Celebrating fifteen years of more or less continuous broadcasting from the same transmitter... 101.5 FM! So how did XM decide to mark the occasion? By consummating a merger with Sirius. What does it mean to me? Some channels go, others stay. The worst news is that Beyond Jazz, which I played on Friday and Saturday mornings to contrast the smooth jazz on weekdays and mainstream jazz on Sundays, is gone. | No more jazz fusion or experimental music to herald the arrival of another weekend. Yes, I depend on a corporate entity to supply my programming, essentially for free, so why should I complain?  At least the Loft made it through the eye of the needle, and a second alternative channel has taken the place of Starbuck's XM Cafe, relieving my station of the burden of someone's else's advertising. | The best news is that AudioVisions, which featured ghoulish sounders and offered hideous nature sound effects such as screeching birds as soothing entertainment, is also history. AudioVisions put the exhume in XM. I went so far as to push its programming past my bedtime with mellow instrumentals from my iPod. The Spa is a vast improvement. now sounds the same!
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