HarpNinja
2440 posts
May 15, 2012
8:29 AM
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I had the chance to experience XM Radio the other day - obviously jumped right to the blues channel.
Anyone check that out or subscribe? I was impressed with the mix - new and old, classic and b sides. Any other good channels for a harp fan?
I got to listen in a vehicle and was bummed the artist didn't scroll across, as there was stuff that really peaked my interest enough to maybe buy. I am assuming you can stream it from your house too, but would I need to buy more gear? I'd consider a subscription for just the blues channel and the chance to listen to Yankee games, but would like feedback from others on the value.
I tried several times to find a way to stream Yanks games without shelling out dough, but it hasn't worked well. I think it is $15 a month, and I would probably listen to more games than I'd watch (MLB season ticket would run about the same annually, but it would only work in one room in our house, and I am never down there). I use my phone and computer for streaming audio for at least an hour a day as it stands.
Can I use my smartphone to stream a good quality signal from XM? I could just use that as the receiver?
I do not listen to FM radio, but I do listen to local talk radio obsessively. I am not a Twins fan, though, so I never really listen/watch baseball unless the Yankees are a national game (and I LOVE baseball).
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Last Edited by on May 15, 2012 8:30 AM
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shadoe42
165 posts
May 15, 2012
8:38 AM
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You need the antenna and power supply for the house to use it in your hosue if you don't have a compatible device. If you do you will have to add the radio tot he account which I believe incurs an additional charge
not sure if there is an XM app but it would not suprise me.
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The Musical Blades
My Electronic Music World
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ej
10 posts
May 15, 2012
8:47 AM
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I have it in my truck and I listen to Bluesville all the time. It's great for road trips. Only have one subscription for the truck, so I don't use it in the house. I believe every device requires some type of add on cost to your subscription. The Sirius XM website tells you about all the options
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pharpo
672 posts
May 15, 2012
9:02 AM
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Mike...I was one of those guys that said ....I'll never pay for Sat Radio when I get AM/FM for free.....Then I bought a new car with a free year of Sirius/XM. When the subscription ran out I was LOST!
Love it! Bluseville plays a very diverse cross section. But I also like Classic Vinyl / Deep Tracks and a few others.
You could buy a unit for the house and add it to your account for an additional fee.
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Procrastinator Emeritus
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shadoe42
166 posts
May 15, 2012
9:25 AM
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I had it for years. You can get a kit for most of the car radios to allow them to be used in the house. If you try to add say your XM equipped receiver that will have to be added another device
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The Musical Blades
My Electronic Music World
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toddlgreene
3659 posts
May 15, 2012
9:31 AM
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I've got it in my Camaro...hold out for the 30$ for 6 months plan. It's well worth the perserverance and haggling. Mine spends a good majority of the time on Bluesville, but Boneyard sees a fair share of play too...Lots of variety available. I've been hearing Dr. G on there more often lately, which is cool.
There are more sports channels than anything else, so you'd be in hog heaven, Mike.
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Todd L. Greene
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cliffy
12 posts
May 15, 2012
9:52 AM
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Bluesville has one segment called "the wash cycle" where they play every single version they can find of a common blues song. I think there were thirty of forty versions of "Help Me". It's kind of a cool show.
Other times one of the DJ's does a show with BB King where he asks him some questions and then BB chooses songs to play. I'm sure they do it remotely, but it sounds good and BB's stories are the best part.
Real Jazz is a great channel as well, with a pretty nice variety and good DJ's.
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hvyj
2415 posts
May 15, 2012
10:40 AM
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Adam has been getting airplay on "Bluesville".
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tomaxe
29 posts
May 15, 2012
11:37 AM
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For $15 for the season, you can get the "At Bat" MLB app for your phone (or at least an iphone) that will allow you to stream any radio broadcast of all Major League games to your phone, and that's how I listen to The Bronx Bombers. It stinks that you used to be able to do this for free, but now it costs $. Love radio baseball, though.
I don't think I can justify the cost of Satellite Radio so I spend time downloading various free blues podcasts and stream cool radio shows from various NPR stations around the country on my computer. I search for 'em with google searches and always seem to fall into something interesting. Sometimes the sound quality is compromised, but a lot of satellite radio has crappy reception and sound anyway, from my experience.
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nacoran
5686 posts
May 15, 2012
8:32 PM
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I have a friend who works for the local cable company, which means he gets pretty much all the channels for free, along with really good internet. Before he got married he'd go over to his girlfriend's house (well, actually her parents house, she was still living at home) but they had a much more basic cable package. He figured out that he could use his Slingbox to send shows from his house to hers! (Since he was there watching it he wasn't breaking any rules. He actually checked into that because cable violations could have cost him his job.)
I actually switched my favorite team, slowly over time, because I never got to watch my favorite team play. I grew up a Houston Astros fan. I kind of liked rooting for the team that was always good, but never quite good enough, but I just really couldn't keep tabs on the team.
Meanwhile, the Yankees, at the time, kind of fit that same niche, always finishing second. The Astros moved out of the Astrodome and their style of play changed, and one day I was watching the Yankees and saw Randy Valarde go 0-5 with five strike outs and three errors in the field and suddenly it became okay to root for the hated Yankees, even if at first it was kind of as a joke. (I've tried in vain to track down that box score).
We had the local AA team right in town, and it was nice not to be an outcast anymore. And then they started winning and I discovered that's much more fun than rooting for a team that always finishes second! I couldn't have, in good conscience, changed affiliations unless the Yankees had been awful. I'm also an odd Yankee fan who hates Derek Jeter. Go figure. I still nominally root for Houston in the National League, but I don't really follow them anymore. I think just about every Yankee game is broadcast here.
Haven't tried XM radio though. In fact, my car radio is broken and has been for several years. (The car is 25 years old!) I use drive time as an opportunity to practice singing loudly and out of key. :|
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Nate
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
989 posts
May 15, 2012
9:24 PM
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I used to have XM. I used it for listening to bluegrass mostly, there were never any ball games on, though, and I do LOVE baseball, which is the awesomest of all sports. If I could have listened to baseball on XM, I probably would have kept it. Doesn't Sirius carry MLB games, though?
You could try radio, if you had a decent radio and a decent antenna, you might be able to pick up WCBS 880 AM out of New York for night games. They're one of the old grandfathered in 50,000 watt stations. It's not as odd as you might think. WSM in Nashville is 50k watt station. I listen to the Grand Ol' Opry all the time on it. That's about 400 miles away. I think you're probably twice as far from NYC, but there's still a chance. I used to listen to White Sox games all the time on 1000 AM from Chicago. There's also a lot of other stations in the Damn Yankees Radio Network you might be able to pick up. You could try em.
Otherwise, you're supposed to be listening to Twins games. Don't you have to pledge allegiance to the Twins in school up there?
GO REDS!
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
Elk River Harmonicas on Facebook
"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard
"Also, drinking homemade beer." - David Payne
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