Which has better programming? What other factors should I consider? Which is better? Thanks in advance.
I have and love XM. I’ve had it for years in 3 cars and the boombox and now online (subscribers can get it via the 'Net at no charge)(including stations not broadcast like Special X.
That said, I think you’re going to have to look around the margins. The programming is not HUGELY different. But there is some.
If you’re a baseball fan you’ll want XM. Starting this season they have all of MLB on XM. It’s sweet.
Sirius has Stern. That makes me doubt their sanity and taste but I’m told other people like him.
XM has Opie and Anthony. See above comment. Urgh.
The only thing I could wish XM would commit to a Celtic channel. But otherwise I’m perfectly satisfied with it. It is a complete and unmitigated good in my life.
The reason I chose Sirius are:
[ul]
[li]Sirius has two liberal talk show channels, Air America and Sirius Left. XM only has one, which incorporates some (but not all) Air America programming.[/li][li]Sirius has two NPR channels, XM has none. Unfortunately the Sirius NPR channels do not include the two most popular programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, presumably because they don’t want to take viewers away from local NPR stations. But there’s still a lot of good programs on there.[/li][/ul]
Most of the programming is the same. If you’re like me, you won’t care about the political programming. Both now include online music-only access, so that difference is gone. Basically, it could possibly come down to whether you have a preference for the NFL or for MLB. XM has baseball, Sirius has football. I believe that it might actually also be easier to hit the XM satellites–I believe XM has their satellites in geosync over Texas while Sirius has their satellites doing this funny looping thing. Personally, I’ve found the available receivers for XM to be cleaner and easier to use than the available Sirius receivers.
I have XM, for some of the above reasons. Mainly every MLB game. 
Or basically what **Jonathan Chance ** said.
A few years ago I had to make the same decision - XM or Sirius?
I sent e-mails to the Customer Service departments of both XM and Sirius, asking each to tell me why I should chose XM over Sirius, or Sirius over XM, respectively.
XM answered my question in a matter of hours.
Sirius answered my question week later.
I went with XM - easy decision.
Sirius satellites should be easier to acquire because they are usually higher up in the sky. The XM satellites are in geostationary orbit, so they are directly above the equator. If you’re at 40 degrees latitude, the satellite is 40 degrees down from the zenith. Sirius satellites are in incined elliptical orbits, and I believe there are 3 of them. So at any given time there’s at least one satellite north of the equator (i.e. higher up in the sky than the XM satellites), usually two.
Baseball fans be made aware:
XM does carry all the games BUT you can only get the feed of the home-team for any given game. It sucks if you’re partial to your favorite teams announcers.
Frodosteve -
Shoot me an email (I tried to send you one but your profile had it blocked). I may be able to help you decide - Jonathan Chance can vouch for me. My email is in my profile.
Anna
Suppose you’re a left winger that likes baseball too. How much lefty talk do you really miss on XM? If it only has most of Air America programming then that still is an infinite step up from broadcast radio. Are there any handy side-by-side comparisons between the lineups to make the choice easier?
There seems to be a plethora of lefty-talk available on XM, at least according to my handy little channel list: 133-XM Public Radio, 167-America Left Progressive Talk, etc.
XM does have Bob Edwards as well. Not saying that that’s lefty, but if you were a fan of him on NPR, that might be worth considering.
XM’s America Left is mostly Air America - it has all of Franken, Morning Sedition, Springer and Majority Report. It only carries half of Randi Rhodes, and Mike Malloy isn’t carried at all. Instead it has Ed Schultz and Alan Colmes.
Sirius has a dedicated Air America channel, carrying all their programs. The Sirius Left channel has Ed Schultz and Alan Colmes as well as Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartman and others. Sirius also has OutQ (Gay & Lesbian channel) which may count as lefty talk.
Both have PRI affiliate channels. Only XM has Bob Edwards, but Sirius has two NPR channels so it has Diane Rehm, Talk of the Nation, Forum, and other good current event discussion shows. (And of course Motley Fool, Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, Wait Wait, etc.)
I had EXACTLY the opposite experience, as did a friend of mine. I went with Sirius, he went with XM anyway (the baseball thing was a biggie for him.)
You can try both online for free, too - they both have some kind of trial dealie. Check their websites.
Thanks, scr4. Looks like Sirius is a better choice for me. A techie question at large:
Do you need to be outside for satellite radio to work? With satellite TV, you need a good clear look at the southern sky. How about for radio? In my work building (brick walls and lots of fluroescent lights), radio doesn’t come in except for a few local staions. Would I be able to get satellite radio inside?
In a word, yes.
I have mine set up in the living room, but when the WryGuy is working in the basement he sometimes turns the satellite on and leaves the upstairs stereo off and turns on his radio downstairs. We’re supposed to mount the satellite receiver thingie outside, I THINK, but we haven’t and it works fine. (I have a plug-n=play unit, so it can go from my car to my house and vice-versa.)
I have my XM boombox indoors and I get fine reception. It has an antenna I can run outside if I need it but I haven’t in my home.
That’s probably the best advice.
As for indoor use - unfortunately I cannot get good reception indoors. Even with the antenna on a south-facing window ledge, it doesn’t work very reliably. I’ve tried it in my office and home (1st floor of a 2-story apartment building) with same results.
Even though the op seems to have made up his/her mind, I just wanted to chime in with XM is the only place where you can hear the illustrious Tony Kornheiser.
Every now and then you can hear them say “AndyPolley!” which makes me smile.
Either way, enjoy.
Somehow, I got really lucky. My antenna is inside my dorm room, and I just managed to get it pointed out the window in the little gap between buildings to get it to hit the satellite. I get full-strength reception as well. So yes, you can get it to work indoors, but you probably need to have it close to a window.