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After ten minutes, I decided: this is worth the cost of the hardware and the $12 a month subscription.
There are two satellite radio services available in the U.S. I realize it might not be right to post a link to the one I have. I'll just say it's commercial free* and costs $12 a month.
There are 60 channels of music, 24/7/365. Music, just music, with minimal announcing. That's the greatest thing about this service: just music and no commercials, and also no useless traffic and weather reports. Hearing just music as soon as I get in my car and as long as I am in my car is wonderful, sublime. It's like a breath of fresh air, a ray of sunshine, after being in a musty hole. You really understand that commerical radio programming is 20% commercials after you've heard commercial free.
And it's great that the kids aren't exposed to all the commercials too. (I like listening to classic rock, what they used to call "album-oriented rock", but I don't like my kids hearing some of the commercials --for topless bars and head shops and so on-- that the local classic rock station airs. Satellite radio is perfect: just the music.)
The variety of music is stunning: pop, rock, alternative rock, oldies, blues, country, bluegrass, folk, r & b, hip-hop, dance, jazz, swing, big-band singers, showtunes, classical, classical vocal, kid's music, world, new age, latino . . . I've sampled it all and love it. Every car trip is like a musical education for me and my kids.
The sound quality is nearly indistinguishable from CD. Reception is great. So far, only once has there been a signal breakup, and it lasted about a second. There's a small antenna on top of the car (looks like a computer mouse). You get reception as long as you can see the sky. Works great in suburbia. I haven't had any experience in high-rise urban areas. If you park under a large bridge or roof (like at gas stations) you lose the signal. Just driving under a bridge is no problem (I assume there's the radio has a memory buffer of some sort.?)
The unit has an LED display that shows the name of the song and artist, so you can always see what's playing and what channel you're listening to.
I'm hooked. In my car, I haven't listened to more than 10 minutes of regular radio in the last month. I'm really looking forward to driving to my father's-in-law house for Thanksgiving.
In addition to music, there's an old radio show channel (The Lone Ranger, Suspense, etc.), a comedy channel, various sports programs, Discovery radio, Court TV radio, a trucking channel, etc., . . . And if you want to hear weather reports there are 4 channels of The Weather Channel radio (one for each time zone).
I really think satellite radio could be the next "must-have". Remember when people thought it was crazy to pay for cable TV, when TV was "free" . . . that's where subscription satellite radio is now.
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* an explantion about "commercial free":
-- with the service I have, all of the 60 music channels are 100% commercial free. They are all produced in the company studios.
There are also 40 talk channels, most of which are from other sources. Some of these are commercial-free (NPR, PRI, BBC, C-SPAN) and some are not (CNN, FOX, ABC, etc.)
I'll probably end up getting one, but in a way it is a disappointing development for communities. Local radio (including the commercials) is something that ties communities together (even if the large conglomerates have purchased many stations.) With satellite radio I can listen to the same station as someone 1000 miles away, but I my next-door neighbors can't listen to that station. It's another way of making the world smaller, but it does so at the expense of community togetherness.
I would share your concern about the impact of satellite radio on local radio to a greater extent except for the fact that local radio stations are already generally owned by big national conglomerates anyway. There's very little local programming left. At least that's the case in the metropolitan area in which I live.
A hurricane swept through my area (East Coast U.S.) a while back and several of the local stations where I live just kept on with their nationwide programming from New York, the usual national talkshows.
I am concerned about the impact on local public (NPR, PRI) stations. The kind of people they look to for local fundraising are exactly the kind that will get satellite radio.
In any case, I've made my choice -- for all the reasons I gave in my first post, I love satellite radio.
