The case for satellite radio

I'll admit, it might be (ok, it is), an expense I could honestly live without. There are plenty of free radio channels available to me, some paid for by public dollars, some by advertising. I have hundreds of CD's of my own music to choose from if I don't like what's on the radio. I could also just choose to download and burn podcasts for free, and listen to those in the car, also free, unless you count the cost of the blank CD's.

But I do love XM Radio. I love that in the summertime, should I choose to, I can listen to any major league baseball game taking place at that moment. This of course includes every Detroit Tigers game. And when I'm driving somewhere further away (like, say, TO a Tigers game), I don't have to re-adjust my radio every hour to try and find something that comes in better because I've driven too far away from the tower. The tower is far above me, in orbit. So I could drive from San Diego to New York and listen to the same program without changing the station.

That's be a lot of gas, though.



Advertising? Mostly gone. I say mostly because when you listen to the national feeds of Fox News or ESPN Radio, they still have the gaps where they expect local station to fill in their own ads, so XM Radio will do some plugging of their other stations or shows. But for the most part... no advertising. Wall-to-wall music, if you're listening to the music stations.

I also like that there's an exact station for whatever mood you're in. Emo. 80's. Movie soundtracks. Hair bands. Classic rock, or just acoustic. Throw in 15 news stations, 10 sports stations, and an additional station that talks about major league baseball ALL YEAR, and I'm in heaven.

How much, you might be asking? At the moment, 13 bucks a month. Of course, I'm making it sound cheaper than it is... the initial installation to get all this crap put in my car (satellite tuner, converter, antenna, and a dashboard radio that receives XM) was about $350. But that's already money spent, right?



There's a potential merger on the table between XM and Sirius radio that would merge the two satellite radio providers into one company. The FCC is taking a hard look at it because there are obvious concerns that creating only ONE provider will obviously reduce competition (to nothing) and enable the newly-formed company to charge egregious rates for the service. It's the classic merger-to-monopoly issue that is prohibited by the Clayton Act.

I personally am in favor of the merger, especially since the CEO of Sirius Radio has offered to fix subscription rates to appease opponents of the merger. If I could pay the same rate and add the NBA, NFL, and Howard Stern to my dial.... what could be better?

I offer you one more glowing reason to consider satellite radio. For the month of March, XM is bringing me "The Thriller", XM Channel 63. 24/7 Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.

Call now. Operators are standing by.