Subaru SiriusXM Censorship Uncensored - Think of the Children, Alright?

An article entitled “ Subaru to SiriusXM Subscribers: Stop Listening to Comedy” from a website called automotiveitnews.org has been making the rounds on social media lately. It talks about an oddity with Subaru-vehicle satellite radios, where they sometimes default to Channel 001, the preview channel, upon starting the car, even when the subscription is paid up.

That may sound like simple software glitch — but it isn’t. It’s actually a Subaru-specific “feature”!

This is how it works: you get to your destination while listening to one of the SiriusXM channels marked with “xL,” an explicit language tag. It could be any one of the comedy, music, or talk channels marked as such, as can seen here on the channel guide. You turn off your Subaru and go about your business. Upon your return to the car, the radio switches to the preview channel, as if your subscription has just run out.

Having recently driven a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek, a great little car, I can tell you firsthand that it’s annoying and can be taken as a glitch. It turns out, however, that Subaru does this on purpose. The reason behind it is that a new driver or passengers can be offended by the content provided by those uncensored channels. Well, shit.

The owner of the Outback in the Automotive IT News article, “a 35-year broadcast journalism veteran,” is deeply upset by this feature. He says that every time he starts his car he has to scroll through his 36 presets, waaahhh, just to find the station he was listening to. The article even goes as far as using the C-word. Censorship!

I’ve been a Howard Stern fan for years. During my last semester in college, when Howard was still at K-Rock, I was offered an internship at the show on which, unfortunately, I had to pass due to workload and scheduling. I turned my wife into a huge fan. Channel 100 is the first preset in all my radios. I have Artie Lange’s cell phone number programmed into my phone and an invitation to his show. I often use references from the show when talking to my friends who are also fans. I am by no means a “Super Fan” but I know more than Bobo does and I just love the show.

At the same time, I’m a father of an eight-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy. One day, when my daughter was two years old, she asked why we were not listening to Howard while driving. Since then, we only listen to channel 100 when we are driving by ourselves or when the kids are asleep. I make sure that every time I park the car for the night to leave the radio on some other station.

That doesn’t always happen, however. Many times I throw the kids into their seats, start the ignition to warm up or cool down the car, and go back to fasten their seat belts or throw something into the trunk. Right at that time, I often hear Howard’s or Robin’s voice and have to scramble back to the radio or steering wheel controls to quickly change the channels, because will somebody please think of the children!?

Well, Subaru has. I don’t have an issue with this personally. People who often drive with coworkers, clients, and sensitive types shouldn’t have an issue with it, either. The majority of people who drive alone will get annoyed at this, as the feature is not defeatable — but how hard is really to program your presets and press a button to get back your favorite profanity filled station?

Cars have become our own little sanctuaries. When we’re driving alone we sing along with the radio, talk to ourselves, yell at bicyclists, other drivers, and sometimes our own lives. A car is a place we spend a lot of time, but it is not our home or our office. No one is there with us, no one can hear us, and too often we think that no one can see us picking our noses. It is a place where we can listen to whatever we want, even if it’s something some people would never admit to, such as raunchy comedy, sex shows, country music or hardcore rap.

Subaru, in this case, is helping you keep your questionable listening choices to yourself.