Guide to XM Satellite Radio

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Road Rage Be Gone

By Zak Kroschel

Like many of you, I'm an occasional (okay, continual) sufferer of the condition commonly referred to as road rage. There's just something about stop-and-go traffic (I have it narrowed down to boredom and frustration) that pushes all the wrong buttons for me — I seriously cannot handle it. While the tiny logical part of my brain knows that yelling at people in other vehicles really doesn't make much sense, it is quickly overruled by the other 90% of my brain dedicated to making poor decisions and pursuing futile efforts. At least that used to be the case...

All the cool kids are doing it
To be perfectly honest, since I installed XM Satellite Radio in my car, my commute has become a welcome break in the day (and yes, I realize how corny that sounds, but it's true). When I first heard about XM Radio, I was pretty much a skeptic (after all, why would I pay for radio? I get plenty of AM and FM stations for free.) Then I started to talk to coworkers who had (and loved) it — and they were pretty persuasive. The heartfelt testimonials of the XM crowd piqued my interest, and I started to do some research. It turns out that my coworkers are not alone — all kinds of other people are jumping on the XM bandwagon. So many people, in fact, that XM radio is actually the fastest-growing (i.e., most widely accepted by consumers) audio technology in the last 20 years (beating out powerhouses like CD and MP3 players).

Rock and Roll is here to stay
There are several aspects of XM that I think are responsible for its remarkable popularity. First of all, it's a digital system with coast-to-coast coverage. You can actually drive from New York to L.A. without losing your signal. That's thanks to XM's two satellites (aptly named Rock and Roll, respectively). They blanket the United States with XM's digital broadcasts, while building-top repeaters in most large cities make sure that tall buildings don't cause irritating "dead spots."

I speak from experience when I say that there are more than a few parts of the country (middle-of-nowhere sections of rural North Dakota and Nebraska immediately come to mind) where there really isn't a whole lot to listen to. (Aren't driving vacations in the family truckster a blast?) With an XM radio, there's no need to endure that type of situation; the only problem you might have is deciding on which XM channel to listen to (after all, there are 100 of them). Because the signal is digital, fade-out and static are nonissues. The fidelity and clarity of the XM broadcasts will surprise you. To my ears (and I have pretty sensitive ears) there is virtually no audible difference between the audio quality of CDs played in my car to the tunes I get from XM.

Just the tip of the iceberg
The clarity and coverage are great, but the real story here is the selection and choice. There's always something great to choose from. Personally, I split most of my time between Hank's Place (nothing beats classic country, after all), Chrome (sometimes a little disco is in order), the decades channels (featuring the biggest hits of the last 60 years split into 6 channels, by year), and the Top 20 on 20 (the top 20 current hits chosen by XM listeners via telephone request or Xmradio.com).

It's all about selection
A couple of my favorites hardly scratch the surface, though; there are 91 more channels to choose from (for a full listing, check out our programming guide. For example, those of you with small children will find that Radio Disney and XM Kids are godsends during long car rides with the munchkins (unless you like to hear "are we there yet?" every 5 minutes). Parents with kids of an impressionable age might also want to utilize XM's channel-blocking capability. Simply call the folks at XM Radio, and you can remove access to some of the more mature offerings (RAW, the uncut hip-hop channel; Bone Yard, specializing in truly hard rock; and XM Comedy, featuring uncut, uncensored comedy from a who's who list of comics from the last 20 years, come to mind) or any channel, for that matter.

Something for everyone
For the multitasking business commuter, CNBC, CNNfn and Bloomberg News inject some productivity into what is otherwise wasted time. For the lighter side of things, check out XM Comedy (for unedited comedy bits from big names like Dan Ackroyd, Billy Crystal, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Chris Rock and Sam Kinison, for starters), Laugh USA (with more family oriented comedy from the likes of Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart and Jerry Seinfeld) or Extreme XM (with some of the top morning shows in the nation broadcast 24/7).

Feel like treating your passengers to your own thrilling rendition of "Hello, Dolly"? Tune into On Broadway (which specializes in what else — show tunes) and croon away with the cast of the musical of the same name. (Please note: XM Radio is not responsible for personal injuries sustained when a can of soda thrown from the back seat bounces off of the back of your head.)

For those of you who like to be on the cutting edge of modern music XM offers up Unsigned (featuring independent artists and emerging acts). The cool factor of being able to say "I heard them a year ago before they were famous" is pretty high, after all.

Nothing beats experience
The list of channels is too long to cover all of them here, but it can be seen in its entirety in our channel guide. To experience a demonstration in person, swing by your local Best Buy store. There is an in-store kiosk dedicated to XM located in the Mobile Electronics area. Take this opportunity to change the way you feel about drive time — I'm certainly glad that I did!

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