"The dream is over and the service is done"

[XMScott]

From Michelle Sammartino on Beyond Jazz XM 72

Well folks, I know a lot of you have been asking what is going on, why was I laid off, what will become of the channel and Russ etc etc. I now have some answers for you… and I am ready to talk about them. Admittedly it took me some time to decompress and adjust to no longer being a part of the one thing that I sunk every bit of my time, passion and effort into for the last seven years.



Before I get into the sad part of this, let me preface it by filling you all in on how it all began for me.



I interviewed for XM Satellite Radio on September 11th 2001… the day the planes hit those buildings. It was not only a day that changed the USA, but it changed my life completely. I began what would be the best point of my career thus far. Never in my life have I enjoyed a job more, and I have always spent my time in jobs that I liked. That was something I made sure of, to follow a career path and to make sure that if I was going to do something for over 50 hrs a week, I better damn well like it.



I loved XM. I loved their philosophy, their passion for music and quality programming, choice, commercial free uninterrupted music. I loved that they were on a cutting edge of technology and I was fortunate enough to work alongside some of the most brilliant people I will ever have the opportunity to work with. I watched this service go from no satellites, watched them launch them, watched the subscriber base grow, helped grassroots word of mouth growth and essentially felt like I was making the world a better place, through exposing this incredible music to the masses.



I enjoyed every day. I loved the people I met. The musicians. Their stories. I loved the music I was exposed to. I LOVED helping unknown bands with a passion for jazz get played to the widest audience they could ever possibly imagine being exposed to… simply by sending me a copy of their CD in the good ol US Mail.



It was the most rewarding and selfless "job" I could ever imagine. I could not believe how fortunate I was and was thankful every day for it.



Then there was merger talk. Merger talks with the rival we grew to hate just because they were our only competition and we needed that rivalry. And it was that way from the start. We always knew we were the better company. I can not speak for other XMers but I felt betrayed with the thought of a merger with THEM! How could we be negotiating with the enemy! We always had more subscribers, we always had better content, better programming, better technology, better products, better talent. Who cares that they could (NOT) afford to pay Howard Stern's ridiculous salary, so much damn money yet they won him anyway! STUPID! His programming is trash… all T&A and the same thing regurgitated day after day. How many tits can you guess are implants or not in one week? Ugh! This is what they chose to spend their money on. They canned their Modern Jazz channel for a Grateful Dead channel. A band that stopped making music in the 90's. Modern Jazz is STILL being made every day. Sixty years of incredible improvisational music unrepresented on their service… and now ours. Unacceptable! We are talking Miles here… among SO many others.



I could not believe we were seriously merging. Our CEO bailed on us. Ok, his wife was ill and I understand family coming first. But then people started leaving in droves, as if they gave up the ship. Lee Abrams… gone. Eric Logan… gone. The people finally left in charge were essentially there to do the "handoff". The writing was on the wall a long time ago. But the merger took so long we truly missed our window of opportunity to be competitive. A year and a half later and here we are… struggling… and in the midst of what is now a hostile takeover and a recession. This is not a merger of equals… if it were there would be equal XMers to Sirius folks. It is not that way.



I was laid off unexpectedly on Oct 5th. It was a shock and I am still trying to recover. It is hard to shake off and let go of something that was my life. The channel is done Nov 14th and Russ is being laid off that day as well. 80 people in Programming (XM Programming) were laid off last week. It is over. The dream is over and the service is done.



I am not sure what else to say in this regard. I have no idea what this service will now be. I can honestly say I do not care at this point. I am moving on and so are so many others. Not by choice.



Russ Davis and I are planning to continue to work together in some capacity. STAY TUNED. I am working on JamminJazz.com and he has RussDavisMOJA.com. We are still deciding what we can and can not do with those sites. We would like to continue to provide you with the latest and greatest new and old and fusion music we know of…. Somehow.



So please stay in touch, and please stay with Beyond Jazz until the end. We promise to continue to make every day, every hour as good as it was… until they flick the switch. You can bet on that!



THANK YOU ALL for your devotion and support over the years, the channel would never have been what it was if it had not been for you. YOU are the reason we were the World's ONLY Modern Jazz Channel….



Onward and upward!
Thanks for listening!
~Michelle

I give the service till the end of the NFL season. And im done. There are tons of ways to....... you know. But Sirius programing isnt worth my 16.99 a month.

Fuckers.

[DocSavage]

$16.99 ??? Month to month?

Glad I locked in long term many moons ago under $7.00

[Philly loser]

Pretty good summary

It is rather depressing

I am one of those who will stay as long as there is O&A and R&F

4+ years in... not sure what the future holds for the company nor me as a subscriber

[MatrixOutsider]

Aww, Michelle wasn't good enough to create a demand for her shitty, antiquated programming, so she has to bash the people who are still successful and remain on satellite. OA got resigned because they were successful.

[Biff Hardslab]

I'm glad I got a tour of the place in DC last year. I doubt Sirius (lets just go ahead and drop the "XM"..who are we kidding?) is going to keep that facility open much longer.

Aww, Michelle wasn't good enough to create a demand for her shitty, antiquated programming, so she has to bash the people who are still successful and remain on satellite. OA got resigned because they were successful.

Yeah, how dare she be upset she lost her job? Who the fuck does she think she is, working and paying bills and buying food, living indoors like some high falutin' whore? Fuck her, she should starve in the street so I can hear dick jokes.

There wasn't and isn't a "demand" for 90% of the channels on XM or Sirius, they just existed. No one was clamoring in the streets for "X-Country" or "Iceberg Radio", they were just there. Quit acting like she was supposed to drum up business to save her channel. The idea was to sell the service as a whole, not piece by piece. She didn't get let go because her channel wasn't popular, she was let go because of redundancy.

[cokelogic]

I'm going to stand up for Sirius XM here, since I feel this is going to turn into a bash fest. I will stay with the service for as long as O&A are on the platform, but I also know that uncensored satellite radio is the future.

And it's a shame Sirius XM wont have a channel to lure in Jazz listeners, but fuck Jazz. Who listens to it? I'd rather listen to Jizz! See what I did there.

And to say, "Erik Logan fled the company when the writing was on the wall"... is accurate.:icon_wink He was smart enough to know he'd be part of the 80 people fired, so he moved on and up in his career. Unlike this melodramatic, hamhanded Michelle Sammartino. Jazz stinks, here's your slip, goodbye goodbye goodbye.

[SlimeyGoatFuckr]

I guess I'm in it till the wheels fall off.

I bought a new car with XM built in a few weeks ago and once the three free months are done, I'm renewing. Not only that, I have a second car with XM built in and a few weeks back, I activated my two old MyFis once again because I'm tired of the Audible BS.

Sad those 80 people had to go and we all know none of this should have happened in the first place. They should have left the service as it was meant to be, commercial free music and some talk radio thrown in. That's what I signed up for back in 2004.

Hopefully it lasts.

[NeonTaster]

I haven't been around the whole O & A and satellite radio thing for a long time, but it seems to me that a merger (takeover) like this would be EXTREMELY complicated. A ton of the same people doing the same jobs, redundant facilities, incompatible hardware, etc.
I imagine it would take at least a year or two to get to a point where the company becomes consolidated enough to start growing as a new entity, and a few more years after that until it actually functions as a single entity properly.

Whatever. I'm just talking out of my ass. What I meant to say is that these huge companies can't get shit done quickly. It's just the way big business works.

[Big Dick Mcgee]

This will last about four or five years if that then the wheels are going to come off. They are to far in debt and they won't be able to last any longer then that in my opinion. I will stay as long as O and A and Ron and Fez are on. But after they are gone I'm gone.

[Three Hole Puncher]

I was laid off unexpectedly on Oct 5th. It was a shock and I am still trying to recover.

This broad has to be beyond clueless if she genuinely didn't see this coming. The writing was on the wall in fifty foot tall letters.

Never in my life have I enjoyed a job more, and I have always spent my time in jobs that I liked. That was something I made sure of, to follow a career path and to make sure that if I was going to do something for over 50 hrs a week, I better damn well like it.

There's your problem right there. She wasted 50 hrs. a week programming a stupid Jazz channel that maybe 20 people actually ever listened to. She should've taken a page out of Hoo Hoo's book and done jack squat... just treat it like a hobby job, do as little as possible, and collect a paycheck. I guarantee nobody would've even noticed if she had.

I loved the music I was exposed to. I LOVED helping unknown bands with a passion for jazz get played to the widest audience they could ever possibly imagine being exposed to… simply by sending me a copy of their CD in the good ol US Mail.

She played a bunch of crappy Jazz music that crappy nobody Jazz musicians sent her in the mail... and she wonders why she was among the first to be tossed out the door? :icon_roll

"Unknown Jazz band"... there's a redundant phrase for you.

Modern Jazz is STILL being made every day.

Really? Huh... whaddya know? That's news to me.

NOBODY CARES!

I could not believe we were seriously merging. Our CEO bailed on us. Ok, his wife was ill and I understand family coming first. But then people started leaving in droves, as if they gave up the ship. Lee Abrams… gone. Eric Logan… gone.

And after all this you STILL didn't put two and two together and figure out what was coming next? Seriously? It cames as a shock to you when your head was on the chopping block?

You, girl, is a dum bich.

I am working on JamminJazz.com

Translation: "I will be flat broke by the end of the month, when I will start a new website... JamminJizz4Rent$.com."

She's a looker... I'd check that out.

http://www.xmradio.com/images/channels/hosts/bio_page/michelle_sammartino_lg.jpg

[jackjack]

She's a looker... I'd check that out.
[/IMG]

Not bad, but she writes like she's an emotional disaster. She needs some cock, a vacation, and a figurative step back for a new perspective. It's just a DJ job.

[Not You]

From what I read of her long winded Woh is Me message, she played improvizational Modern Jazz. Holy Shit does that sound aweful, I can't stand jam band like The Dead and Fish that play scales for 20 minutes and call it a song. I can't even imagine listening to the shit she played on her channel. I'll admit that I like some old jazz, but not enough to listen to a channel dedicated to it.

As long as they leave The Virus, Ethel, Lucy & the Verge alone, I'll keep my subscription.

[askewcore]

I just dont like this cunt cause she referred to 9/11 as "The day the planes hit those buildings."

[struff]

I never once heard her or her channel. I hate that type of thing. But she has some really great points in there. They already dropped the Fungus channel and they fired people from decades channels and Flight 26 and Lucy and many more channels...channels that many of us know and love will be dropped. It's all very one-sided and definitely nothing like a merger at all (I knew it would be like this). They won.

[SaltyDelights]

I am so glad I cancelled when O&A were suspended and have no plans to give one red cent to a company that does this.

I still listen faithfully to every second of the show, though :)

[DonTheTrucker]

I feel bad for the chick, but if there was a demand for the music she played, she'd still have a job.

If she's really upset i'll throw her a mercy fuck.

[d0uche_n0zzle]

If she's really upset i'll throw her a mercy fuck.

Such a giving guy in her time of need.

If Melvin really had a brain, we'd all be in serious trouble.

[Brokeback Jimmy]

Well, as long as O&A stay, I'm on board.


I keep XM for O&A, and to a lesser extent Glenn beck on Talk 165. Everything else is bonus materal for me.

I'm in it until "Your mom's box"....

[CougarHunter]

She said it all.

That's why I cancelled the day they announced the merger and that's why I'll steal their content till the day they shut down.

I won't give that jew cocksucker a dime.

[gleet]

I was in a hated Walmart today and axed where the satlite radio stuff was. Electronics expert said oh, we don't carry that stuff any more.

[weakside]

This entire debacle makes my stomach turn. As soon as they announced the merger I knew (although I hoped otherwise) it was going to go bad. One of the basic economic principals is that competition is always better for the consumer.

I love satellite radio. Not only for O&A and R&F but also because I’m a huge sports talk radio fan that enjoys national stories over local ones. As well my musical taste varies depending on my mood so I love having all the variety that is available for me. Now at this point I just don’t see the service surviving (although once again, I am hoping otherwise). There is just too much debt at this point and no real competition to motivate the powers that be to improve the service.

[Ball of Hate]

Isn't this the point of satellite radio?? To give us channels and platforms that we can get on terrestrial radio??? I don't listen to jazz...couldn't even tell you what channel she was on. But that's not the point. This service exists to give us stuff that's not readily available.

It looks like it's shaping up for Sirius to become nothing more than terrestrial radio for pay. And that's not gonna be good for anybody.

[Death Metal Moe]

I have no idea why people are bashing this lady. She put a lot of pride in her job, is that something to make fun of these days?

And what kind of power moves are regular programmers and air jocks supposed to make? Logan had places to go to, most of these people stuck around hoping their Sirius counterparts would go and they would stay. If we are to believe her letter, Sirius jocks stayed a majority of the time.

I never listened to the Jazz station, but I hate when any choice is removed from our service. People listen for different reasons. My mother listens to the Christian music channels only. My father listens to the BBC only. My grandma flips around between country, oldies and showtunes. I listen to 202 almost constatly when online or near my receiver.

That's a wide range of reasons to listen. I'm sure there were people who listen mostly to the Jazz, and those people will be leaving.

And all I hear are reasons to leave, no reasons to join up these days. They're not doing a motherfucking thing, they're just existing. That's dangerous for business.

[tysonpunchinguterus]

I bought 100 shares at $0.49 each. Fire every redundant DJ they have to until I make my money back and a nice profit, bitches. Of course jazz was one of the first formats to take a hit. It's just slightly ahead of world music (whatever the fuck that means) in popularity. I get why she's upset. Nobody likes to lose their job, but there is no way she should be even slighty caught off guard by it. Mel's been saying from the start that the merger would help because they'd be able to get rid of redundant jobs and channels.

[Sidekick Dave]

She said it all.

That's why I cancelled the day they announced the merger and that's why I'll steal their content till the day they shut down.

I won't give that jew cocksucker a dime.
You tell 'em CH.


I did the same back two months ago. I do NOT want to see Hoo-Hoo get one bit of my hard earned money. In this economy, it's nice to see that Howard is still getting into the Howiecopter with Horseface out to the Hamptons.

[WOWmagnet]

She was rrrrrrrrrrrrrredundant.

[Three Hole Puncher]

I have no idea why people are bashing this lady.

I was bashing her because she's one seriously dizzy individual for not seeing these layoffs coming. The cockroaches in the walls of her studio saw that shit coming a mile away. Her head has do be filled with cement if she didn't realize that her job was on the line after the buttfucking Mel and Howie gave "the company".

I mean... did she not take a glance at her evaporating 401K at any point over the last month and realize that something wicked this way comes? Did she not hear her new overlord, Evil Lord Karmazi, announce to the world that cost-saving "synergies" were going to be taking place? Did she think "synergies" was a hot new Modern Jazz ensemble?

She put a lot of pride in her job, is that something to make fun of these days?

If Howard Stern is setting the tone for your company work ethic policy... then yes, taking pride in your work is pointless and laughable.

[richwithhatred]

More and more, Sirius is pushing me toward dropping my subs. The truth is the only thing I listen to is 202 and Boneyard. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop on Boneyard and I'm out. I can get R&F and O&A in other ways, and really don't hear much of either live anymore due to work. My inno would be just as effective to me as my o&a/r&f player without xm as it is now as my recorder of O&A/R&F to play back at night.

And to be honest, Slacker online is, by far, better than any of the music channels offered on Sirius/XM.

This merger is going to do big business for Slacker!

[weakside]

I bought 100 shares at $0.49 each. Fire every redundant DJ they have to until I make my money back and a nice profit, bitches. Of course jazz was one of the first formats to take a hit. It's just slightly ahead of world music (whatever the fuck that means) in popularity. I get why she's upset. Nobody likes to lose their job, but there is no way she should be even slighty caught off guard by it. Mel's been saying from the start that the merger would help because they'd be able to get rid of redundant jobs and channels.

I find it interesting there have been five different classifications of interest groups to come out of the satellite radio merger:

1. The O&A vs. Howard group
2. The XM vs. Sirius group
3. The “I just want my favorite channels to survive” group
4. The “I just want satellite radio to survive” group
5. The “I just want to make a profit from my stock” group

To be fair, a lot of fans do have an interest in more than one of these groups but it is the stockholders that seem to have the most venom (understandably) toward the results of the merger.

[Razor Roman]

Sorry, but this chick has a right to be upset.

Under Lee Abrams the music channels all tried to be fresh, different, and NOT FM, giving people a reason to pay for a service that they could get free. There's a smooth jazz station in nearly every city in the country.

Unfortunately what Mel has done was not look at the best channels on each service and combine them into something better than was already there, but he is basically replacing all of XM's music channels with Sirius' music channels. Period. Yeah it happens in radio all the time, but it's never happened on such a vast scale in so little time, and frankly I think a lot of people were just taken by surprise. From what I've read on Orbitcast, 60's on 6 may be one of the few channels not completely decimated - and in my opinion they had the most unique presentation on all the XM platform... but they will be shoving Cousin Brucie in there I'm sure.

Either way, right now I don't even have XM. I installed it in my new car, but my DC Adapter doesnt work, and since I canceled, they gave it to me free til January. It really had the potential to be more than a jukebox, but thats what it's becoming. I already have 30 gigs of my favorite music in my car all the time.

[jackjack]

I was in a hated Walmart today and axed where the satlite radio stuff was. Electronics expert said oh, we don't carry that stuff any more.

Some expert.
http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&ic=48_0&search_query=sirius+xm&Find.x=0&Find.y=0&Find=Find

This shows two radios, prepaid cards, and a bunch of accessories available in stores. Pretty much everything available on line from them.

[Danesy]

Sorry, but this chick has a right to be upset.

Under Lee Abrams the music channels all tried to be fresh, different, and NOT FM, giving people a reason to pay for a service that they could get free. There's a smooth jazz station in nearly every city in the country.

Unfortunately what Mel has done was not look at the best channels on each service and combine them into something better than was already there, but he is basically replacing all of XM's music channels with Sirius' music channels. Period. Yeah it happens in radio all the time, but it's never happened on such a vast scale in so little time, and frankly I think a lot of people were just taken by surprise. From what I've read on Orbitcast, 60's on 6 may be one of the few channels not completely decimated - and in my opinion they had the most unique presentation on all the XM platform... but they will be shoving Cousin Brucie in there I'm sure.

Either way, right now I don't even have XM. I installed it in my new car, but my DC Adapter doesnt work, and since I canceled, they gave it to me free til January. It really had the potential to be more than a jukebox, but thats what it's becoming. I already have 30 gigs of my favorite music in my car all the time.

I have to agree with Roman here. I don't even have XM anymore. I had a dispute with customer service, and in the end they gave it to me for free for 3 months. I will keep it till then obviously. But for music, I have my IPOD. It's sad, I used to love my MyFi, but now I just stick with the IPOD for music, and 202 for work.

[Three Hole Puncher]

Sorry, but this chick has a right to be upset.

I don't think anybody was claiming that she was "wrong" to be upset.

She lost a dream job... she got paid actual money to indulge her passion for an obscure genre of music for the benefit of a TINY audience. This was something that she would've done, and will keep doing, for free. She was like a little kid who got paid as a consultant to ride the rides at Disney World.

Nobody is arguing that it's a "good thing" that she got axed. Of course the Mel/merger(one in the same evil entity) spelled disaster for Sirius XM programming. Of course the "synergies" and corporate soul sucking are going to crush that which is progressive and unique out of sat radio's "product".

Seriously though... who the fuck didn't see this coming? The whole purpose of the merger, announced over a year ago, was to "cut costs". Who the hell doesn't realize that "cost cutting" spells the exact opposite of "quality programming"?

Once Howie, Mel, merger, corporate interests, montains of debt, pissed off stockholders, etc... once all this shit got thrown into the mix, quaility programming didn't stand a chance.

Within the next year or two... if Sirius XM manages to survive for that long... it wouldn't surprise me if all of the music channels went to the "Jack Format" that the corporate overlords all seem to love so much.

Michelle Sammartino should just be happy that she got paid to live out her fantasies for the last 7 years. Frankly, I'm amazed that it lasted so long.

[Begbie]

The displays at WalMart where I am have been gone for some time now. There's still some displays at best buy though.

[jimcfan]

Xm's passion for commercial free uninterupted music is an incorrect statement. Xm had plenty of commercials on many of the music channels early on, it wasn't until Sirius starting getting a little traction that Xm went "commercial free". Still not true, of coarse, due to the contract with clear channel. This is just nitpicking but they never had un-interupted music. There were plenty of plugs for other channels and reminders of what channel you were listening and what music they pretended to play. Xm's music channels sucked ass for the most part.

[Goblin]

Some expert.
http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&ic=48_0&search_query=sirius+xm&Find.x=0&Find.y=0&Find=Find

This shows two radios, prepaid cards, and a bunch of accessories available in stores. Pretty much everything available on line from them.


http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?ic=48_0&search_query=sirius+xm&search_constraint=0&ref=501457.501458&tab_value=39_Store

Look how many items are tagged In Limited Stores

[BullsLawDan]

Xm's passion for commercial free uninterupted music is an incorrect statement. Xm had plenty of commercials on many of the music channels early on, it wasn't until Sirius starting getting a little traction that Xm went "commercial free". Still not true, of coarse, due to the contract with clear channel. This is just nitpicking but they never had un-interupted music. There were plenty of plugs for other channels and reminders of what channel you were listening and what music they pretended to play. Xm's music channels sucked ass for the most part.

What planet are you on? Sirius' music channels suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ck. I hate the fucking talking, ramp-in-and-out-of-the-song dj's. This isn't FM, you assclowns, you don't have to hit the post!

[DJ Evel Ed]

Quote:
Originally Posted by CougarHunter http://www.wackbag.com/images_black/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.wackbag.com/showthread.php?p=2935860#post2935860)
She said it all.

That's why I cancelled the day they announced the merger and that's why I'll steal their content till the day they shut down.

I won't give that jew cocksucker a dime.


http://www.wackbag.com/images_black/statusicon/user_offline.gif http://www.wackbag.com/images_black/buttons/report.gif (http://www.wackbag.com/report.php?p=2937305)



You tell 'em CH.


I did the same back two months ago. I do NOT want to see Hoo-Hoo get one bit of my hard earned money. In this economy, it's nice to see that Howard is still getting into the Howiecopter with Horseface out to the Hamptons.


I'm paid up until March or I'd be cancelling with you. I'll be cancelling but will continue to listen to The Virus but only The Virus. The rest of the service sucks red & brown unwiped monkey ass

Anyone want to be nice and send me their Xamp password? I'll give you a blowjob on GTA4.
I never knew a bunch of people could use the same Xamp account, unless it's just a glitch in my system. I also have friends who were given XM as a corporate "gift" so I will try to listen that way too.

[kloraferm]

Without O&A and R&F, I don't really give a shit, but it is depressing the direction this has gone this past year and hope it improves, but who knows? And I'm probably in the minority, at least here, but I actually like jazz. Not all the time, but once in a while, I like to check a little bit out.