Satellite Radios

[Meaney]

Thinking of getting a satellite radio. Anyone have a favorite one they have... Sirius, and XM are the only 2 I know of, is there more than that?? Is it worth the monthly bill?

[LMITOUT]

If the govt would ever get off their behinds and make a ruling on the XM-Sirius merger, you wouldn't have to worry about it. It's been well over a year now since they've applied for the merger and they haven't done anything yet. Those are the only two satellite radio companies.

Anyway, it all depends on what you want to listen to as far as special programming such as sports or shows like Howard Stern since they don't both offer them.....just one or the other. The people that I know that have either of the two brands like satellite radio. My boat's radio is Sirius ready but I haven't done anything yet. Still kinda waiting to see what happens with this merger. I listen to a lot of local radio out of the Cities anyway so it really isn't that enticing to me most of the time, but if a person did a lot of traveling I bet it would be nice to have.

[Meaney]

I guess I would be more into the sports/music part.. not interested in Howard Stern

Also I wouldnt mind just listening to the 'free' radio stations we have but I get so annoyed because I love listening to 93x out of the TC's and I cant pick that station up in Rochester

[Gissert]

I have XM, and have been very happy. Interesting talk radio at night, tons of music channels in every catergory you can think of.

[SomethingFishy*]

My truck came with a 3-month trial of XM which just expired. I liked it most of the time, the comedy stations were pretty good, anytime you go somewherre with taller buildings or under some bridges you would lose the signal. I also thought there was quite a few commercials. I would have kept it for use in the fishhouse but wasn't willing to shell out the cash. Even if I did the 5 year plan it was still over $10/month. I hear Sirrius has a lifetime subscription although I am unsure of the cost. I would be willing to pay about $5/month for satellite radio as I really ownly used it on longer drives.

[Farley]

I have sirius and love it. I rigged it up so I can run it off a vexilar battery or even a regular deep cycle marine battery so I can use it in the fish house, boat or just in my truck. I never listen to the free radio anymore.

[Nate McVey]

I got sirius for Christmas this past year and love it! I listen to ESPN Radio most of the time, and it is nice to not have to search through AM stations every few miles to pick it up. Not sure if XM does it or not, but with Sirius, you can listen to all the channels through a computer as well (part of the service). I will be buying another docking station for the boat and probably the other car soon. I believe XM doesn't have NASCAR either, which is another reason to go for Sirius.

[Meaney]

yea definitely will get sirius if xm doesnt have NASCAR...that is a big thing for me

[Nate McVey]

They do a really good job of it too......lots of pre race interviews (day before) great race day coverage too.

[HaywardBound]

Quote:

I love listening to 93x out of the TC's and I cant pick that station up in Rochester

Another reason to get Sat radio! Much more variety with it.

XM or Sirius...I'll pay the money to NOT listen to commercials!

[eskay]

I've had experience with both, and I'd go with the Sirius. NHL, NBA, NFL and about 5 Nascar channels, if that's you're thing. They also have in-car nascar channels that you can listen to when the race is on. driver to pit, that sort of thing. Nascar isn't my thing, but alot of guys love it. XM has MLB and NHL and some nascar. Sirius has the NFL channel on top of all the games, with your choice of team announcers. XM has all the MLB, but only one broadcast of each game, usually the home team announcers.

Sirius also seems to have more political talk channels and news than XM, and more specialized music such as Elvis channel, Grateful Dead channel to name a few. XM has a lot more of the newer music channels. Sirius also has the NRA channel.

I don't seem to have the dropout with Sirius that I see with XM. Sirius has a lifetime subscription, it's either $299 or $399, check their HSOforum. You can add another receiver for $6.99/mo. You can also listen to Sirius on your computer (included in your subscription). I don't know if XM has this option.

I have Sirius in my rides and my dad has XM. I just spent three days on the road driving his car back from FL. I liked the fact that I could listen to the Twins games, even if it was the Detroit announcers, but their news is just the audio of the TV (Foxnews), so you really don't know what they're talking about half the time.

Hope this helps.

[Meaney]

haha. how much a month is it anyways?

[Farley]

$12 per month. or you can buy a year for roughly $140.

[Meaney]

dang you think yearly would be cheaper than that...

[The_Lee]

That is expensive... You'd ethink the yearly would be a little cheaper. I am contemplating buying one of the handheld systems for use while out bike riding and such. What do you think of the programing and music? Is it worth the $?

[Farley]

After looking at the HSOforum, I guess it's $12.99 per month or $142 per year so you get a free month if you subscribe for a year.

What do you think of the programing and music? Is it worth the $?

To me it is definetly worth the money. For some it's not. I'm a huge music guy and like everything from Dylan to Punk to old country to Sinatra so for me it's worth it. For those long drives to the cabin, the many hours spent in the fish house and the boat I'm happy to shell out the $13 every month. Not to mention I'll bring it up via internet at work and have it playing all day. Go to Sirius's HSOforum and check out the channel listing, way to many good ones to mention here. I know my buddies always ask if I brought my Sirius whenever we go fishing. Hooked it up in the garage today when I was messing around out there. All you need is a battery and a stereo and you can make it work. But you do need to have a cigerette lighter socket to plug it into, I tried to hardwire it to my ignition in my truck but it wouldnt work without the factory plug, it must have a resistor inside or something.

The best thing about it is you can drive from Los Angeles to Maine and listen to the same station the whole way. I guess thats why so many truckers have it. Once you get the 30 some presets set up there is no searching for stations. Last week we were up at my cabin on Kabetogama and usually we get one country station barely and about 3 or 4 french stations. This year we listened to outlaw country and Classic Vinyl the whole time. That was pretty nice.

[Meaney]

awesome...thanks for the info!