Is The Motley Fool Being Foolish?
May 3, 2007
The Motley Fool went through the trouble of posing a couple of questions and making a few statements about the playlists on satellite radio, and more specifically about a couple of songs or artists on particular channels.
From The Motley Fool Article:
“I definitely don't miss the insipid commercials I used to find on regular radio, but with 24 hours of airtime to fill up, you'd think the satellite companies could maybe mix up the playlists once in a while. How many times can Sirius' rock station Octane play Hinder's "Lips of an Angel"? And I think there's some Carpenters song played every 12 minutes on its Moving Easy band.” “I listen to just a handful of stations on Sirius, and believe me: You can just about set your watch to when a particular song is going to come on. Can't they play some of the lesser-known songs by the artists, just for variety? While I have a Sirius radio, the same failings apply to XM. Repetitive songs seem to be an industry-wide issue that I thought satellite radio would resolve.”Statements such as these are fine in a vacuum, but when a little research can be easily obtained, the statements seem to take on an air of foolishness (no pun intended).
Dogstar Radio has a nifty feature that we here on SSG have used many times. It is a great way to find where your favorite songs or artists are played on Sirius, and also a great tool to research songs and artists. Had the Motley Fool used this tool, their statements would likely differ from the published article.
First let’s look at the first concern over Hinders “Lips Of An Angel” played on Octane:
Octane has played “Lips Of An Angel” a total of 24 times since April 2, 2007, a period of 31 days. On average, that is one play every 1.29 days. Thus, to answer the Motley Fools question, Sirius typically plays “Lips of An Angel” less than once per day…….a stark contrast to the insinuation the author made. Perhaps there is a medical condition that makes the author think he is hearing the song more often on Octane. Either way, the evidence is quite clear that the statement made by the author is off base.
Now lets address the Carpenters on Movin EZ:
I went ahead and pulled stats on the Carpenters. As hard as I tried, I could not find anywhere that a Carpenters song was played every 12 minutes. There are days where the Carpenters have a large place on the playlist, but there are also days when the Carpenters selection is not extensive, and I have yet to see a pattern where one can set their clock to the frequency of a song playing.
The fact of the matter is that there is more variety on satellite radio than a listener can obtain through virtually any other means. Especially in a format that gives live functionality.
As to the authors comments about not being able to get through a song without a signal drop.......might I suggest a bit of research into the installation of his unit.......but, given the exaggeration's of the other issues, I suspect this is a tall exaggeration as well.
Readers or Motley Fool writers who want to explore the sirius playlists can use the tool on Dogstar Radio
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5 Comments:
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I'm an XM subscriber and I don't see this on XM (well maybe the channels that clear channel controls, but I don't listen to them). The problem I have is that they do not play enough familiar songs. I've grown to actually like this fact, but it took me awhile. I agree that there is more on Satellite radio (as far as variety) than anywhere else. I can't tell you how many songs I've discovered or re-discovered since getting XM (but I know its alot). Maybe its a Sirius thing.. I've heard many others say this about Sirius too....
By , at May 03, 2007 1:36 PM
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I have both services. As a consumer I lean towards the Sirius programming, and find myself listening to sirius most often.
What I have noticed is that XM tends to go a bit "deeper" in their playlist. To some that is a good thing. to others it is not.
Personally I found myself doing more channel surfing on XM to find music I wanted to hear, whereas, on sirius I stay with a channel for a longer period of time.
The reality is that these companies will have to create and develop playlists that appeal to the largest number of people.
The merger might be a great solution where some additional music channels can be added to bring depth to the line-up. By example, an 80's hits channel and a deep 80's channel. There are many things that could be done.
By SSG, at May 03, 2007 1:45 PM
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I lOVE my sirius! I no longer read MF. If they truly dislike satellite radio, it should tell you something.
By , at May 03, 2007 3:55 PM
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here is my email to motley fools
No way, Jose,
I might be fat, but unfortunately no one is paying me to "trash" satellite radio. Have you heard of an "opinion?" That was mine, and it doesn't mean I'm in someone's hip pocket, a whore, short the stock, or any other myriad conspiracy theories whack jobs tend to believe. Why I can't have an OPINION without your assuming I'm being paid to trash the two companies shows you have a little too much invested here.
Thanks for the note anyway.
Rich
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From: mrbazuka@
To: foolishcopllc@hotmail.com
Subject: I see you are back fatboy
Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 18:16:14 -0400
I have never had any problems with my Sirius. I have gone as far north to Seattle and South to Durango Mex and it has worked great! You are being paid to trash Satellite radio b*tch......I hope your carrier goes down the toilet you pig.....If you don't like satellite don't buy it, you don't have to lie to the public you free radio hore. How much are they paying you fatboy
By , at May 04, 2007 1:05 AM
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I try to publish all comments that come in to SSG, as readers all have opinions, as does the Motley Fool author.
I think the fury over this Motley Fool piece centers around an article that really seemed to be an attack on satellite radio.
Often the tenor of how a reaer reads an article is created by the headline, and in this case, the headline seemed to be taking a poited pot-shot at SDARS.
What we seem to have here is a headline that speaks of impending doom of satellite radio, followed by a piece that the author says is his opinion, and had hypebole. Simply stated, if that was the case, the headline does not match the story intent (my opinion on the matter).
My point in writing the response that I did was to take the other side of the issue, and point out where reality sits. this was easily accomplished because playlist history is available.
Should the author write a retraction?????? That is up to him. I think that the article would have been better received if it was more generalized, carried a different headline, and used some data to support the opinion expressed, but that is just my opinion.
Perhaps a piece that outlined the highspots as well as the concerns would have made the point of expressing the opinion, but would not have been received so negatively by readers, but again, that was a decision by the Motley fool and their author.
At the end of the day, a product such as satellite radio can not please all of the people all of the time.
By SSG, at May 04, 2007 4:10 PM
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