I don’t like broadcast radio. Too many commercials. In an hour of listening, you hear 6 to 10 songs, and it’s difficult to find a channel that plays music you listen to that comes in clearly. I’m an adult, I don’t need my songs changed. Radio versions of songs sometimes play with entire verses removed. For example, Semi Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind has an entire section of the song edited out.
For more than 20 years, I have maintained a SiriusXM account. I liked it because it played uncensored songs. The big draw for them was Howard Stern, but I never found him to be entertaining in the least. I think I listened to his show twice. Here is how his show typically goes:
- Stern: Here is my guest, Miss Cherry Forever. Hi Cherry. Nice tits.
- Cherry: Thanks.
- Stern: Can I see them.
- Cherry: Sure.
- Stern: Oh, those are awesome.
Stupid. It’s radio, I can’t see them or her, so why do I care about this juvenile conversation? The dude is more than 70 years old, and isn’t entertaining at all. It’s like listening to your grandfather hit on a 20 year old. Creepy and childish.
For music, I started listening to iHeart radio through their app and using Android Auto in the car a few years ago. The only reason I maintained a subscription was because I liked the talk radio on the Patriot channel. That channel was good, but many shows I enjoyed have been removed.
- The Mike Church show was one I enjoyed. They replaced it with Breitbart news, which is a complete snooze fest. It’s like listening to Conservative NPR and is frankly boring.
- There is Sean Hannity, but that guy comes across as a phony to me, and his show is just pandering.
- I used to find Mark Levin entertaining, but haven’t listened to his show in years.
- Stacy on the Right is the DEI version that lets the channel have a black woman on the air.
- The only show I enjoy now is The Wilkow Majority.
Sirius was $4 a month when I began listening. Then it went to $9. Now, because we have two cars, it is costing over $50 a month. My cable TV provider doesn’t charge me for each TV, neither does Netflix or any other company. I just can’t justify $50 a month to hear Andrew Wilkow. He was the only reason I stayed with Sirius for the past few years, and I just don’t want to keep on doing it at that cost.
So for the first time since about 2003 or so, I am without satellite radio. When I called to cancel, they tried to get me to stay at a monthly rate of $18 per car plus an extra fee for Internet listening. If anyone from SiriusXM happens to read this:
Your service is not so different from a hundred other streaming services. There is iHeart radio, Amazon music, Pandora, and a plethora of others. None of them charge $50 a month. You either have to offer real value over what those services offer, or you have to charge less. It’s not just you- I also dropped my Amazon music subscription, and they were charging me only $17 per month.
22 Comments
ghostsniper · August 12, 2026 at 1:26 pm
You’re right about commercial radio, it is unbearable. I don’t even know why it exists. Do people really listen to that stuff? Wall to wall commercials.
Since the late 90’s I have downloaded 18,000 mp3 files and will probably never pay for music again. Talk radio? Again, the commercials make it not worth it.
Divemedic · August 12, 2026 at 1:37 pm
I used to download music. There eventually were too many viruses on there, so I stopped.
TexasRedneck · August 12, 2026 at 1:44 pm
Boy, this one hit home. Have had a subscription since i bought the truck in 2012. Like you, it started small. The next renewal would have been $300.00 for the annual subscription. That’s not counting the wifes car. The only thing besides David Webb & Wilkow, was the YachtRock station. And yes apparently we are that damn old. But who can justify +$30 a month?
Divemedic · August 12, 2026 at 5:01 pm
Iheart has a yacht rock station
JM · August 12, 2026 at 1:57 pm
I can’t name the freq of a radio station since I used to listen to 98.1 in Baton Rouge on gameday mornings in the early 00s. There are too many good podcasts out there. The President’s Daily Brief (PDB) with Mike Baker is two 20 minute episodes twice a day for current events. That plus Drinkin Bros covers pretty much all my time in the car in town.
Danny · August 12, 2026 at 3:52 pm
I still have Sirius on both vehicles. Like you did, my wife contacted them to cancel and they offered a better rate. I also have Amazon Prime which has music, TV and select Kindle books included – and free shipping, of course 😀
Also have Apple Music which is good and I can listen to that in the car if I want.
I can’t stand the shows (Hannity, Levin etc.) just a lot of hot air and boring.
Curtis · August 12, 2026 at 4:06 pm
You can talk them into a lower rate. I am paying under $10 a month for both cars combined. Just call and haggle with them.
Polimath · August 12, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Try Radio Garden stream through your blue tooth to your car. I like smooth Jazz AZ.
Himself · August 12, 2026 at 4:22 pm
I listen to the local AM station in the morning while I’m getting dressed and fixing breakfast. It’s good for local news and major stories.
But anything else? No way.
I swapped the radio in my old truck to a modern one with bluetooth and apple car play.
I can listen to my music for free, or podcasts.
DMLMD · August 12, 2026 at 4:40 pm
Heh, I got Sirius in ’07 and bought the $300 – 350 lifetime subscription when it was offered and paid off before the merger and it was surprisingly honored after the merger. Still listen to Wilkow alot and bounce between the classic rock – heavy metal channels a bit. I can’t remember the last time I listened to terrestrial radio.
Stealth Spaniel · August 12, 2026 at 11:12 pm
I did the same thing. I paid a one time fee and it has been honored ever since. I don’t know if it is still offered, but definitely worth it.
ML Thomas · August 12, 2026 at 4:54 pm
Sirius – Work them – you can get them down to less than $8.00 per month. We have 3 vehicles on it at that pricing, For a few years I had to threaten to cancel to get the price I wanted. They quit the bickering a few years ago and the price had stayed static since.
Anonymous · August 12, 2026 at 6:36 pm
Spouse and I enjoy the music choices and randomization which listening to Sirius offers. Also we do a lot of 10+ hour/day trips through Idaho, Utah, and especially Nevada where there is NO broadcast and NO cell reception, so appreciate the satellite up there where our car can ‘hear’ it. No talk, no news, no sports, so it’s not terribly expensive. We’ll keep it for now.
PS we just got back from a 3,000 mile drive up the AlCan highway, and found out when one gets north enough one drives out of the satellite shadow and loses reception. Anchorage cannot receive Sirius.
Henry · August 12, 2026 at 10:53 pm
Dan Bongino on Rumble is the only one I still listen to. He has some of Rush’s ability to connect the dots and see the hidden agendas.
Wandering Neurons · August 12, 2026 at 11:34 pm
After a long hiatus from the original XM system, I’ve signed back on to SiriusXM, single user plan. My truck radio has built in SiriusXM and is connected there. My wife’s phone has their App that she can use at home or in her truck via Bluetooth or wired. They cannot see what you’re doing with the car stereo version but can with the app. Two-fer. It works.
WDS · August 13, 2026 at 6:25 am
You’re not missing anything from Levin, all he does is scream now. My local iHeart news/talk radio station dropped his show in April IIRC and It would be interesting to know why.
I have the app MyTuner on my phone, tablet and TV. All sorts of genres of music, podcasts etc. Many are zero ads too and it’s free.
Kentucky Headhuunter · August 13, 2026 at 7:21 am
I’m lucky that most (90%?) the places I drive are 10 minutes or less from my house. I WFH so no work commute. I used to listen to talk radio all day, well at least 9a-3p. Never listen at all now. When I got the “new” truck 10 years ago, got 30 days of satellite radio. The boys and I liked the comedy station. For a week; then it was all jokes we’d already heard.
When I got my new phone I was shocked that Apple music was cheaper (by a little bit) than Amazon. The app made it easy to import all my playlists and purchases over to Apple music, which I hadn’t used in close to 15 years.
Don Curton · August 13, 2026 at 7:24 am
I had Sirius for several years back when the car was new. My problem with it? They claimed to sell “ad-free” music, but inbetween every fricking song they advertised their own thing. I got so sick of listening to Sirius advertise Sirius as ad-free when obviously it wasn’t. I mean, damn, I was already paying for the service, why were they still trying to sell me on it?
I was generally in the truck for about 45 minutes each morning and each evening during my commute, before I retired. I had Amazon so I listened to that. Unfortunately, they kept changing the format, removing songs from my list, and then they finally changed to where they wouldn’t even play the music you picked. It was all a deliberate strategy to get me to pay more for their special music service, whatever that was. Fuck them.
I still pay about $14 a month for spotify. Been meaning to cancel. I don’t listen enough anymore to justify. Hell, I probably got about 3 or 4 other streaming services I need to cancel.
Henry · August 13, 2026 at 9:02 am
Yes! Great point. It used to be what it claimed to be. I enjoyed it when it played music without promos, pseudo-ads, announcers with nothing but drivel to take up time. Just play the damn music that the channel purports to broadcast and leave well-enough alone.
oldvet50 · August 13, 2026 at 7:41 am
Like you, I also downloaded a bunch of music (Naptster, et al) and kept it on a hard drive. I still have the music on various media such as CDs, thumb drives and micro SD cards. I have a nice library that I can listen to on the road, at the gym, etc. with no cost to me. The big plus is not ever having to listen to Cousin Brucie.
Elrod · August 13, 2026 at 7:57 am
Had Sirius for about 3 weeks, mostly for the ’70s decade stuff. I started noticing the lack of “bench depth” in the middle of week 2; listening from about 0500 to 2200 I’d routinely hear the same song twice, sometimes three times, multip;e days.
I canceled.
I’ll agree, I don’t know enough four-letter words to describe music over commercial radio. There are two stations near me who “keep interrupting the commercials with music” and don’t get me started on “talk radio.”
JayVee · August 15, 2026 at 1:51 pm
I don’t live in Texas, nor do I remember how I stumbled onto him, but the only consistent podcast I listen to is the Michael Berry Show. The rest that I listen to, I sometimes need a break from
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