It’s a long drive, and to help pass the time you tune into your
favorite radio station. An hour later, the sound gets a little
fuzzy, and then the music fades into whooshing static. A few jabs
at the scan button find nothing worth listening to. A long drive
has just gotten a lot worse.
It’s a long drive, and to help pass the time you tune into your favorite radio station. An hour later, the sound gets a little fuzzy, and then the music fades into whooshing static. A few jabs at the scan button find nothing worth listening to. A long drive has just gotten a lot worse.
Static and fading can be avoided by subscribing to satellite radio, a service that provides users with almost seamless reception from one side of the country to the other. Most traditional radio stations are only capable of transmitting signals 30 to 40 miles from the station, but satellite radio stations can, by using orbiting satellites, transmit programs nationally.
There are only two providers of satellite radio in the United States: XM Radio and SIRIUS. Both companies transmit programming in essentially the same way. Ground stations send signals to a satellite orbiting in space. The signal is then sent back to Earth, either directly to receivers or to repeaters, which magnify signals in areas where buildings or other obstructions may interfere.
Morgan Hill resident Melissa Guidry began using SIRIUS after she received a subscription for Christmas – a replacement to her stolen CD collection. Guidry had considered the service before. “I’d seen it, and I liked it,” she said. Guidry also found satellite radio programming preferable to traditional radio, since she only listens to one local station.
However, she did acknowledge some of the disadvantages of SIRIUS – too many choices. “Sometimes you get sick of searching around,” she said. “It’s kind of distracting when you drive.” Overall, though, Guidry is happy with the service, especially because it’s customizable – she can delete categories of music and talk radio she doesn’t want from the receiver, such as sports.
Both XM Radio and SIRIUS offer the same basic services: plenty of commerical-free music stations and a wide variety of news, talk and sports stations. Basic service for both companies is the same: $12.95 per month. The difference is in the programming – both companies offer different shows and radio personalities.
With more than 150 channels, XM Radio boasts the largest selection of stations available to its 4 million subscribers. The company offers 67 music channels, more than 30 news, talk, entertainment and sports channels, and 21 traffic/weather stations that cover large U.S. cities, including a station covering San Francisco and the Bay Area. For an additional charge of $2.99, subscribers can access XM’s premium channel. As part of the subscription, XM users can listen to news, talk and music channels online.
XM Radio has several popular radio personalities, including Sean Hannity, Al Franken and Jerry Springer. There are also several news, talk and entertainment programs, such as Fox News, ESPN Sports, ABC News and Talk, Discovery Channel Radio and E! Entertainment Radio.
SIRIUS, which followed XM into the satellite radio-market, offers its nearly 2 million users more than 120 channels, including more than 65 music stations, 55 news, entertainment and talk stations and 4-minute updates on traffic and weather in 20 congested areas. SIRIUS hosts several news and talk shows, including Tony Hawk, Martha Stewart and Bill Bradley, and Howard Stern will move his show to SIRIUS in January 2006. SIRIUS also offers full coverage of the NBA, NHL and NFL. SIRIUS subscribers can also access music programming online.
Both SIRIUS and XM Radio need special receivers, which can be used in the car or home. XM offers portable personal receivers that function like a Walkman, permanent car receivers and portable receivers that can be connected to the car or home-entertainment system. SIRIUS also offers permanent and portable receivers for the car, as well as “plug and play” receivers that fit into separate systems for the car, home or portable stereo. For sports fans, SIRIUS has systems that alert listeners to upcoming games and lists play-by-play scores.
For more information on satellite radio, or to subscribe to a service, visit www.xmradio.com or wwwsirius.com.
