I’ve been xm-ing for over a month now and I really like it. I’m not in the vehicle that has xmradio that often, though, since I walk to work.
It’s nice not hearing commercials and DJ chatter. When we went to NYC a few weeks ago it was very nice to not have to switch CDs while we were driving along.
My favorite stations are Ethel, Fred, The Flow, XM Liquid Metal, The Rhyme, RAW, XM Classics, Real Jazz and Frank’s Place.
How much is it per month?
It’s ten dollars per month. You can have your credit card billed directly. I opted to pay for the year, though.
Does XM allow stations with earth based transmitters space to broadcast, similar to how DirecTV et al provide local TV channels?
JuanitaTech: Do you plan on getting XM in your home? If so, do they bill you twice? How was the reception around skyscrapers in the Big Apple? In bad weather?
Is the end of local radio near? Is it time to sell your stock in Infinity and Clear Channel?
I commute 1.5 hours a day, I’ve got to look into this!
Does Jonathan Schwartz, who I think is the spokesman in their radio ads, host a show on the Real Jazz station you like?
I believe with an XM radio thingie, you still get AM and FM, so total you get: AM, FM, and XM.
My brother, who works as an engineer at a relatively big stereo/etc company has XM for free for a few years. He gets to test it out for the company. Bastard. 
Yeah, Jonathan Scwartz has a jazz show. Not that I listen to it, but I hear the promos. I love my XM radio. Best purchase I’ve made in a while. Except now everyone wants me to drive on the long trips, so they can listen to it.
E72521, nah, local radio isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Not many people want to pay for radio.
I’d say, however, if your commute is 1.5 hours a day, I’d certainly look into getting it. I absolutely HATE dj chatter. It’s still present on xmradio, but it’s very minimal.
John, I don’t know if Jonathan Schwartz hosts the jazz show. I’m really not in the car that has xmradio that often.
Yes, zweisamkeit, I still have access to AM and FM. We have an Alpine head unit that has fm 1 - 3, am and xm.
So it’s $10 a month, plus you pay for installation and the radio itself, right? Am I forgetting any fees?
Also, I know XM has plenty of musical variety - what about talk shows? Can I get sports talk? :>
Dan, the initial investment is a few hundred dollars. The tuner box is $200 and the atenna is $100. I had a coupon because xmradio is one of our clients so the activation fee and first (well, really second) month’s fee was waved. Normally, the activation fee is either ten dollars if you activate it via the Internet or fifteen dollars if activated via telephone.
Installation of the aformentioned equipment is additional. That cost depends on who installs it for you. If you have an xm-ready head unit, that’s one less cost you have to worry about.
Yes, there’s also sports talk. There’s ESPN Radio, ESPNews, Fox Sports Radio, The Sporting News and (my personal fave…ok, not really) NASCAR Radio.
Yesssssssssssssssssssss! I’ve been thinking of saving up for this - my commute’s about an hour, both ways (plus the train, but ol’ XM won’t help me there), and I’m about fed up with listening to 980… 
I think there are places that do free installation, too.
I still don’t understand the xmradio subscription model. Once you’ve got the hardware installed, how do they force you to keep paying the subscription? That is, how do they deactivate your hardware?
DirectTv and the like make you hook them up to the phone line so they can call the home company for updates, but that’s obviously impractical with a car-based unit. So what do they do?
Does XM radio have good talk stations? Are the major (popular) DJ’s on it. (howard stern, rush, o’reilly, opie & anthony)??
is there a place where you can listen to a sample of the radio stations? what i am really looking for is an indie rock station, but unsure if any of the touted “alternative” stations would do. wouldnt want to spend $200 for nothing.
My brother got an XM module for Christmas, and he loves it. He lives in a mountainous area of Colorado, which means that local radio stations are often blocked by one local landmass or another. He also spends a lot of time in his car (he sells food to restaurants), so he really gets a lot of use out of it. He was really hurtin’ when his car was in the shop and he had to borrow another, with no XM…
You can hear samples of at least some of the stations, and see a channel listing, at the XM Radio programming page. I just tried listening to one of the comedy channels, and it was a routine by Brian Regan, one of my favorites.
TheNerd:
DirecTV works just peachy without a phone line hooked up. I know enough about DirecTV to know that I can not competently explain how it works, but it works without needing an uplink to HQ from your DirecTV box.
askol