Confessions of a Satellite Radio Junkie

As someone who has been a fan of many styles of music for all of my life, I was very excited about the possibilities brought on by Satellite radio, XM in particular. Once I purchased my first receiver and became a subscriber in May of 2004, I got everything I wanted and much more.

Here in the United States, we have two choices when it comes to satellite radio, XM and Sirius. While I prefer both over traditional AM/FM radio, I am writing this from the perspective of a very satisfied XM subscriber, and for that reason, XM Satellite Radio will be the focus of this particular piece. I hope that, by the time you've finished reading, you'll understand why I've made the switch to satellite radio, and hope that you will want to do the same.

Presently, XM Satellite Radio is the leading satellite company, with just over 7 million subscribers in the United States, and boasts approximately 170 channels of music, sports, news, talk, entertainment, and traffic and weather for several major US cities. As you read, you'll see examples of the content provided in each of these categories.

I first heard about satellite radio on an infomercial on a local FM station here in Seattle, and was interested from the start. At that time, however, XM was the only company and they did not have home units. Being blind, I preferred to have a unit I could use both at home and when riding in the car.

For the first couple years, I kept my eye on both companies via their individual websites as well as different articles and reviews in the media. Once I convinced my wife that a satellite radio system was something I wanted, I then had to choose which company I wanted to use. I'll admit, when I first subscribed, both satellite companies seemed pretty equal. The two things that pushed me to XM were the wider availability of equipment in my area, and the company's addition of legendary hard rock and metal DJ Eddie Trunk to the line-up of XM 41, The Boneyard. I knew I wanted satellite radio because I was tired of the same boring playlists on commercial radio, and satellite radio has channels representing many genres of music not found on traditional "free" radio. At the time of this article, XM has sixty-nine commercial-free music channels, and five channels programmed by Clear Channel Radio which do have commercials mixed in with the music.

I went in to a local electronics store on the Friday night of Memorial Day Weekend, and purchased the Delphi SkyFi and boombox. The salesman took care of the activation of the radio while he rang up my purchase, so once I got it home, all I had to do was plug it in and turn the unit on. I'll admit, I was up most of that first night exploring what XM had to offer in music, news, talk, sports, and comedy. I found the SkyFi very easy to use, both with and without the remote. In no time at all, I had the channel line-up pretty much memorized, and knew the numbers of my favorite channels easily.

In the time since I've signed up with XM, I feel the differences between themand Sirius have grown exponentially, and I still feel I made the right choice. In the summer of 2004, XM announced the hiring of Opie & Anthony to do a radio show and giving them their own channel. Having been a fan of O&A from their terrestrial radio days, I was quite excited. That same year, XM also added college sports. They added coverage of the ACC, Big 10, and PAC 10 conferences. This allowed me to catch all of the Arizona State Sundevils games even though I'm living near Seattle and don't have an ASU radio affiliate up here. Then, to top it off, XM obtained the exclusive broadcast rights for all Major League Baseball games. This allowed me to not only catch the Mariners when I was out of town, but also the A's, Red Sox, and Diamondbacks, my other favorite teams. In the fall of 2005, XM added coverage of the NHL, and is now the exclusive home to NHL play-by-play and great hockey talk. No matter where I am in the US, I can catch my favorite college football, NHL and MLB teams, regardless of whether or not there is a terrestrial radio affiliate in my location. For fans of Oprah Winfrey, XM has added its Oprah And Friends channel, with exclusive content from Oprah herself, and many of her friends, many of whom appear on her popular TV show. In short, there's something for everyone on XM.

Since I've subscribed, XM has shuffled the line-up of music channels, added new channels in all areas of programming, and deleted some channels. All changes have been for the better, with the exception of the deletion of The Torch, their Christian rock channel. However, once a music channel leaves the satellites, it is still available through XM Radio Online.

Another reason I stay with XM is the technological innovation. XM was the first of the two satellite radio companies to offer a wearable receiver which picked up live satellite radio outside of its docking station, as well as allowed the user to play stored content. The Delphi MyFi was released in late 2004, though I purchased mine in 2005. Since then, XM has released a new line of portable players in their XM2Go line, many of which play MP3 and other digital music files in addition to stored XM content, the Pioneer Inno being the most popular unit.

I'll admit, price was also an issue at the time. When I first subscribed, there was a $3 per month difference in what XM and Sirius were charging. XM had the lower subscription rate, although their equipment was around $20 more. The lower subscription rate, coupled with more channels of content, made XM the obvious choice. Both companies now charge the same $12.95 rate, but XM still seems to have the larger amount of content.

Earlier, I mentioned that XM has channels representing several genres of programming not well-represented, if represented at all, by traditional AM/FM radio. In addition to nationally known news, talk, and sports networks, XM has music channels representing rock, pop, country, classical, childrens' music, reggae, and even "Beautiful Music", sometimes called Muzak or easy listening. You may be saying to yourself "I can get that on my regular radio stations. Why would I pay for it?", and you'd be right, to a point. However, with XM, each genre of music is divided into channels with specific targeted genres and subgenres in mind. For instance, in country, there is a country hits channel that has a similar playlist to what you'd find on most US country stations today. However, there are also channels dedicated to classic country, folk, bluegrass, and alternative country/Americana. In Rock, you do hear the traditional rock radio staples, but all of the rock channels on XM go much deeper into artists' catalogues, playing the lesser-known songs, as well as new music from classic artists, something you don't often hear on FM radio. The fact that each style of music is represented by several commercial-free channels allows XM's music programming to be more targeted to specific audiences, with deeper playlists than traditional free radio stations. For instance, you'll hear a well-known Peter Frampton song on Top Tracks, and you may hear that same song on your local classic rock station. But, chances are you won't hear music from his new CD on local radio as you would on XM's Deep Tracks. Many people don't know that their favorite hard rock acts from the eighties and early nineties are still putting out great new material. The Boneyard on XM not only plays the classics you remember, but also exposes you to the new releases from these artists that you're not going to hear on local FM. I know I've focused on the rock genre here, but the same is true for country, jazz, soul, R&B, hip-hop, and every other genre.

Unlike terrestrial radio, XM also offers uncensored content on many of its channels, including Liquid Metal, Squizz, Boneyard, and Raw, one of XM's rap/hip-hop channels. Along with that uncensored content, people who do not wish to hear such language have the option of blocking those channels so that their kids can't accidentally tune into one of those stations. Satellite radio lets you, not the FCC, decide what content is acceptable for your ears.

Since XM now offers local traffic and weather for my city, and twenty others across the country, I rarely turn on AM or FM at all. I might use it to catch some local news, but I can get that from TV or from our local newspaper's website. XM Satellite Radio has pretty much taken away any need I'd have for traditional free radio. In two and a half years of having satellite radio both at home and in the car, I've probably listened to a whole three hours of local radio...Less than an hour a year.

A few years ago, some of the local stations here in the Seattle area were running anti-satellite radio ads, deploring satellite as being full of nothing but bad language and no special content. These ads also depicted the reception as being spotty at best. Because both sides of our family live outside of our area, my wife and I do a lot of driving around Oregon, Washington, and Montana. I can tell you that the signal on my XM receiver has rarely faded, even in mountain passes. I can still get a crystal clear signal with XM in places where there is no AM or FM station to be picked up. Reception has not been an issue except for a small patch near an army base, and a couple minutes of signal loss in the mountains of Montana.

I feel very strongly that, for any fan of music, uncensored comedy, baseball, college sports, Indy racing, PGA golf, or the NHL, XM is worth the equipment cost and the monthly subscription rate. Personally, I would never go back to terrestrial radio. XM and Sirius are both standard equipment on many new cars these days, and XM has recently announced trials for buyers of used cars from Honda. If you buy a car and it has either XM or Sirius, I recommend you take advantage of whatever free trial they offer as a chance to evaluate the service. Get to know the channels, find things that you enjoy, and hopefully, it'll be worth it to you to continue your subscription after the trial is up. The next thing you know, it'll lead to a home unit.

If you're still unsure, or would like to do some further research on Satellite Radio in general, or XM specifically, here are a few websites for you to visit.

XM Satellite Radio Official Site: www.xmradio.com

XM Fan Forum: www.xm411.com

Another XM Fan Forum: www.xmfans.com

Note: The two sites listed above also have search boxes which allow you to search the XM library for your favorite artists and/or songs, and let you see when each song from that artist was last played on the various channels. Use it to search for that great artist you haven't heard on the radio in a while, and see what comes up. I guarantee you'll be Surprised.

Sirius Official Site: www.sirius.com

Orbitcast; A Great Satellite Radio Blog: www.orbitcast.com

If you have any questions about anything I've written here, or would like me to elaborate on any of my points, please feel free to contact me through my profile page.