Radio, Radio
I am wondering if anyone is in a position to comment on satellite radio. I have been contemplating hooking myself up with Sirius or XM for quite a while now. It’s been years since I listened to the radio regularly - for obvious reasons. I get the impression that satellite radio would change that. I feel like satellite radio might open me up to new bands and stuff from bands I like that I haven’t heard. I’d appreciate any comments from those of you who have subscriptions or know people who do.
December 23, 2004 in Music |
my buddy says his friends that have them all love it. He’s a big kayaker, and he’s on the road a lot driving to different rivers in the middle of nowhere, so satellite provides good radio where none would otherwise be available.
You’re not in the same situation obviously.
He also says that reception can be bad if you’re close to a mountain and the satellite is in the wrong place. something to check out for you, perhaps.
Comment by Bryce I — December 23, 2004 @ 11:09 am
Bryce–
The key here is good radio. I get radio and so does everyone else near any kind of civilization, but I’d like to hear good radio. That’s why I’m asking if there’s enough good programming on Sirius/XM to warrant a purchase. I hadn’t thought about the reception problem.
Comment by Dallin I — December 23, 2004 @ 11:18 am
I bought a car a little over a year ago and it came with free XM for a few months. It was surprisingly good — terrific variety of stations; no commercials; better sound than radio; and no local “morning zoos”. Of course, when my free trial ran out, I didn’t sign up, and I probably won’t; mostly because we don’t drive that much, and when we do long drives the kids are watching the portable DVD player. (If you have kids and do long drives, that is the best investment you’ll ever make. ever.)
Also, Howard Stern will soon be only on Sirius. Which makes me fear for XM’s future.
Comment by Greg — December 23, 2004 @ 1:58 pm
The technology seems really on the cusp right now of being useful — the new walkman for XM looks good. But I’d like to see satellite radio and Mp3 ability rolled into one. I don’t know about the quality of the services, though.
Comment by Steve Evans — December 23, 2004 @ 2:12 pm
On moving out of Manhattan, I was most excited to finally have reason to buy 1) a car and 2) satellite radio. I’ve been disappointed by neither. Satellite seems able to program towards audiences that wouldn’t be commercially viable on conventional radio. For example, you’d never have an “unsigned artists” channel on FM.
Only suggestion I’d make is to get the kind of radio that you can use both in the car and office/home. My XM is built directly into my car’s tuner and I often wish I could bring it to the office with me.
Comment by jdb — December 23, 2004 @ 3:13 pm
I don’t know if this will make any sense … but I sometimes have an odd urge to treat the radio as if it were an internet browser. It’s this feeling that there’s a “back” and “forward” option to hear the past channels I was listening to. Of course that is absurd because that’s not really the way my car radio functions.
Comment by danithew — December 23, 2004 @ 3:41 pm
There’s internet radio stations that function that way, though.
Comment by Susan Malmrose — December 23, 2004 @ 5:41 pm
I think the key to the decision is how much control you want over your music. Satellite radio is great (my experience comes from it being installed in most of the rental cars I get on business trips) in terms of quality, variety, and consistency, but it’s still somebody else deciding what you are going to hear. If you want to be the one in control of the playlist, getting a high-quality MP3 player is probably a better suggestion. I’ve had the IRock for a little over two years and the 256MB storage (with smart card added) more than holds the 99 songs the player can handle at a time. I won the Dell equivalent of the 5gig IPod at my office Christmas party last week but it’s still on backorder. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Not that letting go of playlist control is totally a bad thing. Many times I’ve come home from those business trips revved up to find an obscure artist/song that I heard over XM. The most recent addition was the greatest hits album from the “Friends of Distinction.” Total two-hit wonders, but I really like their two hits! Those songs are now on my MP3 player.
Still, with all that said, when my car stereo died three weeks ago, I asked Santa for an AM/FM/CD/MP3-compatible AIWA unit with an input for my IRock (Best Buy $119 plus kit with free installation) rather than an XM. 300 songs to choose from on one disk, and all 300 are MY choices.
Comment by Chad Too — December 24, 2004 @ 9:50 pm
Satellite radio is one of many things on my “If I Had a Little More Money” list. I’d love to have it but not quite enough that I’m willing to shell out for it yet. It’s kind of like a lot of DVD’s I also don’t buy. I think, “Dang, that Charlie Chaplin set looks really cool, but I probably won’t watch it that much.” Satellite radio sounds really cool, but I’m not in the car all that often and I never listen to the radio when I’m at home.
Comment by John H — December 24, 2004 @ 11:00 pm