Satellite radio captures ears of millions - Do you XM or Sirius ?

Satellite radio's popularity is growing rapidly nationwide. The leading provider, XM, claims it has 2 million subscribers, and smaller competitor Sirius Satellite Radio recently said it has 500,000 subscribers. The two companies now offer a total of 133 commercial-free music channels and 88 of talk radio. Both XM and Sirius are racing to launch new technology and programming.

Satellite channels beam their signals to a satellite orbiting more than 22,000 miles above the earth, which then transmits them to radio receivers in cars and homes. Subscribers buy receivers, priced as low as $50, to receive the service. The technology allows listeners to hear the same station anywhere in the continental United States.

The Federal Communications Commission initially opened up bandwidth on its satellites for commercial broadcast in 1997. Four companies paid $80 million each to access the spectrum.

www.cnn.com...

Subscribers often say that in addition to its availability, satellite radio's voluminous programming -- as diverse as music from rapper Eminem and a National Rifle Association talk show -- is why they pay $10 a month. Music genres from the obscure to the ubiquitous fill the radio dial. NASCAR fans find comprehensive coverage, as do opera enthusiasts and Britney Spears fans.

"With their library of more than 2 million songs, you're bound to hear songs you like that you haven't heard in years," says subscriber Ryan Mathus, 20, a student at the University of Delaware.

But Mathus says a lack of local news, weather and traffic detracts from satellite radio's coverage.

To fill that gap, XM has recently patented technology to use ground repeaters and tailor listeners' weather and traffic to their location.

That move has sparked a heated dispute about how far satellite radio should infringe on traditional radio's long-held territory.

XM reports it is on track to reach 20 million subscribers by 2010. Sirius will soon have talk stations hosted by skateboarding champion Tony Hawk and the staff of racy men's magazine Maxim. Car companies Honda, Porsche and General Motors plan to offer satellite radio in new vehicles, and new premium pay-channels, such as one from Playboy, are being added.


I am a subscirber to XM Radio and I love it ! I don't know that I'll ever go back to full time FM listening. Right now the only time I do is if I'm traveling and want to tune in to Howard Stern or local Weather.

I think this is a great thing and hope it's around for years to come !

So do you XM or Sirius and what are your thoughts and opinions ?

Its all part of one plan.... to find where you are at any giving time.
At the end of 2005 all tv sets with be analog. No air waves, all satillite, if your tv is not compatible you must buy a type of reciever for you to get any stations period. Soon enough all radio stations will be recieved only from satillite transmissions and the internet. Already there is wireless internet. (Laptops, phones) Scary stuff. The gov. will soon be able to track people anywhere they go.


www.wnd.com...

yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand the tracking and keeping tabs on us...

but let's talk about the service itself, I think it's awesome. It doesn't matter if it's a tool for "big brother" to track us, they're going to get us one way or another.

Xm is cool. We didn't find about it until it came with my mom's car. We like it so much we had it installed on our other cars.

I like listening to Cinemagic (27) and of course Comedy (150) and other various top 20 music stuff.

As far as fm goes, I never really listen to it. Who needs to know the weather? Just look outside our car, and if you can't do that, find a tv and the wheather station. Commercial free is really nice, I just hope they stick to it.

Foxtrot- quit being so paranoid, what makes you think the government isn't already tracking us anyway?

At the end of 2005 all tv sets with be analog.

Digital my friend, digital.

Its not because you have digital tv that they can track you.

Satellite radio will let them track you? Many will have a home receiver.... man the government allready have our adress...




like elevatedone said... they will get us one way or another

I have my presets set at :

80's
70's
90's - for my gal, there's not a lot I like on the 90's station.

Fine Tuning - early genises, yes, ambeint / world music, etc.

Comedy - obvious...

Visions - audio visions, welcome to wonderland !! more ambient, space music... etc.

Good Stuff

Im not saying xm isnt the shizzz! I think its great that you can have multiple genres of music without hearing the annoying commercials. I believe its at soundtrack or radioshack, there is xm headphones, and the reciever is about the size of an MP3 player.

i use and love my xm radio. its all about the quality.

I'm going to check into getting XM portable, so that I can listen while here at work too

My daughter ( age 12 ) thinks it's the best too, it has the Disney station !!

We have XM in one car and it is sweet. My family was vacationing in the mountains last week and there were no local radio stations but XM came in perfectly. I like listening to Highway 16, lots of good music there. 40's and 50's are fun to listen to since I've never heard 99.9% of the songs.

Foxtrot are you serious? Satellite radio is a receiver it doesn't transmit. Services like OnStar (and others) can via GPS data from the car but the people with those services get them for just that reason.

As for satellite radio I have both XM and Sirius. My Jeep came with Sirius and my wife's with XM. We had an XM portable unit first and use it at home, in the boom-box unti they have for it and I've even installed it on our plane. Last Spring we flew from MA to the Caribbean for vacation and listen to XM most of the way (the signal disappears around Turks and Caicos (bummer). Love XM 50 - The Loft and Sirius 25 - Steve Van Zandt's Underground Garage...

oh yeah... you can learn more about XM here :

www.xmradio.com...


Check it out, you'll like it !

oh yeah, and to be fair

anyone interested in Sirius...

www.siriusradio.com... rver?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Page&cid=1018209032790


Good Luck and enjoy !

I purchased a Sirius ready radio at Best Buy for 160 because I needed a new radio, but the reciever was only 44.99 and that would throw in the tuner for free. Pretty good deal I feel. I love the Gospel station really inspiring. I typically listen to the hip-hop stations which I love becaue 44 and 50 play alot of older stuff in addition to the new hits, and they have an old school station as well. I catch the news once in awhile but I always go online for my news either way. The Discovery channel can be rather entertainig sometimes The thing I love the msot is that unlike satellite tv that breaks up often during storms or cloudy days/nights, it almost seems like its impervious to the weather because I always get a clear signal with no interruption during even the heaviest of storms. I do tend to lose the signal in big parking garages though but its not as if im going to listen to my radio then. I dont even listen to fm radio anymore.

another feature I really love is, the ability of knowing the name of the song and the artist that is currently playing

I've had my XM for a little over 2 years. I love it, wouldn't take anything for it.

[edit on 3-8-2004 by Dr. Know]

We just got a new truck and it has a trial of 3 months for XM we are enjoying it but are debating about if we want to continue with it. There is also a 6 CD player in it. And of course this is DH's truck and he could care less if there is music in it at all -- in fact this is the first vehicle of his that has had a radio at all. Of course if we get rid of it I don't have to listen to his choice of music

We have a lot of new members on board here... *bump*


So do you do the satelite radio thing ?

I am planning on buying a Sirius Satelite Radio, when Howard Stern makes the jump.... hope to see you there !

Pay for radio???? NO THANKS I can play cd's all day long, hear exactly what I want to. Not have to listen to anybody's opinion or commercials. I cannot believe how the sheep line up to be removed from their money.

Originally posted by elevatedone
another feature I really love is, the ability of knowing the name of the song and the artist that is currently playing

Within the first four notes, I know the song and artist playing on most music I listen to. No need for fancy digital radio to do that.