When XM and Sirius merged last year, many figured that the new company would give listeners the best of both services. After all, providing separate programming is expensive and defeats the purpose of the merger: cost savings.

That hasn’t happened.

I first purchased an XM radio when it was rolled out in Wisconsin in either 2000 or 2001. In 2004, I dropped the service for a few years, and then picked it up again in 2007. Last month, when I traded in my Pontiac for a new 2009 Ford, my service switched from an XM-branded radio to a Sirius-branded one.

After owning both brands, here’s what really irks me about the two:

1. Many good stations from XM (20 on 20, Fox Sports Radio, Kiss, et al.) are not available on Sirius.
2. The “Best of XM” package on Sirius does not include any of the really good stations. In fact, most of the “best of” stations are quite horrible and should simply be dropped altogether (especially XM Public Radio, The Bob Edwards Show, and The Virus).
3. The “Best of Sirius” includes: Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, the NFL, NASCAR, and Playboy Radio. That’s a little more value than the garbage that comes with the “Best of XM” package.
4. Though my car is new and came out after the merger, some of the stations do not show the right channel name yet. Backspin (Sirius 39), for example, displays some other station name.
5. The packages cost the same, except XM has over 170 channels, and Sirius has 130 channels. The audio quality is the same, so why is the price the same for 40 less channels on Sirius?

I’m going to let my Sirius trial expire and go back to 100% local radio. Sirius XM needs to get serious (sirius? ). What they truly need to do is merge everything together at the same price point, get rid of similar talk stations, and increase the perceived value for the subscribers.

Local radio already has the highest value for its ’subscribers’: it’s free. Plus your local radio stations do great things for your community, including:  offering up-to-date local news and information from local personalities, employing local staff, promoting local events, and the programming is just as diverse as  you’ll find on XM or Sirius.

Yes, I know, I am a terrestrial radio personality and I shouldn’t let anybody know that I have XM, but I do, and I have been a subscriber on and off since its inception. In fact, I was the fourth person to buy an XM radio at Best Buy in Brookfield back in 2000 (or was it 2001)?

Anyway, there are times that I like to crank up XM online while I’m cleaning the house, working on websites, or post-processing photos. Today, however, XM sent me an email informing me that it is going to start charging its customers $2.99/month for the online version of the broadcast.

I was offered the chance to renew my plan for a longer period and be given the service for free. However, with the way the economy has been rolling, I don’t know if I want to commit for any longer than my current three-month blocks.

This all comes on the heals of news that may be going bankrupt.

Plus, XM just merged with Sirius and it cut the amount of total channels between the two birds in half. Less content + less competition = more money. That’s bad math, in my book.

My current $12.99/month is just a drop in the bucket. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who will be jumping off of this sinking ship.