want to (as in Billy Walker's tune "Circumstances", what a beautiful piece of music). Later I bought the "boom box" so I could take the radio on vacation.

This past summer I gave one to my dad for his 71st birthday. Added his subscription & radio ID to my account so that I wasn't giving him a gift that was going to cost him money (at least not for a year or so anyway...).

My problem is that I put the headphones on just as I'm going to sleep and then end-up listening to XM-13 until 4:00 in the morning.

My next thought is that we oughta bombard the music programmer(s) for XM-13 with requests for more steel instrumentals. They don't play any. They play lots of tunes with steel backup but no steel instrumentals. I don't know any CW listener that doesn't like a steel instrumental once in a while.

They do advertise once in a while but it's tolerable. For a real treat one can scroll over to the ACID_METAL_ROCK channels to get your ears cleaned out.

There are three parts to an XM radio purchase...
1. The radio module, about $125
2. Radio Adapter, be it the stereo adapter, boom box, or car adapter, probably $100-$125. You gotta have something to put the moduele in to play it.
3. The XM radio subscription, $15 to set up the account then $10 per month.
I have never done MP3's. IMHO Downloading is stealing unless permission specifically granted.

No one has ever said we can't record off the radio. The music is CD quality. Tie the stereo adapter in to the sound card and you've got lots of material to play with.

Thats about all I listen to any more, except for the local classic country station and some internet radio, like Mike Gross show on Friday night. It has made driving a whole new experience.

I particularly like Bill Anderson's interview show each week. The first time I heard it he was interviewing three steel guitar players and needless to say, I was hooked.

I got my xm radio as a gift from a country music star...but I bought the subscription...a bargain at twice the price,as far as I'm concerned...it has really gotten me fired up to play again!

Steve, I've had mine for almost two years but then last month, I bought XMPC and now, while I'm on the computer, I have XM with the display on the screen and it's great.

When you're listening to Hank's Place or X-Country, and you hear the little "musical logo" teaser on steel and dobro, it is yours truly.

Just before they launched the service, Last Train Home (some of us) went to the XM Headquarters in DC...it was like walking onto the bridge of the starship Enterprise. Me and Scott McKnight (guitar & b@njo) recorded the teasers, and XM engineers have manipulated them in ProTools to their whim (speed up, slow down etc.)

We also did a Christmas concert live on the air for them (X-Country- "Cross Country") last year that should be rebroadcast soon... it has a way cool version of "White Christmas"


the band has a reciever for the tour van, which has been a GREAT sanity saver....


------------------

"I AM Z-BOY!"


<small>Zumsteel U12 "Loafer" 8&6 :: ZB Custom D-10 :: Fender Tube Amplification
www.voicenet.com/~vanallen/ :: vanallen@voicenet.com :: www.lasttrainhome.com::
My Live365 Broadcast

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 26 November 2003 at 07:31 AM.]</p></FONT>

Good job on those teasers,Dave!

Bruce, do you mean you can get WSM and the Opry on XM radio? How about ET's Midnight Jamboree? I don't see it on the list of channels...my car does not usually get WSM very good (am radios seem to suck these days)

Oh yea! Changed my life for the better. Mine is two years old now, and my long trips are made more pleasant. I don't think there is a CD in my 6 CD changer anymore. Don't need it.
I jump around between the Jazz section and the Country Section. Bill Anderson's interviews with the Legends is great.

A lot of my travel takes me way off the main track. I am free at last from FM!

My 9 year old likes the Kids Section. (I make him wear headphones)

DVA. I have often thought about working out that lick. Pretty cool.

I didn't "write" it... it's the same musical motif as other stations on the network, just with that "signature COUNTRY sound" of a steel git-tar.
But thanks!

Dyke, the Sirius satellite radio system carries WSM 24 hours a day. So with Sirius you get the Opry Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, the Midnight jam, and everything else on it. Plus, being on the satellite. it's quality is much better than AM Radio. It's basically CD quality.

It's worth the extra $3/month for Sirius versus XM, IMHO. Plus if you pay a full year, you basically get it for just under $12/month.

The website is www.sirius.com <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bruce Meyer on 28 November 2003 at 10:01 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bruce Meyer on 28 November 2003 at 10:03 PM.]</p></FONT>

Ok, Been toying with the Idea for a while, but not sure wether to go with the radio or the conversion kit. Please advise.......
Thanks much Frank

I've had XM radio for 2 years now. Got a Pioneer deck, Terk antenna, pioneer receiver, 2 power amps and a 10" sub. The audio quality is outstanding. The program material was great for a few months but the number of repeats on songs is starting to annoy me. It's getting to be like a playlist format. True, XM13 is real country but it's a lot of the same songs over and over again and even the same songs at the same time of day. XM14, bluegrass has a high percentage of Sam Bush, John Hartford and other repeats. And the percentage of time that they talk on XM13, well, it was cute at first, but the gal's voice gets annoying after awhile. I do enjoy Bill Mack a lot and it's ok to have some talk, on designated talk channels, but I feel XM13 should be more music and almost NO repeats given the vast country catalog.

My other beef is that we are in the year 2003, with computerized radios and satellite technology and XM still can't provide the whole artist title and song title on the radio display. They promised to provide the whole title and let you scroll it on demand (my radio and I assume most radios provide this function) but I have never seen XM broadcast anything other than cryptic titles. XM is 20 years behind the time when it comes to providing usable displays! This really comes into play with unknown artists and titles. When I first got XM they promised all of this plus providing additional info on the songs in the blank field after the song title.

Now that Sirius has WSM live I would seriously consider them vs. XM. I do listen to Comedy, Jazz, talk and decades a lot. Xm is a great thing but their country offering has gotten very stale. You won't notice some of these things until you've had the service a few months.

I emailed XM about my concerns and never heard back from them.

I still agree that satellite radio is great but advise that you closely compare Sirius with WM for program content before investing in the hardware.

Greg

Don't have satellite radio, but I do get piles of music feeds thematically arranged through digital cable... it's plugged out of the box into my stereo, and I listen to that over the radio categorically. I don't have an antenna hooked up to my components...

There's loads of good new stuff on the cable Americana feed... Last Train Home has been played on there as well, Dave.

hmmm... so I guess there's "good new stuff" and then there's LTH ...

Thanks for the info Nicholas! That's good to know- a new fan in California sent the LTH website an email saying he found us thru his "Direct TV" audio channels Americana feed... at least we're getting played somewhere


<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 05 December 2003 at 10:00 AM.]</p></FONT>

For a LOT of information and opinions on Sirius and XM, got to the AVS forum special section on satellite radio:

AVS Forum

Scroll down to the section on "XM and Sirius Satellite Radio".

Greg

If you want a more concise comparison between Sirius and XW instead of foraging through the threads I posted above, read this recent review posted at the Home Theater Forum:

XM Radio vs. Sirius Radio

Greg

Got XM for Christmas and I LOVE IT!!! I got the SKIFi with an installation kit in my car as well as the portable Boombox.

News to interested buyers - Starting Feb 1st, 2004 100% of XM music channels will be commercial free!!! This is GREAT news.
http://www.xmradio.com/index.jsp

Respectfully,
Dave Burr

I've had XM for a little over a year now and I would not be without it. I haven't listened to FM since I got XM except for the week that the satelite receiver went out on me. I listen to hanks place, XM-10 (cool interviews on "Bill Anderson visits with the legends"), 150 (comedy), Special X when they have the Dr. Demento reruns, and 14 (steam powered radio) bluegrass.
They're going all commercial free next month. I guess they got enough subscribers that they don't need the commercials to pay the bills anymore. There's also a rumor that if they hit the 1.5 million subscriber mark, that the rates may come down. XM rules! Well worth the $10 a month!!

There must be a way for the Nashville elite to put a stop to this.
I mean, people actually getting what they want??