Digital or satellite radio - which?

there are lots of dead stops out here in WA for XM and Sirius

better check in with that

I just read a review of the Squeezebox in the current PC World. I thought it sounded interesting, if I could hitch it up to the computer in one room and have it playing in another.

Good thought, Husker. Thanks.

9:00 on a firday - LOL

have sweet dreams

I think that has a lot to do with the cloudy weather and the trees. My radio won't work in Oregon when I'm driving down a road with a roof of fir trees. And it will fade in and out then there's cloudy weather, which is pretty much all the time in Portland and Seattle. I imagine that there aren't many satisfied customers in the Pacific Northwest.

However, I was able to get signal most of the time. It's just frustrating because it would always want to cut out in the middle of a good song or an important news cast.

They should give Portland and Seattle customers a cheaper rate. It works great here in Boise, but it still cuts out when it rains or snows.

A few in Spokane and a lot up by Sandpoint and a bunch in Montana

Roverroad, I agree with you about XM programming... it seems to have more of a wide variety of things instead of 1800 channels of Howard Stern. I like how they have diversified their stations and from what I have heard via my dad's radio, it's pretty cool. I'll have to get one for myself now too.

If you can afford it, I still recommend having both services. Because both have good programming that the other doesn't have. At $13.00 a month each it's really not unaffordable. It's purchasing the radio it's self where the expense comes in.

So that would mean havinbg two radios, right?

Two receivers that you can plug into the same stereo, just like an auxilary CD player. Just switch between the two to find what you want to listen to. Or, you can just use one in your car and one at home.

The radio S.O. uses isn't set up for plugging in peripherals; it's a bit too old, I guess. But to get a new one I guess I should make sure it can accomodate to plug-ins at the same time to enable back and forth switching.

Both of my radios (XM and Sirius) also have FM transmitters on them, you can pick any frequency. So, if you don't have jacks to plug them in you can pick them up on your FM band. Any FM radio within a 70 foot radius can tune it in.

Interesting!

Probably just a matter of personal preference, but I could never subscribe to a station that is paying Howard Stern $500 million for his garbage. Seems to me like the satellite radio options are either 1)diversity with XM or 2) garbage with Howard.

Well, you can listen to non-Howard Stern programs, I guess, and do something noisy on your own during his show. I don't think he's on 24/7. Maybe it just seems like it?

Than don't subscribe! A lot of people like Howard Stern, and there are 148 other channels on Sirius that never carry Howard Stern. They also carry several 24 hour religious stations which I think is a waste of bandwidth. But you don't see me saying Sirius is the God radio. XM also caries the liberal Air America Radio which Sirius does not. So should we forget about XM because they carry liberal "propaganda"? You're going to find something you dislike on both radios. That's why both radios have a channel blocking feature.

I understand that there's definitely stations I wouldn't like on both providers, but I just think Sirius has tied themselves to Stern without a lot of viable alternatives. At least XM doesn't have 1 major spokesperson and tends to diversify.

They pushed Howard Stern because he was their latest addition. Just like they promoted Martha Stewart for several months. They have plenty of personalities. Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn. They are doing a great job at bringing in big name personalities. That's their angle, it's getting them a lot of listeners.

Also, Howard Stern had a huge fan base when he went off the air. Sirius is simply trying to appeal to those fans right now while they are still out there. They would be fools not to. Their marketing strategy will change on a month or so.

We'll see about that...with all the $$ they're paying him, I kind of feel like they have to exploit the heck out of him. And it sounds like he's interested in selling his Sirius stock--which is crazy if they put so much confidence in him and he can't put any in them.

I think Sirius knew what they were doing when they offered him 500 million for 5 years. Over a million of his listeners have already signed up for Sirius service, that's 13 million per month additional revenue. If he maintains an extra 13 million dollar a moth profit for Sirius over 5 years, that's 780 million. So, they will be making 280 million more than they pay him. That's assuming that they don't get a kick back from all of the new radios that were sold. Those million new listeners are going to be listening to other channels, so that means more advertisers will come. Mo money, mo money!

When someone pays $150 for a radio, they aren't likely to cancel their service right away. I see this as a win, win situation for Sirius. They knew what they were doing...