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It is a Proven Fact that Sirius Satellite Radio Does Not Suck like Normal Radio
One of the weirder things about my girlfriend Kymberly is that she has been a long time Howard Stern listener. I can't really explain it. She is college educated and has a good job and I would call her a middle class intellectual but she gets her kicks listening to his interviews and commentary as well as low brow humor. I think it is a little stupid and trashy but who am I to talk since I think about video games way more than is probably normal for people my age.
So one thing that she absolutely wanted for Christmas was a Sirius Satellite Radio system. Howard announced that he was fed up with normal broadcast radio and having to deal with the broadcast networks as well as the scapegoating from the FCC. So he retired his old radio show and made a new satellite radio show that can say what ever he wants too say. His first show is going to be on January 9th. She actually taped the last couple shows before he signed off and she has been replaying them when she takes a bath or a shower. It is sort of her thing but I have not taped something off the radio since the mid 80s.
I got her an XAct Replay satellite radio set from Costco since they are a leading Sirius Satellite radio maker and the pack included everything I was after. I included a car mounting kit and a home receiver with a built in FM transmitter. Yesterday I installed it at her house and activated the account. Satellite radio is a lot like cable TV. There is a monthly or annual fee and the media experience is much better than the over air free experience but unlike cable TV there is next to no advertising on Sirius satellite radio.
There are two companies out there in the US. XM and Sirius. Howard's show was the killer app for Kymberly so XM was not ever really an option. I like to listen to Air America Radio because I am a liberal Howard Deal zealot and I freaking love their podcasts at Air America Place. Air America used to be on both Sirius and XM but XM gave them a really big check for an exclusive broadcasting contract so their channel was pulled from Sirius. That is a pisser but at least the Seattle area has a local affiliate and their pod-casting support is ad free and top notch.
It is interesting to compare podcasting and iTunes to satellite radio. Both are alternative modes of delivering quality content but the internet based podcasting method of distributing syndicated digitally compressed files to remote PC and media players seems rather low tech when compared to having a satellite in orbit over the US. Don't get me wrong I love podcasting but it is an entirely different concept of media distribution than satellite radio. Both are freaking cool and represent the future of media. Both are not restricted by government censorship and mass commercialization to media monopolies. It is ironic that free speech requires a monthly fee or a high speed internet account.
So I set up the antenna and was a little bit shocked when I could not get a signal at first. It ends up that the satellite is over Kansas or Nebraska so I had to place the antenna receiver in her window facing east in order to get a good signal. Luckily you don't need a line of sight and it just has to be in a window facing East here in Washington State. The antenna looks like a thick book of matches and luckily it had a cord that was about thirty feet long. So I used masking tape to fix the wire to the floor board and wall to her living room Since her place is over run with five fluffy naughty cats I had to tape it up to discourage the little fur balls from getting interested and trying to hang from the line. Now the tuner unit had a decent design with a good stand, remote control and a good user interface. This tuner has a strong FM transmitter. So the encrypted signal is broadcasted from orbit where it is goes to the match box in the window then it is decrypted by the tuner and then broadcasted in a FM station that has a range of about two hundred feet. So she can listen to this on her stereo in her living room or in the bathroom on her boombox. Her living room stereo is an all in one unit with a record player and there is no audio line in jack so the FM transmitter is the only way to go for her. How weird that after the whole space age technology and decryption that she is still narrowcasting over FM radio frequencies to the old boombox that she listens to when she is taking a bath. It is on a small cabinet so it can't get really wet in the bathroom so there is really no shock danger. I see her listening to this more often than watching TV so it is worth reducing the amount of broadcast TV that she is compelled to watch.
Next I went online and created a subscription account with my information and I chose the one year subscription plan. It was $142 for a years worth of programming. That works out to 11 bucks or so a month. There is a 13 bucks a month plan but the year plan is the best deal. It is about the cost of a movie with popcorn or two new DVD rentals. it is less than a third of the cost of cable TV. It is less than a CD and less than two packs of smokes. She just quit smoking last week using the patch and I bribed her with satellite radio. It is a bargain if you ask me.
Now there is over 65 channels of music of all sorts of different kinds and there is no commercials. There is some radio feeds of CNN, BBC and other producers that have commercials on their feeds but there is so much much less commercials that it is incredible. It is a total trip to listen to music on the radio that doesn't have some jack ass ad every ten minutes or so. I like Area 33 (Progressive Trance and House) and 23 Hair Nation (80's Heavy Metal ).
Unfortunately Kymberly works in an office and she sits in the middle of the building so there is almost no way that she can listen at work. It is possible to log on to their website and listen using Windows Media Player in a web browser. But her employer forbids streaming audio at work. Howard will probably have his show repeated throughout the day so she plans to listen from home. I have been doing that and it is pretty cool over Wifi. I don't have a satellite radio at my place but I can listen to the streaming feeds over Wifi. How space age is that? There is almost no talk radio feeds on the web player but all the music is there.
it is worth paying for. It is worth paying for to not have your ear raped by ad men and it is worth having truly free speech where a broadcaster can say exactly what is on their mind with out having to second guess every though. Podcasting is a totally different media syndication distribution concept while satellite radio is simply radio that finally does not suck. There is almost a constant feed of music of all sorts and no ads. I can't explain how cool that is. It is worth paying for radio that does not suck.
Jake at January 4, 2006 
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Comments
I just recently switched to XM radio from normal radio. I received a receiver for Christmas from my wife, and I absolutely love it. As you said, Air America is good, but my favorite station is Fungus which plays nothing but punk/ska/hardcore.
I have yet to listen to Sirius, but if it's anything like XM, then it's a great service.
Posted by: snortin_php at January 4, 2006 6:53 AM
Hmmmmmmm, if it's streaming over the web, you might be able to record it on a Windows PC if you use orb.com. I've used it to record a couple of NPR programs on KPLU and listen to them later.
If the Sirrius receiver broadcasts over FM, you should be able to use the Radio Shark antenna to record the FM signal. You can schedule it to come on and it works with either Mac or PC. It's $70 at NPR.org, but I think I've seen it for $50 at Radio Shack.
Posted by: Scott at January 4, 2006 9:34 AM
when I was statesside, I was a little disappointed from the Howard Stern show...
before I only knew the fun autobiographical movie "Private Parts".
yet he seems to be so popular that people really switch to the pay-radio.
let me know how it is when it starts! (quality/DRM/recording???)
Posted by: Jim at January 4, 2006 1:38 PM
I'm jelous. I really want satellite radio but currently no satellite covers Hawaii. I rented a car with XM in stalled one time and I thought it was great. The only drawback was when stopped under a bridge. I'm sure this is temporary and we will soon have coverage.
Posted by: Onecos at January 4, 2006 4:34 PM
My wife, much to my surprise, picked me up a Sirius receiver kit/subscription for my pickup -- and I'm loving it. I live in the middle of nowhere, Northern Maine, and the radio stations are quite limited. With Sirius, that's another story -- there are so many stations, I haven't even had the time to sample all of them that I'm interested in. Actually, admittedly, I have had little luck in switching it away from "Outlaw Country" -- listen to it in my pickup and in the morning over streaming media when doing the stay at home dad stuff--you know: dishes, cleaning, the like.
Thus far, I'm just blown away by the service. The ability to listen online to most of the content is a real kicker -- extends the value many fold. And the fact that they have the respect to not fill something I'm already paying for with ads is most welcome (and unprecidented!) in this day and age.
Interesting tidbit--From the FAQ, regarding the name:
“Sirius” is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major and the Northern Hemisphere. It was named after the ancient Egyptian god Osirus, who was represented pictographically as a dog, giving Sirius its more familiar name: the Dog Star.
Posted by: Allen at January 4, 2006 7:59 PM
If I wanted to I could "tape" the streaming version using audio capture software on my mac. Or I could hook up the stereo out up to my iBook external USB Audio device and record like that. But using the analog hole or taping an audio stream is pointless because you don't know what is going to be on. It is like taping the radio but with no ads. I sort of like the fact that you don't know what is going to be on next.
The signel is pure analog audio and can be taped via any analog recording device so DRM but you have to have a active account to listen to the stream or sat reciever.
Posted by: 8Bit Jake ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.8bitjoystick.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 4, 2006 11:02 PM
Hey, I also just got the sirius radio. I have a BA and consider myself an intellectual, having interests in history, theortical physics and evolutionary biology among other topics. However, I am a huge howard stern fan and got the radio just for his show.
Couple of things you should know/do:
1) the FM transmiter SUCKS. The sound quality is extremely limited using that options. It's like taking a DVD and recording it to VHS then watching it. Destroys the quality. She needs to have a direct input, the difference is sound is astounding.
2) to listen at work, I bought a home kit. I installed it in my cubile with the antenna on top of my cubile, and plugged the line out into my computers line in. Using headphones, I can listen to the radio that way. Its not streaming so her employer shouldnt have an issue with that.
3) To me, this is superior to podcasting since the sound quality is 100 times better than MP3 and its interactive, you can call in, etc. It's live.
Posted by: bboyneko at January 5, 2006 2:12 PM
I know that the FM transmitter is not as high quality as a straight audio cable but there are a couple of reasons why I am not worried about this.
1. My girlfriend is used to listening to radio all over the house.
2. Streching a cord to the bathroom in the back of the house would be insane.
3. She has some hearing loss due to attending too many concerts and sitting to close and rocking too hard. I am not kidding. She has perminent hearing loss from rocking too hard in the 80s.
Posted by: 8Bit Jake at January 5, 2006 9:47 PM
Also podcasting does not have to be MP3. You can serve a lossless AAC file for podcasting but that would also be insane because it is overkill.
Posted by: 8Bit Jake at January 5, 2006 9:51 PM
re: recording.
I was thinking primariily of recording specific Howard Stern shows that your girlfriend misses while she is at work. Not just in general.
Posted by: Scott at January 6, 2006 7:19 AM
