I had that problem for awhile when I set the radio at 88.7; I changed it to 88.3 and for the most part the problem went away.
Still, “bleed-over” is a problem in most large metro areas. There are two other options to the tape adapter:
There is an adapter you can have installed in your car that will effectively “hard-wire” satellite radio into your sound system. Most major electronics chains carry them.
Have an “after-market” satellite-ready stereo installed. You can get one for not a whole lot of money and most are better quality than factory-installed radios (depending on the make and model of your car).
I’ve had XM for over 2 years now and have no complaints. I haven’t heard enough of Sirius to make an effective comparison. I got XM for baseball, and also love the comedy channels.
A quick trip to the XM channel guide will clear it up for you. Fred (80’s alternative) is my favorite–where else can you still hear Joy Division, Art of Noise, or any Flock of Seagulls song that isn’t “I Ran”?
Another great feature of XM is their “mini-channels”. At certain times of the year, they open up a channel with music relevant to that holiday. This past Halloween, they had “Igor” with horror-themed music and narrations of scary stories. At Hanukkah, they air a channel with a Jewish theme–everything from traditional klezmer music to Richard Hell and the Voidoids!
It doesn’t take long to get a feel for what’s what, and not all of the channels have goofy names. I tend to ignore the names, anyway, and just go off the channel number. Off the top of my head, I can’t tell you the names of 44, 47, or 54, but I know what music is played on them.
This is what I have. I got Sirius installed earlier this year (got it for Christmas) on my Prius. I live in San Diego and have driven up to Los Angeles and at no point have I ever heard a whisper of interference. It is fantastic reception.
Edit: I got it installed at Best Buy. I can’t remember how much, because the boyfriend paid for it as part of his gift to me.
Sirius used to have a world music station, but programming was always pre-empted for months-long single-artist promotions. Their Coffeehouse channel occasionally plays world music, though.
I love Sirius, but the single-artist channels are my biggest peeve.
I only got satellite radio for one reason: Howard Stern, so I went with Sirius. The day he leaves is the day I cancel my service.
As far as reception goes, here in south Orange County CA, its pretty good but not perfect. Often the signal just disappears and its not when I’m going through a tunnel or something. There have been two or three days over the past two years where the signal was completely gone the entire day. The next day everything was back to normal even though I didn’t do anything to the system to try to fix it. Last week the signal would come in for about 15 seconds and then go out for the next 45 seconds. This lasted all day!
If I’ve heard Howard’s whole show, I turn on one of the music channels. There are 3 main problems with terrestrial radio, commercials, D J’s and bad music (even on one’s favorite stations). Satellite radio only helps with one of these problems, the commercials. The D J’s on Sirius probably don’t talk as much as terrestrial D J’s, but I’m paying to hear music, not mindless chatter! Shut up and play some music. Sirius has a wide variety of music genre stations that offer pretty narrow playlists so one can choose a station the is supposed to feature the music you like, but still I’m lucky if I hear 1 out of 5 songs that I enjoy.
For music listening, its not worth $12.95 a month.
