Why Satellite Radio Will Beat FM

The last two hours had been filled with commercials, annoying DJs raised in the Gilbert Gottfried school of not annoying people, and radio friendly alt-rock that would make Phil Collins wince.

An oncoming car swerved out of my way and flashed its lights, honking angrily. That was it. This was getting dangerous, and I was getting tired. No more radio.

There's something desperately wrong with FM radio if I can't find a song or show that stops my scan button; I'd been driving for hours on a solo tour for an acoustic album I was trying to sell, and at one point my cigarette had even burned my fingers because I hadn't moved them from the dial for so long.

So, as soon as I reached the next town, I bought a satellite radio at the first Best Buy I saw.

FM radio has been a good friend to me in the past, but it's past its prime in a number of ways; there are thirteen minutes or more of commercials every hour, each song is thrust onto the air by a corporate bribe to a radio station head leaving independent music out in the cold, and the censorship was getting so bad that I started to notice words like "suicide" and-I swear to God - "Rock and Roll" being unnecessarily edited out for fear of an FCC fine. It was time to leave FM radio dying in the gutter and embrace a new medium.

Satellite radio has been gaining popularity for quite simply becoming what FM radio should have been for the last dozen or so years: a free-spirited place to listen to music and opinions, the material only censored by your own discretion, the channels vast and varied in their content. Satellite radio offers a steady signal nearly anywhere in the United States, which FM can't claim, and its audiences pay a monthly fee to keep commercials where they should be-far the hell away from music.

Since my switch to satellite radio, I haven't looked back in distaste at either the money I've spent or the old friend I've left behind. As Dylan said, the times they are a changin', Dylan who, by the way, has a show on satellite radio (XM, specifically).

The concept is simple and beautiful. You see, the satellite companies function by offering a product that not everyone will go for, similar to cable TV. The right wing conservative Christians aren't gonna be rushing out to hear Howard Stern on Sirius radio, nor will non-music fans spend the dough for a brand spankin' new XM radio receiver. With a small monthly charge, they can cater to the fans that FM radio used to have, and win their souls over in a more complete way than a technology based on advertising can offer.

The lack of government control makes for a free environment, which gives satellite radio that spontaneity that radio had at some point-when I was a kid, maybe, listening to KSHE95 on a hot summer day while laying next to a fan, hoping that the next song would be the one I'd waited all day to record onto my tape deck.

Finally, the friend was back. The big, bad control system was gone. It was like things used to be.

Technology is great for doubling back on itself; I can finally hear the radio again. All it took was some exclusivity. And, of course, my $12 a month.

FM radio is in its last throes because it's simply not interesting or entertaining in a large way anymore. As the advertising dollars dry up, we'll see something happen to FM that will echo AM's fate. And guess what? Nobody's going to really mourn.

Satellite radio's here to stay.