Satellite Radio: The Best Thing Ever?

Hi. My name is Patrick. I have a problem. I can't stop listening to my satellite radio. March 6th, 2005 will forever be known as The Day I Moved to Satellite.

After plunking down the credit card and signing up for the installation, there was about a 15-minute period of buyer's remorse. I DO spend a lot time in my car. And I've got a few long road trips planned. But this was an awful lot of money to be spending on myself. Was this really the best way to spend that money?

And then, after it was installed and activated, I finally got the chance to play with it. And I instantly fell in love with it.

You're probably asking yourself "Why would I pay for radio? I'm getting it for free in my car right now." Well, do you remember when you used to get 4 television stations and thought that was all you needed? Cable television came along and changed everything. The leap from regular commercial radio to satellite radio is a lot like that (and now that you've gone to cable, will you ever go back to just 4 TV channels? Didn't think so.) The "old" stereo in my car has presets for 12 FM channels. I would say that maybe 3 of them are worthy of that status.

I love music. I listen to a lot of music. At home. At work. In the car. If I don't have the radio on at home, I'm usually listening to a CD or searching for a television channel that still shows videos. Like cable, satellite radio gives you the opportunity to go out and find what it is you're really interested in. Specialization is a beautiful thing. You like bluegrass? How does a whole channel of bluegrass 24 hours a day sound? Whatever you are into, they've got it. I've got a channel that only plays Elvis. I've got 6 country stations that I'll never listen to (but I'm OK with that). Even if I only ever listen to 25% of the stations I have at my disposal, my radio universe has been significantly expanded.

But there is more than just music. You like sports? How does EVERY NFL game sound? Even better - how about a channel devoted to talking about football all year long? The sports community is well represented by satellite radio (and there are rumors of the existence of some type of "National Hockey League", but I can't confirm that just yet…). There are dozens of channels of talk, entertainment, news and weather. You also get free streaming audio on your computer at no extra charge. How cool is that?

The DJs are on satellite radio are unobtrusive. They come on for a few quick seconds, give you a little bit of information, and then move on. And if you want to know the name of the song and you simply can't wait, you just check the display for full artist and song title information (I can't tell you how many times I've said, "Who is THAT?" in the last two weeks and had to pause and check). You don't have to wait 20 minutes for somebody who might tell you what he or she played. You can also get a full listing of what other stations are playing at the moment with the press of a button. And did I mention there are no commercials? Yeah. That's right. No commercials. My only complaint is the sound quality. It's not quite CD quality, but it's very good.

It's not just the sheer number of stations; it's the depth and breadth of music that each station plays within its genre. Absolutely amazing. One of the things I miss most about college is the exposure you get to all different kinds of music. I haven't been able to recreate that until now. I've heard artists I've never heard before on the radio. I've heard songs by bands that I completely forgot about. I've heard songs I've never heard by groups I thought I knew fairly well. I can't wait for my first long road trip with satellite radio.

If you're the guy that is happy with radio stations that play the same 12 songs every 90 minutes, then stick with "free" commercial radio. Otherwise, there are brave new worlds out there waiting for you to explore.