I just bought a new car that has XM in it and a three-month free trial. Everything you read about XM is "commercial free!" But when I listened on the hour drive home, they had the same amount of what I'd call commercials as regular radio. What they REALLY mean is that the music channels are MOSTLY commercial-free, but the rest of the channels are just more of the same BS. As far as I'm concerned, whether it's a commercial for deodorant or a commercial to listen to another XM channel, they're both the same. As for the talkie channels, they bandwidth limit them (algorithm compress them something like ADPCM) to the point that everyone sounds like they have a frog in their throat. The only saving grace of the whole mess is that I could listen to FOX NEWS on the drive in the morning if I wanted to spend the $10/month plus whatever else BS charge the local taxing authority can dream up to add on.
None of the music channels I listen to on XM have any commercials. They hardly even have DJ's.
Yes, when you listen to Fox News or ABC Talk or whatever, they're going to have commercials but that's a downfall of the channel, not XM.
Sorry you don't like it! I have nothing but good stuff to say about my XM!
Switch to Sirius. Crystal clear sound because they have 3 sats that orbit the US while XM's 2 sit on the equator. Higher angle and more bandwidth.
I have a funny feeling Fox Radio News will be coming to an AM soon ...
I went to XM because regular radio was impossible to listen to becuase of all the commercials. I find that the music stations are commercial free, though they do throw in some short blips about what is on other channels as well as short fillers between songs. But overall it is an order of magnitude better than AM or FM.
The non-music channels (like FOX or the comedy channels) do have some commercials, but they are manageable.
Overall, I love XM!
Just because you might have an axe to grind against satellite radio (maybe you work in the radio business?) doesn't mean you have to spread disinformation.
I've been a subscriber of satellite radio since August and I listen to it several hours a day. While you might hear short announcement about what is on other stations (about 15 seconds every half hour or so), it doesn't even begin to compare to the endless, mind-numbing strings of commercials I hear on broadcast radio. Other than these short promotional announcements about other stations, I have never once heard a commercial. And I listen to about 20 different stations.