Holly returns to Sirius XM tomorrow

Always enjoy Holly more than any other X-Mas channel. Good news...

I guess that means that Sirius/XM will have both have different channel numbers. The speculation that Sirius was going to switch over to XMs or Vice-Versa isn't going to happen.

Maybe that's what the 2nd merger is going to be. Talk and station numbers merging...

Ah crud... No online for Sirius subs then it looks like?

Who gives a shit at this point?! I don't want to know about a returning holiday channel, I want to know what the hell is going to happen to the channels that I have today.

Ah crud... No online for Sirius subs then, huh?

Jingle bells , Mel Karmazin smells , Zellner laid an egg .....

No kidding, Ed Baxter...I want to know if I'm hearing the last ever "Road Calls" right now. Luckily, today was a day off work in observance of Veterans' Day, and I'm just sitting here listening to XCountry, probably for the last time, enjoying it while I can. My wife's pissed about Flight 26 being replaced; when we did our midwest trip and had a car with Sirius, she wasn't impressed with Siri's pop channels, and I'd figure that'd be the easiest genre's fans to please, but apparently not.

But, as far as we know, it Holly will be Cinemagic again after January 1, right?

I just called XM customer service to see what, if any, information I could get regarding tomorrows channel changes. The first thing I asked the rep was what channel changes were going to be made. His response was "give me your name and address and I'll mail you an updated channel guide that you should receive in about seven business days". I said that's super, but since I am a subscriber and have been for over four years I would like to know before seven business days about changes that are going to occur tomorrow. To that he responded "Well Mr. Baxter the online XM channel guide should update once the changes are made sometime tomorrow". I then said to him that since you have a guide you can send to me, how about you just read it off to me, I've been a subscriber long enough to know what is different. He said "Well I don't actually have one in front of me". I said can you ask around and see if someone else there does. He replied "I am pretty sure that they don't have it either. You are not the first person to call asking for this information today". I then asked him if he had a supervisor that I could speak to. He said "I'm not sure". I asked him to clarify his response and he was stumped and assured me not to worry that the channel guide would be sent to me ASAP. I am guessing that they either don’t have actual supervisors or they were instructed not to allow customers to escalate the channel changes issue.

I told the rep that I was frustrated and felt that the way these changes were being handled was extremely "bad business". To my surprise he agreed and said that the company has told them nothing. He said that he found out about the channel changes from a customer that called in asking about it. He said that customers calling in seemed to be upset and that he didn't understand why the company wouldn't have given them information to share with the people calling in. I then asked him to level with me; I asked if he knew anything at all regarding the channel changes. His response was simply "no". He didn't even know for sure what time tomorrow the changes were going to take place.

I was very polite to the customer service rep and he was the same. As I was hanging up I actually felt bad for him as he seemed very frustrated that he had nothing to share. He did tell me that they were getting a lot of calls asking for info that they couldn't provide and that it was in his words “stressing him out”. NICE.

Way to make the transition smooth Mel.

"Way to make the transition smooth Mel."

You were expecting "riding a bicycle" easy?

This is "First-time anal after Indian food with a sandpaper condom".

yea i called and talked to three XM reps and they knew nothing of this as I was canceling one of my radios.

any word about any of the other christmas stations that they had last season? or have those gone by the wayside?

Sam

Holly and Holiday Traditions (HT) are big at my house every year. Hopefully HT makes a comeback too, because I think the old classics are timeless and shouldn't have to compete for time with more contemporary versions on the same channel.

Sam,

I was wondering the same thing. I preferred the "Holiday Traditions" station to "Holly" and liked the classical Christmas channel as well. As far as timing goes Direct TV is showing the changes occuring at 12:00 a.m. Eastern time, or 10:00 p.m. my time tonight.

This sucks, they got rid of Cinemagic to add Holly. They could have at least waited for Thanksgiving before adding it. :(

New Years Day? Ecch. I don't want to make this all War-On-Christmas, but the Christmas season technically runs until Jan 6 (the 12th day of Christmas).

Unless there is a change to the channel lineup in the next two weeks or so, Holly will be the only Holiday channel on XM this holiday season. If you want an online equivalent to the others (Holiday Traditions, Music City Holiday, Classical Christmas, and Special XMas)you have to go to either AOL radio (has at least a dozen or so to choose from), Live 365 (too many to count), and Slacker (has a great equivalent to Special XMas called Dysfunctional Holiday).

I'm afraid I've got some bad news. Holiday Traditions and Special XMas are gone, possibly forever. They will however have Bing Crosby's specials on a special channel. NOTHING BUT BING CROSBY! Thanks alot XM, if it weren't for the MLB coverage I would cancel my subscription right now.

They were announced today

Holly XM 23 Nov 16th - Dec 31st

Holiday Traditions XM 4 Nov 16th - Dec 25th

Holiday Pops XM 77 Dec 7th - Dec 25th

Country Christmas XM 10 Dec 7th - Dec 25th

Radio Hanukkah XM 28 Dec 7th - 19th