I’ve got XM satellite radio in my new ride with 100 channels of commercial free goodness (except for the news channels) for $ 10.00 a month! I don’t think I’ve listened to 10 minutes of FM (or AM) in the last month - total. FM is just so crappy lately anyway, with Clear Channel and similar stations with their pay for play schemes and shock jocks homogenizing and crapping all over the FM landscape. Is FM on the way out? XM is just so, so, so much better - for small price.
I just got Sirius installed in my car; it was my “big” Christmas present.
No commercials, no yammering DJs, just excellent music. I’m hearing songs from my childhood and teen years that I haven’t heard in many, many years. It’s not the same old playlist over and over. I can’t imagine ever going back to regular FM.
Sign up now and we’ll include this Handsome New Tote Bag!
And thats not all…!
Satellite radio is considered very risky. Most don’t give it odds of surviving. OTOH, digital radio over existing bands (AM and FM) has been recently approved by the US FCC. Unlike the AM stereo format “wars” of the '80s, the feds are actually smart enough this time to pick a standard. (AKA the non-decision that killed AM.) Stations are already buying the equipment and expect ads for consumer gear in the very near future.
Now, the same companies own most of the FM stations broadcasting the same crap, but the AM side (assuming it also takes off, very iffy) is owned by a much more diverse lot. Since they’re stuck in gospel/talk/foreign language hell, there is some chance that with a gain in potential audience, they will come back to life in a new and interesting form.
Still, the only real hope for better music over the airwaves is a complete overhaul of how the music industry works. The other digital pressures may make this work.
BTW, I have a lot of digital music stations available on cable. Every single one of them absolutely horrible. Having more choices of crap to choose from isn’t really a choice.
I think AM digital is DOA – because of interference problems, the stations are only allowed to use it during daylight hours.
I suspect that this is the golden age of satellite radio – using history is our guide it will only go downhill from here, much like AM and FM have withered from their original bright futures.
I agree 100%. You’d have to pay ME $10 a month to get it. I also wouldn’t pay $50 a month for cable/DSL internet. Why pay 5x what I pay now for the same crap only faster?
I just keep the radio off most of the time because they only play music I hate or music I like but have heard a thousand times too many.
If it bothered me that much (like if I went for more long drives), I’d probably just get a CD changer or something.
I don’t think FM is on the way out, though, because as far as I know, most people don’t mind hearing the same old stuff on the classic rock stations or the same new stuff on the Top 40 stations. Even AM still has its place.
Goodness I hope not. Or at least not until someone develops a fully portable, walkman style XM or Sirius receiver. Otherwise, what will I listen to while walking, mowing the lawn, painting the house, etc.
Satellite radio is great, but until there’s a receiver / antenna that’s as small as and works as consistently and easily as a standard FM walkman-style armband radio, there’s a lot of places I can’t listen.
Since I do not live in the US, I can not say much about your AM / FM debate.
However, I am extremely happy with my “WorldSpace” digital satellite receiver. I only paid for the radio, and most of the channels are free!
Even though, it has many channels to choose from, I usually only listen to the country or the classical music channels.
Is is far better than any other radio I have ever used, but it is a home / portable unit, and NOT vehicle mountable.
The only problem with it is that the service, is not available in the US.
And Lo! Radio Shack shall provide!
Er, sort of.
The units on the linked page are DAB/FM receiver and a DAB/FM receiver with MP3 player. Unfortunately they have a rather difficult user interface. And their digital-radio receivers work on the terrestrial Eureka-147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system, which is or will be used just about everywhere in the world (including Canada), except the USA and Japan.
I am not aware of any walkman-style receivers for US satellite digital radio. And wouldn’t you need line-of-sight to the sky for XM and Sirius? This might be a problem for portables. Although, to be fair, the demo DAB receiver I tried at Radio Shack appeared to have trouble receiving the terrestrial DAB signal on the lowest level of the Eaton Centre mall in Toronto, presumably because of the levels of concrete in the way. I can only assume that an XM/Sirius walkman would have the same problem.