Entertainment. We've all got to have it, especially in our cars. We've seen an explosion in the last 3-5 years of audio entertainment products, from portable MP3 players with a fixed amount of storage, to car audio head-units that can play CD-Rs and read mp3s to mobile DVD players. DirecTV, the famous television satellite broadcaster, roared onto the home entertainment scene in the mid 1990s, and has been a successful player in this ever changing and competitive market.
But aside from the MP3 Revolution, audio entertainment has not changed much in the last 40 years. In your car, or on your home stereo, you've got two options: Listen to commercial FM/AM programming, or play music from some medium, 8 tracks, audio cassettes, CDs, or recently, hard drives. Whereas television has exploded with hundreds of cable and satellite channels, audio entertainment has remained quite stale, and indeed, in many people's minds, gotten worse in the last decade.
Enter Satellite Radio. The marketing hype tells us it is different, fresh, new, and commercial free. It offers greater choice and better quality, a more diverse set of music, talk, sports, and entertainment. And you won't ever have to worry about being out of range of this quality programming, because it's nationwide.
But does satellite radio deliver on these promises? I bought into this 'revolution' early, having purchased an XM Satellite Radio (one of two competitors) in mid March. I've been testing and evaluating not only the unit, but also the content XM Radio provides. Read on if you'd like to seriously explore some alternatives to your current audio entertainment paradigm.
Satellite radio concept, implementation/technology
Concept
The idea behind satellite radio is quite basic. For all intents and purpose ...