I interrupt your f-list to bring you this important information

[greatbear]

When I was trying to decide if I wanted to subscribe to satellite radio a few years back, the choice was fairly easy at the time. At the start, XM's music channels had commercials. Then Sirius came along. Their subscription rate was higher, but there was no commercials. A plus in the Sirius column for me, since the whole reason I was making the jump was to get away from the increasingly pervasive and annoying advertising on terrestrial radio. By that time, XM had matched Sirius in both commercial-free music programming (plus) as well as the higher monthly rate (minus). XM was created by the same people who brought us ClearChannel (big fuck fuckityfuck minus!), the hellspawn from Satan's bloody cooch which ruined radio. Sirius also had OutQ, the GLBT channel (huge plus). OutQ has Larry Flick, aka lfkbear (another big furry plus).

So, Sirius it was. Lots of diverse programming, decent hardware and commercial free tunes. Great for traveling. OutQ became my drive-time channel, with Larry and the bunch in the mornings, and waaay-left leaning Michelangelo Signorile in the afternoon. Life was good. Then it began to happen. The commercials that are unfortunately carried by OutQ (and just about all the talk formats, there is no getting around it, plus that format needs the breaks for proper flow) started to multiply and sour. But these are not your ordinary commercials. They have leaned heavily into annoying ads for dubious work-at-home schemes, ambulance chasing lawyers, debt reduction and financing, snake-oil medicinal cures, you get the idea. And the irritation factor is compounded with most of these ads repeating the toll-free numbers no less than three times, sometimes more. Always the sign of hucksterism and sleaze. You've seen it on late night network television. So much for the notion that gay audiences are sophisticated. Most likely, these are the only outfits willing to drop coin to be heard in the gay ghetto, and Sirius goes for the bucks any way they can. And I pay for this.

I find myself growing weary of riding the volume control between the slowly decreasing minutes of actual programming. What is it with advertisers? Whoever came up with the notion that irritating the listener/viewer is a successful business model should be shot repeatedly starting from the feet and slowly working upward. Clever advertising is more memorable but far, far less prevalent. Were I to become king of the planet, I would seek out every writer/producer of these shitty slimeball ads and punch them repeatedly in the nose till there is nothing left.

Sorry, Larry and crew, there are days I have to shut off the radio and listen to the engine instead.

Is there any respite to be had against the tide of horrendous commercialism?

Here is one of the most amazing commercials I have seen to date:

Watch on YouTube

And one of the worst:

Watch on YouTube

I have already mentioned a couple times where a clever, fun ad will make me want to buy a product. Too much craptastic advertising makes me want to go postal on someone's ass.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Your observations about Sirius radio are right on target. I'm a bit less exposed to them as I don't listen to OutQ. I'm not a fan of the talk show hosts on this station with the exception of Larry. I'm not listening to morning radio, so I mostly miss his show.

I do hear a few commercials on Blue Collar Radio, but I can't remember hearing a single product commerial on my most oft listened to station, Broadway 77. Sure, there are plugs to attend shows, but not out and out commercials.

As you, I was led to believe that satellite radio was commercial free. If Clear Channel (I hate clear channel they have bought up most of the performing venues across the country) continues to have its way, subscription radio won't be any different than regular.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

XM started out with commercials everywhere. Sirius did us all a favor and gave us commercial-free music from the start. Still, some of the syndicated content and a lot of the talk channels have at least some commercials. Talk radio (which I generally dont like) seems to 'need' commercial breaks (or some sort of break) because of how it operates. I dont mind ads that promote station content. I just cannot stomach the typical, lowest-common-denominator advertising that seems to be everywhere. Certain levels of LJ blogs even have ads. I use a finely tuned filter to eliminate almost all web advertising. I gave up on commercial television because of the ads. I even boycott certain products because of lame advertising, though luckily a lot of those products are of no interest to me anyway.

There is more and more talk and movement towards merging Sirius and XM into one unit. Once that happens, two things I will guarantee will happen. The rates will rise, and advertising will blanket the channels. And I will have no choice but to drop the services and scrap the hardware.