XMPR, Here We Are!
XM premiered its Public Radio channel (133) this week, and I’ve been listening to it. The beginning was a little rocky, with cuts between the shows and the BBC newscasts a bit rough, but things have since smoothed out a bit.
The schedule is interesting; right now rebroadcasts of On Point are in the 8am-10am slot soon to be the home of The Bob Edwards Show, and WBUR’s The Connection airs live. I haven’t had the chance to listen to WBUR’s Here and Now yet, but I’m looking forward to an afternoon newsmagazine that doesn’t treat me like an idiot. I’m a little ticked off at the time they have the CBC’s As It Happens scheduled, since I’m rarely in my office at 11:00pm, and there’s no replay.
And I’ll admit it…I can live without the archived editions of This American Life, a show I occasionally find interesting but frequently just pretentious. And the music shows I can do without…I mean, my lord, there are a hundred channels of music on XM radio, so who needs Sounds Eclectic?
But all in all, I’m pleased with XMPR, and for those times I’m not interested in the program, the BBC World Service is right next door. And come October 4th, mornings go back to normal for the first time since April.
September 3rd, 2004 at 1:15 pm
As a fellow XM subscriber, I urge you to give Sonic Theater and Radio Classics a try. They both air some great stuff. Their schedules are available through www.xmradio.com.
RadioClassics is a subsidiary of MediaBay (RadioSpirits), which means they have the same hacked-up OTR they play on “When Radio Was,” so I’m not even a little interested in listening to it. I do enjoy Jim French’s “Imagination Theater,” so the Sonic Theater channel may get an occasional listen, but I have more OTR here than I’ll likely ever be able to listen to…I’m more interested in XM’s news/talk channels. –cfs3