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Satellite Radio Is Officially Here
dragons_flight writes: "XM Satellite Radio has officially launched, initially selling equipment only in the Dallas and San Diego markets, but going national by Nov. 15. A reciever for home or car costs ~$300 plus a $10/month subscription service. Many new cars will be pre-equipped with satellite-ready radios. XM provides 100 digital channels, a signicant number of which are commercial free. Sirius satellite radio says they are committed to launching be the end of the year." Any readers out there with the equipment for this have comments about it? ($10x12 + $300 makes $420 I'll be putting toward other things.)
I always wanted to know what kind of music aliens are listening to.
Je t'aime Stéphanie
It is hard to sell commercials without an existing user base. Once you have the customers, than you can zap them with ads.
love is just extroverted narcissism
I don't see any electronic or techno music in the listings.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
I don't think anyone will...
...
AM/FM seem just fine... but then again..
If there were no comercials
Being called a dork on Slashdot must be like being called the retard in special ed.
Radio has become so generic with companies such as Clear Channel and Infinity owning over half of all stations. Satellite radio might be the answer. I just hope some of these 100 stations will actually play something decent. Otherwise, my $400 is going into a nice car MP3 player.
How do they enforce the subscription fee? Do they just make you send back the receiving equipment if you don't pay? If so, I predict that the DirecTV hackers will have a new toy to play with. ;)
Dur hur.
They've been selling the equipment for this in the Chicago market for quite some time now. I think my car CD head unit has the capability to do this, and they were trying to get me to buy the antenna also (I did not).
For that price I'd just assume buy some more CD's (at least as long as they aren't copy-protected) and listen to those on the road instead of the radio. It is an interesting idea though.
Honestly, this could turn out to be worthwhile, *if* they provide stations that play a wide enough variety of music, and remain well-organized by music category. Having all music and no commercials/talk is a big plus. The big problem is that $10 monthly fee for the privilege of listening to a pre-determined playlist that you have no control over.
With the era of MP3 music upon us, I think many people will prefer to spend that $10 a month on blank media, and buy an in-car MP3 player (for roughly the same price as these satellite radios), and control what they listen to and when it's heard.
why spend $300+ on satelite radio when you can buy an mp3 player and play only the music that you do like?
Go ahead and waste your life with your inhibitions, just don't ruin other people's lives with your intolerances.
Satellite radio is a great concept, but I have a hard time seeing too many people subscribe under the current terms. The "itch" that this addresses (too many commercials, not enough variety) isn't severe enough to justify the $300 + $120/year. Especially not when cheaper "scratches" exist, like CD players. The audiophiles that I know are more likely to spend their money on MP3 and CD alternatives.
Maybe if they can get enough cars to come with the hardware preinstalled, they have a shot. But until they have that installed base of hardware, this service is a pilot project at best.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
I'd be a good bit more interested in paying for this than in paying for a for-pay napster..
:)
I'm disappointed, though. I was hoping that these radios would be talking to the satellites directly, instead of just to ground repeater stations. Never mind that would suck because the satellites would be unweildy, and probably wouldn't work well in cars, and i'd always be getting interference from cloud cover and such (Then again, how did Iridium solve those problems..? oh whatever); i was hoping i'd be able to plug it into my computer, hack it, and reprogram it to talk to other random satellites floating aorund in the night sky and listen in on episodes of Xena, Warrior Princess being broadcast to WB39 affiliates. That would be fun.
why couldn't the iridium (or similar) satellites been used to create a free satellite radio network?
answers?
"Here's 50 bucks, take this in case I get drunk and call you a bitch later." - Ricky (Vince Vaughn)Made (2001)
Sheesh.
The only thing on there that looked remotely interesting was BBC.
Accept the fact that some people like not knowing exactly what's available or do not have the time to compile playlists. Take the time to come up with a valid complaint, like why the hell would I spend $420 the first year to listen to the radio?
What about traffic information? If I hear the same radio programs from west coast to east cost, do they tell me about traffic jams in SF and NYC? Doesn't really make sense, and I didn't find anything on this on their site.
Plus, will they be able to be heard in europe as well?
This sig is stolen from someone who had a much better idea than I had.
I would deffinatly buy this if I could get don&mike, G-gordon liddy, and howard. Maybe some others?(rush, dr laura, loveline)... Talk radio make the workday go by so fast!!!!!
Instead of supporting this form of broadcast, why not send some money to your local public radio organizations instead? (Sorry to everyone else if this is largely a US idea.) They insulate you from the blatant and sickening commericialism. They don't ask you to install special equipment. They (usually) broadcast things which expand your mind and make you more informed. They do not just allows themselves to be swept along in every popular culture movement you can think of, etc.
In short, they don't ask for much, and they deliver quite a lot in return. It's an excellent investment. Please consider sending them the $420 instead.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
Is there some particular reason why you couldn't just grab this radio feed out of the air? Sure, you might have to reverse-engineer/hack the top secret elite XOR key out of an existing radio, but after that, what's stopping you?
I dunno, I've gotten so weary of commercial radio that I almost never listen to anything but CD's anyway. And remember when cable TV was introduced and the big motivation for paying for it was so that you got broadcasts without commercials? That didn't last too long...and now consumers can pay up to $100.00 a month for cable that consists of more advertising than is allowed by law on network channels.
So, I don't really believe the non-commercial aspect, at least not once they get a big enough subscriber base.
And reviewing the available channels, it seems to me that it would be easier and cheaper to just buy CD's. At $12.00 a pop for a new CD, you could buy 35 CD's of music you want to hear instead of constantly flipping through another 100 channels of crap.
----I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying.--
I wonder if XM deals with indies, or chooses the music themselves. If they go through indies, then the service will become cheaper as more listeners sign up, and the quality will go into the toilet.
so if I understand this right for ten bucks a month I only get 30 stations that are comercial free and 100 + that arn't any any different than what I already have.
excuse me if I don't run out grab one.
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
I bet you could hack one of these things to instead of playing music to encoding to mp3 or ogg right on your hardrive. On normal radios, this is kind of pointless because the sound quality is so poor, but on fully digital music, this could be sweet. Hmmm, maybe that's what we'll have to start doing: hacking the hardware to be able export digital music, like CD's and such, to software. Mayeb I should switch from Math-Edu to CompE so I could make a bundle setting up something like this.
F-bacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
most higher end sony car audio decks come ready for XM recieving. I got one i am really looking forward to the launch
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
i made a poopie. a BIG poopie. all over the rug.
The cost mentioned here is not accurate...
along with a reciever, you also have to buy an antenaa, which runs for about $100. Also, if you want full digital radio, you need to also upgrade your radio itself. Pioneer currently sells a bundled package of radio/reciever for $450. so, your looking at $600!!!! for a complete system.
I'm all for the satellite radio, but i'm not gonna drop $600 dollars (plus fees) on a service that just started and might fold in a couple months, or even a couple years...
XM and Sirius units use different standards and are incompatible with each other.
Imagine if I had to buy a different TV for watching ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Disney, etc...
Deja vu... can't we all get along?
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
I listen to the radio on my way to work. I listen sometimes in the evenings. Mostly I just bounce around between about 4 stations looking for something interesting.
And I don't pay a cent.
Why would someone pay for something that is moderately better when they have a perfectly acceptable *free* version already available?
This is very comparable to the popularity of Napster. Sure you occassionally D/Led a song with a clipped ending... or the person logged off during mid D/L... but it was free. And the masses spoke.
In my view.. Radio is public, free, and analog. I just can't imagine subscribing to the radio.
Ugh.
antidigerati
I am a huge fan of shoutcast powered internet music stations. There is a large amount of different formats out there too. If there was a shoutcast type broadcast, I think there would be a lot more interest. I would be thrilled if I could listen to my internet radio station in my truck! Shoutcast is free (you need bandwidth tho!) but I would imagine this would require some hefty rates to be able to broadcast via the satellite radio. Since I have my own shoutcast station, I could make my own playlists too! Heck, if the price was right, and you could get a satellite relay, you could listen to your own music anywhere!
Finally someone comes out with a radio service that can get me the 24-hour electronica fix that I so crave! And 3 channels nonetheless!! Not too sure what everyone else's situation is but here there's rock, country, rock, oldies, country, talk, country, and maybe some rock. Doesn't go so well if you just have this insatiable urge to listen to some Digweed in the car (mind you, I have no CD player or AM radio to speak of (then again, it's AM)).
Had I the cash to throw down on something like that I'd definitely have it by tomorrow. Sadly there's these things called food and shelter. . . . .
But I hope that this takes off, if only for the sake of having what may actually be some quality programming and reception! Who knows. I might be able to afford it in a while. Oh yeah, and if you don't like techno, I think there's some other channels, too.
- Relativistic? That's barely Newtonian!
if im going to spend 420, I'm going to smoke it too.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
FM radio is hardly quivering with fear.
I'm ready to predict people aren't going to 300 bucks for a tuner plus $10 per month. There are far more worthwhile purchases.
DAB in Canada has already been a failure. Why? Expensive tuners.
VENI! VIDI! VICI!
Hopefully those 71+ stations won't play the same 10 songs like all the stations do now.
Instead of supporting this form of broadcast, why not send some money to your local public radio organizations instead?... They insulate you from the blatant and sickening commericialism.
This is not, in fact, the case.
Listener donations are an important part of community radio, but corporate sponsorships also play a big (often a majority) role. The only difference between a sponsorship spot and an out-and-out ad is:
Apart from those, there is very little difference between the ads you hear on commercial radio and the spots you hear on public radio.
I worked for a community radio station in Charlottesville, VA called WNRN (91.9 -- still have my t-shirt). They started off with 4 breaks per hour -- :03, :20, :35 and :47 plus the top-of-the-hour station ID live/liner break (or something close to that -- it's been some years). During donation drives the number of breaks doubled.
By the time I moved out of Charlottesville this past year they had added I think 2 promo spots to the hour. You can't get enough on your calendar otherwise to support the station.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not knocking community radio. I loved WNRN and the people who work there. But let's not talk about how public radio is "non-commercial" when that's simply not true.
-- Old Man Kensey
If they want a profit, they sure as hell better cater to all music tastes. With a 100 channeles you know there are going to at least 30 pop channeles probably more. We want some Techno, and stuff. Even then, this is going to be a hard one to try to make a profit. If I had the money though, I would sure get it, but like someone else said "it will be cracked".
Gaming Shizzle
Ive seen XM radios for sale in best buy for MONTHS...ive even listened to a few stations there. theres a MUCH better selection of music.
What a deal? I mean the other broadcast crap is free, but this broadcast crap only cost $420. And remember back in the '80s when all your friends had cable and didn't have to sit through commercials. Well, now you won't have to listen to commercials on the radio, until everyone has a satellite radio and they decide to add commercials.
/. concerned about anything other than where their next bit of entertainment is coming from? $420 to listen to the same crap that my wife tortures me with now? Sheesh!!
Really people. Is
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
I was streaming audio into my car at 128k when ricochet was here. but then they went broke. bah! oh yeah, here is how I did it...
No offense but if I am paying for it, it should all be commercial free, I mean I already have radio stations with commericals I can listen to for free, why would I want to pay for more freaking commercials (and don't use cable as an example, I am thinking more along the lines of HBO and Cinemax, not CNN)
weed perhaps?
(if you don't get the joke, please just ignore it)
from the just-when-my-car-gets-a-decent-cassette-deck dept.
Jesus. What did you upgrade from, an 8-track?
C-X C-S
This news comes just in time for the great magnetic storms (1 GT of solar mass headed our way...) Too bad the service was not launching today ;)
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I can't find any information on whether there will be commercials. If they don't carry commercials I'm afraid it's a service destined to fail. Here's why: other broadcasting media have proven that consumers are not willing to pay for equipment, programming, and production. They will foot the bill for the equipment and sometimes the network for increased quality and selection (i.e. cable television). In every broadcasting case the market was subsidized by commercials so they could make it affordable. For example, even though we pay for our current TV sets, do you think you're measly $50 a month for cable pays every star, producer, set designer, camerman, and doughnut boy? I don't think so. Commercials = success. Commercial-free = failure.
Of course we torture people, we need the information --Gen. Pinochet
Plenty of morons pay for TV, why should radio be any different.
The Sirius radio satellites will transmit directly to cars. They are in a specially designed orbit, with three regularly spaced satellites in an inclined orbit, which takes them very low over South America and high over North America. That way, there's always one satellite nearly overhead and moving slowly over the USA. Their control station is in Ecuador, where all three satellites are visible at all times. Unles you are in a tunnel, there should be no interference anywhere in the 48 contiguous US.
Aside from the occasional fund raiser, NPR and college stations are already commercial free.
Plus, they tend to be inane-DJ-chatter-free as well. I don't know what's worse, actually.
Of course, since my radio was 'removed' upon moving to DC, I haven't had to suffer through commercials or moronic DJs.
Regardless, both this and the Rio Empeg cost more than my car is worth, so fat chance I'd buy either one...
... but then again at least there are exceptions
,still my $300 and $10 a month would most likley be better spent on a decent car MP3/CD player and a metric assload of blank cds
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
A = the old-fashioned free broadcast paid for by advertising. Sure the advertising is annoying but it's free :)
:)
:(
B = Pay per use is really nice because there are no damn commercials
C = the latest and greatest system where we have to pay for shit that's full of adds.
I calls it masochism, expensive masochism.
From the actual list of stations, this looks very much like the selection of station I receive via Digital Cable, though they offer more stations already. While it's not your HOT 96FM or K-rock or q104 morning show, you will be able to get high quality, digital music, some even without commercials. Think about that for a second. If you drive a lot, you will appreciate this. There's nothing like sitting in traffic and all the stations have either talk (ever realize that every radio station now needs at least 3 people for there morning shows? I actually enjoy listing to music sometime) or commercials. In addition, once this is fully roled out, you will be able to receive the same station for your entire trip.
... or any in between.
... I'll think I go for XM radio.
Efforts to get the Radio Data Service (RDS) going over here in the U.S. have been very pitiful. In Europe, I can drive for hundreds of kilometers and receive the same station the entire way. RDS, besides sending out the station name and other text data, also sends out alternative frequencies for the same station - so as I'm driving from Hamburg to Berlin, the RDS capable radio will switch from Hamburg's frequency for N-Joy Radio to the frequency this station uses in Berlin
I don't quite see myself buying a new car stereo for this satellite radio, but I could see pay $10/mo if my next car had a compatible radio already. Especially since my dealer wanted $500 for the CD changer
I think what this needs to really catch on is additional services - we're throwing all this digital equipment together, along with the digital pipe for delivery, you'd think there's more than music to get out of this.
Don't mention that trash ever again.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Sounds way too damned expensive. Japan has had cable radio with 400+ channels for years. It was pretty cool, too -- listen to all Beatles all the time until you decide you need the smooth sounds of Perry Como. Anyway, point is it was a damn good idea that I'm sure cost nowhere NEAR the prices US companies are trying to gouge out of us. Why the hell don't we do what they did?!?!?!
I see a few repeated thoughts against subscription radio. Here's a some thoughts on why they're wrong.
:) Subscription-based media access works (cable TV, newspapers, magazines), despite the wide variety of high-quality, free sources (network TV, indie 'zines).
Anti-1) Just buy CDs.
At $10/mo. you can't even buy one CD/mo. Assuming good playlists, this is a cheaper way to get a variety of music. As for the $300 one-time cost for the radio, that will come down. CD players debuted at $500 - $1000 (?? just buy blank tapes at $0.50 ea.!); likewise for VCRs, DVD players, etc.
Anti-2) Listen CDs for good selection; don't rely on radio.
CDs play for 70 min max. Then it either stops, repeats, or you must switch discs. The point of radio is fire-and-forget. Pick station, and not have to interrupt work to fiddle with music selection. Multi-discs CD players reduce the problem, but don't remove it.
Anti-3) Use MP3 player to play large compilation discs.
Like Anti-2, it reduces effort, but still requires effort (both up-front to make the MP3s, and possibly to switch discs). But it's also Anti-1 -- you gotta have discs before you can rip 'em. Unless you steal music, but that's another discussion.
Anti-4) Just make your own mixes, and listent ot them. Why listen to corporate-run radio?
Uh huh. Just like you make your own DVD mixes, rather than getting cable-TV for movies, news, variety, etc.
For many of those people, the objections will be sufficient deterrent to trying digital radio. But early adopters are funny beasts, and are not easily stopped
There are many obstacles, but I think subscription, digital radio could work.
ShoutingMan.com
Will Canada just come over to the States and buy the dishes, only to get the signal for free across the border?
Sirius, while being slightly more expensive, promises to have entirely ad-free music channels. I'm not going to pay for something, and then be forced to listen to ads.
Besides, Sirius isn't associated with the Evil(tm) Clearchannel Corporation, the radio equivalent of Microsoft.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
All you need is to get it in your car. More variety, less ads, and free.
I think this is definitely gona be used in the future.. at alot less cost and more variety. What I do like about this is that you would be able to listen to any radio station around the world no matter where you are. Don't know if this is already implemented but that would be a good thing to have.
...that this will be a major failure. $120 a year for radio? Thank-you, no.
THE ONLY INTERESTING THING ABOUT THIS IS THE OFFICE POOL WE HAVE GOING HERE PREDICTING HOW LONG IT WILL BE BEFORE THE SYSTEM IS HACKED.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
Wow, I hope this sat radio really catches on, so that the market for FM radio dies, then maybe the FCC will ignore or open up the FM spectrum for pirate/hobbyist radio..
Considering how small an mp3 stream is, it wouldn't be hard to capture the stream to a 128meg DIMM chip so you can precache stations.
Without commercials and without commentary, there's no disincentive to timeshifting digital satellite radio. Why not make a system that will cache the last 100 songs, so you can just skip the ones you don't like?
Kevin Fox
The phrase "begging the question" has never meant "asking the question". "Begging the question" is a name for a specific logical fallacy. Please see http://skepdic.com/begging.html
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
they also included a way to just stream any song I wanted to hear directly to my car? I could have my own playlist and wouldn't have to drag cds around with me or download things to an mp3 player. I could put any song I wanted on repeat or find that old song they never play anymore or even that sweet song that no one will play on the radio but I can't listen to enough. Then it would be worth the price, to have access to that database of songs at anytime from anywhere. Plus I could listen to rock, pop, rap, irish music, classical, and reggea one right after the other if I wanted to without switching between one station or cd to another.
If i'm gonna get this new service, i'll take some ads, but i dont want to pay. id like to have it free and just have to listen to commercials.
How long before Clear Channel buy them out, bans half the songs, and replaces all the stations with their unique brand of MOR crap?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
they streamed groove salad from somafm
Are the services here compatible with Existing European equipment? Digital transmissions have been in existance in Europe since 1997.
Thankfully the Bay has one truly Public Radio station, KKUP. None of the DJ's are played, they have 15+ genres, and are 100% listener supported (quite possibly the only station in the country). Not that I would bet too many /.'ers are big reggae fans, but they have the most reggae hours on radio period. (XM just happens to have 1 reggae station I am streaming right now)
A point on XM radio, the trucking industry will be the first to take great use of this, on a trip to Mardi Gras from Indiana with my father, I failed to bring anything to read with me, and picked up all the free trucking magazines I could at local gas stations, and they were looking forward to XM in great force. It also interested me the amount of trucking companies who provided e-mail services built into their rigs to their employees so they could keep in touch with both their dispatchers and families.
Always remember not 'ALL' tech is created by geeks for geeks....
I'm so glad that the Sales brothers are on commercials for Beer, Automobiles and Luxury Cruises!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Obviously, I'm not able to speak to the VA public stations (I'm in MN), but I do find that public radio here (91.1 FM and probably others in this area) contain so little commercialism that I experience no dilemma of conscience in describing them as non-commercial. Many public radio stations will license the National Public Radio and follow their guidelines, so beyond that, YMMV. In MN (MPR), they point out key sponsorships with a little phrase behind it probably every 15 minutes. Apart from that, it's just content. Maybe I should've promoted MPR specifically, but I'm guessing that public radio practices nationwide are probably good enough to warrant a blanket endorsement.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
I think what would be really useful is a combo CD player/HD unit, that would rip to the HD while you were listening.
Granted, without net connections you wouldn't get track info right off BUT - how big is the whole freecddb database? Since storage is cheap you could include the whole thing locally and provide some means of updating (like a new DB burned on a CD).
With that combo you would still have the variety of your CD collection without the typical pain of burning all your CD's and then transferring the MP3's around.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
pay for something and then sit through ads. it's called cable tv.
Why pay for public radio when you can listen to their broadcasts for free?
I think I'd buy it. There was a radio station here in Salt Lake City that played for about two weeks straight with no commercials, most of which was music I liked. It was great. They will be offering 30 or so channels of no commercials... as well as some 40 more channels of music.. in addition to 20 or so news feeds. I think that's a great deal for $10 a month.
.02 cents.
I'd love to be able to listen to CNN in my car. I don't know how many stations I can pick up here, but I don't think it's 100. And I'd bet that they add in channels later if the service was popular.
K, that's my
-Frijoles-
My first choice would be for a live NPR feed though PRI and of course CBC would be welcome. All-music would be useful as an alternate though I'm really looking for something to keep me engaged on the long and at this hundredth-time boring night drive. Mp3's or other pre-recorded music aren't what I'm looking for (I already have a large collection of CD's & tapes) and so aren't interesting as an alternative. I could download some news & interview programming I like and burn it to a CD before each trip but this would be far more preparation then I care to do so regularly.
Unfortunately it appears that "satellite radio" will be as problematic for me as conventional radio. Driving through the mountains at ~45 North will likely result in service interruptions (doubtless the same as with conventional radio: always at the most interesting points.) Without much likelihood of repeaters in these rural areas this appears an inherent bug in the service and one which (at least for me) brings it from a strong possibility to something I'm not willing to pay much extra for.
A couple of tangential thoughts:
-
As Canada's CRTC takes no action to prevent piracy of US FCC-licensed satellite television broadcasts (aside from refusing to allow the services to be directly sold in Canada) I wonder if the same will hold true of radio broadcasts?
-
Is anyone aware of an online service where I could plug in a route (not a single location) and get a listing of stations by genre along the way? I imagine this would be a popular add-on to the many online route/map services but none seem to have anything like this. What I'd like to see would be something like a listing of public radio station by frequency along my route; others would presumably prefer country stations, pop or rock programming, etc.
Finally, Howstuffworks has a much more complete explanation of the history of this technology and how it really works (the corporate web sites are careful not to identify problems such as the need for repeaters.)I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
They've been selling these radios out here [in Toronto] for arround a year.
Why support Linux vendors when you can just bleed them dry?
Why be nice to people?
Why shouldn't you lie, cheat, and steal at every opportunity when you won't be caught?
Why not cheat on your taxes?
Why help your neighbor?
I do hope you're just trolling. If you can't understand the "Golden Rule" as a simple equation for self-interest, if nothing else, then you truly are a loser.
I do know people who think the presence of law enforcement is the only reason you should respect other people. They are sad people who really have no hope for happiness until they change their attitude.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
Take this bit from the Koran:
Surah: 3:151. We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, because they joined others in worship with Allâh, for which He had sent no authority; their abode will be the Fire
A.) Satellite radio seems like an economy of scale, and there really can be only one provider. This thing will probably sell more into the car audio market. Also, I know that I get digital radio over digital cable right now, what's to stop them from expanding this service (cable is only ~14 bux a month for basic).
B.) What is to stop Dish network from providing a service of their own. They already have a pretty robust constellation of satellites, clearly with ample bandwidth.
C.) 3133+ P1R@+3 R@D10
D.) I really think that it would take quite a bit of enginuity and resources that it would be worth to defraud Sirius and XM. It probably uses an expensive / hard to find ASIC.
I've really enjoyed the piped music coming in on the channel 8?? range on DirecTV. It's commercial free, and they display the artist/title/CD/label on the screen for your information (which is more than I'll say about most FM stations that just assume you know).
But of course it's a stationary service, rooted to my home system.
It would be nice if I could just receive those same audio channels from DirecTV in my car, on my personal CD/MP3 player/tuner instead of having to subscribe to yet another service. The BW requirements seem minimal enough in principle but perhaps there's no convenient way of extracting just those channels from their feed with a dinky antennae?
Of course, another alternative might be if cell phone time comes down in price enough so that we can stream audio over the web via WAP(?)
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I like to listen to "esoteric" music - i.e. not anything on mass market radio. I will GLADLY pay a small subscription fee for my 1.5 hours per daily commute. I have over 2,000 CDs and a CD player in my car, but this what I've been waiting for! I dislike the hassle of keeping the CDs out of the car (due to the hot days and sunlight) and trying to choose several each time I leave the house is a hassle. I have always been an avid radio listener, but with todays mega-conglomerate "programming for the ignorant masses" who just want to hear the latest Britney Spears makes me puke. If you take that $10 and divide it by the amount of time you can hear a decent selection of music WITHOUT having to worry about what happens to your CD collection - it's cheep.
Of course - some people might not care about these things, and they are not the audience for either of the services.
But it's still cool - and most geeks like music - I know I do!
The only thing that I can't decide is whether to buy from Crutchfield, or wait until the local car stereo installer (Colorado) has them. Decisions, decisions...
Why is everyone talking about the music possibilities of satellite radio. I'm looking forward to getting NPR and the BBC. Nether of witch I can get very well here in Florida with analog radio.
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
For me its not about the commercials. It would be about the quality of the sound and not having to deal with getting out the CD or mp3s. I personally don't have as much time as I would like so the radio is often convient for me. The problem I have with the radio, though, isn't so much the commercials as the quality of the sound I'm picking up. I have a fairly descent sound system and the differnce in sound between the radio and a CD is enormous. So, for me, *if* I can get some high quality sounds out of satillite radio, I'd consider signing up.
puck
and droll.
No black metal, no death metal, No $.
Will the World Music stations play the hit folk tune 'I Hate Isreal'?
No McFalafel for you!. http://www.cairotimes.com/news/shaaban.html
The biggest advantage will be that you'll be able to listen to stuff other than like, NSYNC, Korn, P Diddy, etc. DJs will actually have a chance to play what they want, rather than what is being pushed by record companies. Less product and more art in music.
No one seems to be talking about reception. I work in the middle of nowhere and getting decent radio on the drive is tough. I can listen to cd's but sometimes news is what I want to hear, and it's tough to listen to crappy quality AM. High quality radio with a good reception area and good selection and I'm sold. I hope this turns out to be good.
I'll pay as much for this as I do for cable TV now: nothing. I strongly doubt that there's going to be more than 5% of this that's worth listening too, and I can get about 95% of that from my own music, our two good broadcast stations (CBC and CKUA), and the odd moments of silence that are quite enjoyable when they happen.
5% new of 5% worthwhile isn't enough to justify paying any money at all for.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Why do I want ANOTHER monthly bill again? It doesn't sound like much until you talley up all the little monthly service fees we are faced with.
Many, many people actually *gasp* do listen to the radio, simply because some of us have other things to do than sit in chat rooms discussing hot new bands. (Hot new bands as in hot new bands, not as in 'popular' drek. Case in point, hardly any radio stations play good music. :p).
;) Now, a few more bucks a month shouldn't be a problem for techies (And it won't be for me once I get my &@$&* degree. :P), however, the world is filled with low-paid, hard-working non-techs.
This could be the answer.
Could. If they vary the music and play stuff that people who aren't brainwashed into ogling some ugly silicon-enhanced girl listen to.
They need to do this, and do it well. Subscribtion fee + equipment = less of a user base.
Seriously. Cell phone. Pager. EverCrack. ISP. Etc. People can't keep adding subscribtion fees on top of everything they already own/rent/etc.
Erm, anyway, the question is, "Is this such an advantage over normal radio that I should shell out money for it?"
(:
Ok, so XM Radio has one metal channel, playing wannabe metal such as Korn, Limb Bizkit, and Marilyn Manson. But, out of "100 channels", there's still not one that offers melodic death metal such as In Flames or power metal such as Helloween!? Bah. (And, FWIW, it doesn't look like Sirius fares any any better)
:).
But, to their credit, XM Radio does offer BBC World Service, which is almost reason enough alone to sign up
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
"All your base are belong to this file I send in order to have your advice."
I can't seem to install it on my FM radio in my Car.
Guess when they designed radios they didn't even care about running Linux. Bastards!
-Jason
The LAME dll now has new presets. Get the alpha versions here. Instead of the --r3mix preset, you can now use: --dm-preset standard, --dm-preset xtreme, --dm-preset insane, and --dm-preset metal
Insane is better than xtreme which is better than standard. Of course your MP3's get bigger as you increase quality. The metal preset is best for loud as hell, heavy metal style music.
So who else thinks this will be the next big thing to hack??? I mean satellite TV has been done, and it supposedly used the best enryption available... Audio should be even easier... with this, you are in a car, and you don't have an 18 inch dish on your roof... It should make it a lot harder to track you down... for legal action...
Anyone care to wager how many actual paying customers there will be after the first 6 months??? Are they taking a loss on the actual receiver and hoping to recoup the costs with monthly service charges??? HA! That don't work too well... Just ask DTV... $89 a receiver for DTV is not how much it costs to make... I doubt $300 is the actual cost of this new satellite radio receiver...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
They will become filthy rich if they do it right.
First they really have to offer a small portion of channels 100% free. I.E. I buy a satt radio and these stations come in without registration or calling anyone. put up channels that have a large amount of commercial spots on them, but put something there to entice the customer to pay for the full service.
If they have nothing free to draw in the users then they will die. and die horribly.
I refuse to buy anything I cannot try, that includes software,music,power tools, etc...
Hell car dealers let you test drive cars for free, BestBuy let you mess with stuff for free, HBO even gives you 2 times a year a weekend free.
I want 5 sattelite channels free! but they don't have any that are free, just the "demo packages" that require you to give them credit card numbers,DNA samples and information to spam the hell out of you with while you listen for 15 days.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Looks Cool :)
(My Bad) ln -s
That way, I could get streaming MP3 broadcasts from winamp in my car. And I could look up maps or directions. and I could be informed of detours online... and I could keep in touch with people so I don't make a wasted drive. I could keep important information on the computer in my car that I might need for a client or customer, etc etc etc... I'd rather pay $10 for broadband access in my car instead, and I'd gladly pay an extra $1000 for the computer in my car.
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
Commercial Free? And what do you think the playlists are? Commercials for people to buy the singles maybe?
So in addition to the expense, you have the issue of dealing with a magnetic roof-mount antenna or gluing one to the inside of your windows. Further impediment to aftermarket sales.
An imperfect plan executed violently is far superior to a perfect plan. -- George Patton
meaning, a good concept that no one wants.
what percentage of the driving radio listner would want coat to coast radio stations, and pay 10bucks for the privilage?
truckers, trains would be the biggest market, and is that enough to keep your business floating? probably not.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
XM provides 100 digital channels, a signicant number of which are commercial free
maybe it's just me, and I'm not necessarily being frugal, but if I'm paying $10 a month for radio, why should I have to endure commercials? If I'm going to pay a premium for a service that's above and beyond what the free version of said service offers, it has to be worth something more than the free version. It's a great idea, but I think they're going at it all wrong.
do not read this line twice.
Man, you guys are harsh. Beating up on such a new technology.
I travel a couple hours a day and suffer through the misrable choices of broadcast raido. The popular stations weigh their advertising so heavily into the rush-hour that it's unbearable. Public Radio is great, but listening to NPR's Morning Edition can wear on you after a few weeks. Give me options!
I suppose the real challenge would be to intercept the signal on cheaper hardware. Will it even be possible? $300 is a huge pricetag to receive something slightly better than what I get for free, even if $10/mo is fairly cheap for the service.
Has anyone seen any links to the technical side of this service? What hardware is used to receive, and how is the signal encrypted?
Compare it to cable and satellite TV. Isn't this the same model? Pay for options. Eventually the equipment will go dirt cheap. Look at Cable boxes, dishes. Heck - Look at 1 cent cellphones.
The way you guys talk, you must all have rabbit ears on top of the TV, and a cabinet full of video tapes!
This reminds me of a April Fools joke local chicago radio station wxrt played when I lived there. Found it documented at museumofhoaxes, 1992 -
Pay-Per-Hear: WXRT-FM, a Chicago radio station, announced that it would turn into a digital, commercial-free "pay-per-hear" station. Its signal would be scrambled and divided into five different program formats that listeners would have to pay to listen to. The five formats would be "'XRT Basic," "'XRT Live," "'XRT Gold," "'XRT Espanol" and "sports-rock." The station announced the format change all day and then switched to a scrambled signal for several minutes. Hundreds of listeners reportedly called in to protest the change, and one listener even showed up with a picket sign outside the station.
I haven't read the last book, is this Sirius the same one that becomes Sirius Cybernetics, makers of Marvin, the Paranoid Android?
AC's cheerfully ignored
It's good to know that there's an applicaton that handles this for points along the way but I'm looking for something that could generate listing for the entire route, not just from the dozen or so control cities I'd have to manually plug in.
I assume the FCC has some sort of database of stations, frequencies and transmission areas (I've seen highly detailed maps for individual stations showing thier transmission areas) and there must be a table of stations-to-formats out there. With these two datasets it seems it would be trivial to overlay this on a route and generate a listing of stations of the sort desired and note where they begin & end.
Instead i expect (and well could be wrong not being at all familier with the product) that DeLorme is simply listing stations registered as serving a particular metropolitan area and not actually matching their transmission areas to the exact geographic location.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Try it out at their web site. It seems to be broken right now, but it looks like they are trying to provide a trial service.
($10x12 + $300 makes $420 I'll be putting toward other things.)
i (cough) bet i know (cough) what other things...
This, in my opinion, is total crap. I don't listen to the radio, except sometimes on the road.
However, on long drives out here (Montana), you're often out of range of decent radio. So I can see how it might be good for many people out West. This might be really nice for truckers (for when they aren't doing meth and engaging in man-on-man love at rest areas).
My 2 cents.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
The NPR affilliate around here runs brief ads like once every 1/2 hour, and it's normally just "this program is brought to you by Blah Co, makers of FOO; XYZ Co, providers of BAR service, and our public radio listeners. You're listening to WOI Radio, Ames and Des Moines." This is of course different during pledge drives, but that's only once a year.
Once you're up to 6 breaks an hour, like you described, that's no longer public-radio-worthy, IMHO. Sorry your experience is based on such a case.
"This message is composed of 100% recycled electrons."
I knew that XM Radio is no better than the music channels on Digital Cable and DirecTV. Sure, they will have commericial free, coast-to-coast broadcast but will they have top choice selection.
While I may not share the expertise that you do when it comes to Metal but my feeling are mutual when it comes to broadcasting Hip-Hop (or what white people like to call it "Rap"). Oh joy, I get to let some nobody program Hip-Hop selections such as Enimem, Limp Biskit, Nelly and _______ (fill in some other pop group out there).
Play a selection such as anything from Nas' "Illmatic", Wu-Tang Clan's "Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers" or even The Roots (pick an album) and I will be throughly impressed.
ChozSun
ChozSun.com
Nice contradiction in this one:
Section 5. Payment
c) Administrative Fees
2. Late Fee
We do not extend credit to customers and this late fee is not an interest charge.
Compare with
Section 5. Payment
g) Consents Regarding Credit
In order to establish an account with us, you authorize us to inquire into your creditworthiness, by checking with credit reporting agencies. If you are delinquent in any payment to us, you also authorize us to report any late payment or nonpayment to credit reporting agencies.
I call bullshit. If you aren't extending me credit, you get no access to my credit history.
I found a much better article on MSNBC and it talks about a company called iBiquity which has technology so local stations will be able to broadcast in digital and analog over the same frequency.
The only reason I had for being interested in the radio satallite service was having nice CD quality sound without the hassle of f'in with my mp3's or CDs. Well, if locals start doing the same thing evenutally, but for free, and it sounds like they will, these guys are gonna be hard pressed to get customers. I, personally, found the idea of getting the high quality sound appealling, because honestly, sound from radio with my car or home stero systems just sounds bad compared to CDs. I'd love to get the digital sound, but I think I can wait for my locals to start broadcasting it for free. I mean, why waste the money on a satellite radio, if I'm gonna end up getting one for my locals evetually anyway.
puck
Try it out [xmradio.com] at their web site.
No, thanks. It runs under javascript.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I agree they have lots of channels, which may appeal to some, but to truly capture the market, they have to approach it in a broader sense, thus appealing to smaller groups... stuff I cannot get on MTV or locals stations.
I hope I am not the only one to notice the sever lacking in different types of music. First thing I was looking for was a few different techno stations. Trance, House, DB, Breaks, anything!!! I was quite disapointed and the thought of evening considering the service went out the window. Especially when there is already good streaming music http://www.digitallyimported.com (although internet only)
I will wait until something that suits my tastes a bit more comes out and then consider it.
They are going national are they... in my country ?
no, just in the USA, well why didnt you say that ?
Are you just assuming all the other readers live in the US, or do you think that non-US readers should accept that a US point of view is more important than anything else.
#$%$#%
I hope you're talking about your home system and not the one in the car. If you can hear an enormous difference between a decently engineered FM station and a CD, you probably aren't getting enough audio input from the environment you're moving that vehicle through, input that you need to make informed, intelligent decisions about how you're going to operate that vehicle.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I think everyone is seriously missing the point of XM satellite radio.
The problem with today's music radio stations is that they've been so market-researched to death that the only formats I hear commonly are Adult Contemporary, Country & Western, Hip-Hop and some Heavy Metal. They've essentially wiped out Classical, many ethnic formats, Easy Listening, and Jazz formats, just for starters.
The potential for XM is enormous: a lot of music formats we used to hear widely and/or niche format music heard only regionally can now get national distribution again. Imagine being able to listen to techno and dance music from Europe and Japan (great music few people in the USA hear)--XM could provide an outlet for that soon.
What is Isreal?
Damn, I don't have a satellite dish on my radio...
42 + 1 = 42
Wasn't this already tried (and failed) with DMX (direct music express, or something)? A continuous stream of music doesn't really hook listeners like a live DJ with commercial breaks, weather reports, and traffic updates, along with traditional DJ banter.
Also, who is really into listening to a single genre of music? I don't live in a community with Clear Channel, but the radio stations generally group themselves into different 'brands' of music instead of specific genre's (ie, we have a top40/r&b/rap station, and a alternative/electronic/rock station, an high-school run station, and an 'adult contemporary' which are all fairly popular, and none of them stick to a particular genre of music
this thing will never fly without howard stern!
To all of you touting how XM is "commercial-free" take a look at the disclaimer on xmradio.com's sample page:
Following is a sortable list of XM Satellite Radio's channels. You'll also find an option to listen to XM programming samples. (Although all of our samples are commercial-free, some of the actual channels may carry minimal advertising.)
Interesting -- so where's the benefit again? Incidentally, crutchfield is already selling the XM recievers and add-ons Here
~arbitrary
Of course there are lots of reasons not to like this , but I think one selling point they would have would be better reception. Here in the hills of San Diego, lots of people can't get any sort of radio reception in their homes because they can't cover the valleys adequately. Driving around, reception drops in and out all the time. Personally I wouldn't shell out the bucks because I don't listen to that much music, but I can think of a lot of people around here who would.
"The audiophiles that I know are more likely to spend their money on MP3 and CD alternatives. "
Appearently the 'audiophiles' you know ARE NOT audiophiles or they wouldn't be listening to MP3's. True audiophiles (or for that fact, even your average listener) will hear nothing but crap (as I and my co workers do) when ANY MP3 is played (even off an expensive MP3 player).
$10x12 + $300 makes $420 I'll be putting toward other things
I can take a hint. Try smokedot.org
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
"Radio to the power of X" ARGH. Makes me wanna vomit.
They are just so 1337!
ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ONE! Just brushing up for my next big invention: Ethernet over Voice (EoV)
after reading this, and living in the dallas area thought that I would do some digging about the XM company, so I went to the fcc.gov site and did a word search for xm radio frequency (yah, I know what you are all thinking what I was trying to find) but in reading the text files that I found I came across when XM was trying to get frequencies to use, well, if you were in the bell south area and had a cell, you might of had some problems with your phone had they not chagned a few things. also wunder how long it will be till some one does find out how XM is sendding the signal to the user and finds a way to hack it? how hard could it be they do it for the dishTVs now. hmmm
I think Ill just pop load my 60GB playlist..
Im tired of trying to be screwed by the media/entertainment market, god knowes they already have a mint off the amount of CD's I bought for $12+USD/each. Bastards...
This is, though, a 12" or 18" parabolic dish in a radome, so it's a bit much for small cars. It would be cool to replace the fibreglas radome with a clear one, so people could watch the dish track as you drove along.
For AU$60/annum (about 86c US) for PBS, you get radio selections by people actually interested in what they're playing, not just feeding the player with whatever HQ put on the fax. Melbourne has a strong live music scene and many of the advertisers are these venues and other industry: recording studios, media replication, special events.
They go as far as having 'patrons' per segment where the sponsor (named personally in most cases) gets mentioned a couple of times for their payment and gets music played explicitly for them - it might be a panel beaters or a bakery that happens to like regae, often with no vested interest in what gets played, as long as it is good.
It pays the bills and no boy bands are required.
We've had satellite radio here in Asia for a while now. Same for Africa, etc.
Here in Korea, you pay only for the equipment, which starts at $150.00. (it's portable if you want it to be). The signals are free for the next few years while they tweak and build the market and infrastructure. Lots of worldwide news, music and culture. Ground based repeaters fill in the low spots, similar to the cell bridges inside tunnels and subways. As always, the states are behind, and the consumer is being bilked.
The era of MP3 music is already gone. It's all Internet radio right now....boy, you guys are slow out there today :)
I sometimes get rather tired of the USA focus of /. and this is a classic example. Satellite radio has been available in Africa (yes, Africa) for more than a year now. This is not news unless you live in the USA.
It's not about someone being ignorant for criticizing Islam. It's about you not knowing the first thing about it. You claim to know the tenets of Islam and what it's all about. You know nothing.
For example, the previous post said that if Muslims die in a holy war, they will go to heaven and there is nothing like that in the Bible. That's patently false. Why are there chaplains in the United States Armed Forces? Did every soldier to die in World War 2 go to hell (such as it is, I'm not what you would call religous)? Try explaining the Crusades. That is definitely what is known as a "holy war". In fact, all those Christians were raping and pillaging in the name of God. Whoops, there goes your argument.
Not all Muslims are fundamentalists or terrorists. Just like not all Christians build compounds in Texas, bilk their followers out of their money, build a large arsenal complete with automatic weapons and have sex with the 12 year old daughters of the members of their congregations.
In short, you aren't an ignorant asshole because you criticize Islam. You are an ignorant asshole because you don't know the first thing of what you are talking about.
These satellite channels are coordinated and agreed upon by the WRC (kind of like the UN of radio frequency coordination).
WorldSpace has a cool PC card that plugs into your laptop. That will probably be the device the hackers start with for pirate decoding boxes for the US - as the frequency bands are the same.
I mean really, who wants random objects to fall out of the sky when they turn on the radio?
Or even worse -- Snoop Dogg?
arcane for life
Does this mean that the US has given up on producing a standard for digital radio over the normal airwaves?
Here in the UK we've had digital radio using the DAB standard that most of the world has chosen (shades of GSM here) for a couple of years. Unfortunately, the radios are expensive and no-one listens to it yet. They are dropping in price now though.
The Washington Post has had lots of coverage of XM, since it's a local company, and they report that there will be far fewer commercials than are on, say, Clear Channel. Oh, and XM has some former DJ's from WHFS. Those of us who've lived in DC for many years remember HFS, fondly, as a true alternative radio station. It used to play lots of reggae, punk, other non-mainstream formats. Looks like XM will do the same.
Best Slashdot Co
I do this, mainly to hear NPR, but my God, the do fundraisers OFTEN and LONG. It's painful to listen to them begging for money for a week and a half, when you *could* be listening to Morning Edition. g
Problem: no time, no life. Music comes from living. With time at such a premium, I have to question your sanity for posting to Slashdot, but that's another issue.
Being from New Orleans, it's hard for me to even imagine a life like that. All sorts of music ozzes from the cracks, and it does not take much effort to collect and manage. Go out, hear a band, like it, buy a CD, copy and MP3 em. My wife and I also like to collect music on vacations and that's part of our selection criteria. If you don't get out enough to persue the things you love, your life is out of balance.
ABCDE makes the achive task much easier. From there, custom CDs with enough music for your six hour drive are about 1 hour away with most of the time in deciding what you want. To save time and amuse yourself, try random mixes.
Putting your life in balance will give you a new perspective on NPR as well. Get out while you still can!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Here's a concept for the marketing dept: Have some renouned DJ's do some of the programming and then advertise as such! This goes for all music genres, not just techno.
-Eric B-
Radio stations in central PA suck. A classic rock station that plays too-classic rock. An 'alternative' station that loses many hours of radio play in the morning to feature Howard (I listen to the radio for music, not talk). A top 40 station that again suffers from too much dj chatter and commercials, especially during peak driving periods.
I'll gladly pay $10 a month to get rid of that kind of crap, just as I'll pay $4.55 a day for a triple-venti, suguar-free, nonfat caramel machiato from Starbucks to get a decent cup of joe. Heck, I pay more for my cable modem & cable service, and this I'll be able to use on the road...
On 11/15 when the service is available in my area, I'll be signing up. Already ordered the equipment...
Lets see, how many media companies will provide content? 4 maybe...I'll pass on this too.
I want to listen to pre-digested selection from scientifically analyzed and presented in such a manner as to please the described demographic population.
Most commercial broadcast radio sucks across the country and the satellites will not change that. You already can go from city to city and hear the same crap spewing from "official" playlists provided to the station directors by home corporate office. Why does one need this!?!
Do they have home tuners and will you have to pay for a subscription for both?
At 5 hours per MiniDisc now, this seems to be a great way to "time shift" a broadcast ((especially if the name of the artist/track is dumped on the disc)).. But if the radio is 24x7 on all stations one wonders if its worth it?
It's a going concern in pretty well every civilized country outside the US.
Look at the world-DAB forum to get started.
The official launch of Digital Radio in Canada took place on 1st November 1999. Stations in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have been operating since early 1999. For specific information on DAB in Canada, there's DigitalRadio.ca
I have a suspicion what the answer is going to be, but does anyone know if XM and Sirius are using the same hardware/software? That is, if I buy an XM radio, then learn that my favorite DJ or Band is getting their own 24-hour channel on Sirius, can I cancel XM and join Sirius with the same hardware?
I'm afraid this is going to be too much like DirecTV vs Echostar -- each using their own systems. Why, oh, why, can't we develop STANDARD content delivery systems and simply use the inherint subscriber / key information to control which bird you're listening to?
>you aren't an ignorant asshole because you >criticize Islam. You are an ignorant
>asshole because you don't know the first thing of >what you are talking about.
and you do, of course.
Will popular syndicated talk shows be carried on satellite? Like Howard Stern, Mancow, Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Tom Leykis, etc. This would be a make-or-break for me.
(I'm not endorsing any of the above hosts. In fact, I despise two of them. You can guess which ones...)
FWIW, I was at Best Buy last night and at least one of the XM-radio stereos was going for $189.
It's a good idea, but they're missing one of the things that would really sell it: rebroadcasting of specifical local stations to a nationwide audience. I saw they're using an L.A. top 40 station for one of the pop stations, which is fine, but if I were them, I'd get on the phone to the major sports talk stations in New York, Boston, Chicago, Denver, etc. and sign them up.
I'm sure there are thousands of displaced New Yorkers who'd kill to listen to WFAN around the country so they could hear Vinnie from Bensonhurst complaining about the Yankees' bullpen.
hmm... let's run the post thru babelfish's Canadian to English filter... aha:
Well hoser, I thought I made it clear that I'm too lazy to bring my own music along. I'm also too lazy to make my own discs, as I spend most of my time out watching pine trees grow and this is much too captivating.
However, I'd gladly pay for a device (using nominal Canadian currency made to look like real US currency that's several times the value) if someone did all the hard stuff for me.
Besides my favorite Canadian programs (like "Bobo the Talking Moose," "The Lumberjack Hour," and anything from the Comrad Broadcasting Company), there are many fine American programs that share my utopianist views (like anything with Terry Gross, although her fawning over actors and never ending personal life stories are annoying).
Sig: I never read anything above -1 because it is certain to not be the views of the repressed masses.
I have to agree. It's also bad when a big event occurs, like the 9/11 attack and like the Lewinsky/Clinton case. I suppose they beat dead horses like that because they should. In the case of the 9/11 attack, at least it's warranted. With things like the Lewinsky case? I don't want to hear it anymore after a couple days.
I will say though that their fund-raising has gotten a lot less intrusive (at least in MN) since they started encouraging "pre-funding" over the Internet. They're able to reduce the cuts to air-time by simply starting collections online before the actual drive. Then they don't have to go nearly as long as they used to. I've noticed some difference personally and I would guess that it takes them about 2-3 days less to wrap up now than it used to.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
I work for Salem Satellite Media... We provide XM with the three Christian radio stations.
... Now you can have two way communication over satellite right? When a song is being played Xm will also be displaying text on your radio and depending on the radio you may also get a picture on the CD. You will be able to press a button on the radio that tells the programmer that you like the song and that programmer will be able to play it more often. You will also be able to go the old fashion way and email your requests.
... You pay for cable TV or many of you Digital Cable or even Satellite TV because it offers you programming choices that aren't on regular TV and at a better quality. (Anyone who has played with the bunnies ears just watch TV will agree)
Now 1.5 billion dollars buys you a lot of really neat toys. I have been to XM radio's headquarters in Washington DC and I have seen their server room which houses the 38 terabyte disk array. (The largest install IBM has ever done!) and I have been able to listen to the 2+ million songs in their library (It is growing with every new release) and I like what I hear. Nowhere else will you get this kind of quality choices.
Now to answer a couple of questions I see floating around.
1. Right now you can only buy the receivers in Dallas and San Diego but you can travel anywhere in the continental US and receive a signal...
2. For large urban areas there are signal repeaters on the roofs of buildings...
3. Xm has all their audio in MPeg2 so that the quality is better than what you can get on your downloaded songs and Mini-disks
4. The programming of the stations are done by real professionals who have been in the business for years. Xm didn't know Christian radio so they partnered with Salem (The largest Christian Radio company.) Xm doesn't know Nascar, Hardcore Urban Rap, Blues, Gospel, News, Spanish so they partnered with the respective leaders in those field as well. (If you don't believe me take a trip to XM Headquarters in Washington DC and just walk through the halls. You will never see a more diverse group of people working in the same building)
5. You will be able to help shape what is played on the radio. The reason the radio is expensive is because it is getting a satellite signal. Now lets think about this for a second. Satellite
6. For all those who think "I just listen to CDs that I bought." My question to you is.. How do you choose which CDs to buy? Do you just ask the pimple head kid at Best Buy which CDs are good?
7. Lastly, I have this question. Do you have cable TV? If so, Why?
Therefore I will pay my $10 a month so that I can watch/listen XM revolutionize radio as we know it.
Adam
I can think of another way to spend *420* dollars that will result in your music sounding much better.
what's the cutoff for Gen X? I'm a spring 82 baby, can I claim Nirvana instead of the Backstreat Boys?
Man I hate the culture of people my own age...
We've had this service in Canada for about two years now. The hardware is branded "Look Communications" among others. I don't know a single soul who's bought the service for personal use. Most people here have digital cable or satellite and receive digital music that way.
However, there are a lot of these receivers out there. Almost all of them are owned by bars/restaurants/malls/etc. They can switch on the musical genre of choice and forget about it. No more CD's to get lost or stolen. No commercials. No employees bringing in their latest punk indie tracks to play during the wine tasting. Management just mandates a Channel # and that's it. Works pretty well. There might be a similar market in the US.
BRENT ROCKWOOD, EST'd 1975
yeah i'm real sad to hear the biggot death-metal market isn't being fairly represented.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
That is a fantastic comeback. Of course you can't even refute one word of my post.
Congratulations.
Have you read the Quran? Check Sura 2, versicle 191:
"And kill them wherever you find them. And expel them from the sacred places, because their presence is worse than the slaughter..."
First of all, your quote is wrong. Second of all, it's way out of context. You can read the whole thing here if you're interested.
In context:
[2.190] And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.
[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
[2.192] But if they desist, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
Anyone who happened to catch the XM launch event (a video replay is available here) will have noticed a few things:
1. The CEO is a self-obsessed, buzzword-dropping twit who treats his employees and customers as subservients. The "command chair"!! I laughed. This guy is hardly Captain Kirk.
2. The programming staff for each of the channels are apparently experienced in traditional commercial radio, as evidenced by their oh-so-carefully crafted "cool" vocal intonation and phrasing -- you know what I mean -- the kind of voice you always hear on commercial radio, the one you just know the DJ drops the minute he's off the air (or he would never get a girlfriend).
3. As even the clueless CEO admits, this is a new medium. Unfortunately, he failed to hire clueful people to build a dynamic (as in "frequently-adjusted") channel selection based on input from the listening audience, with a choice of subscription OR (not AND!!!) advertising-supported channels.
The current list of ingredients doesn't add up to a meal, and I predict XM will fail fairly quickly.
-David.
Does this mean I'll have to always point my car toward the Southern sky? I mean I like Mexico, but I wouldn't want to live there.
So does this mean my car will always have to point toward the southern sky for it to work? I mean.. I like Mexico, but I don't want to live there..
And death/black metal is bigoted in what way? There isn't anything about the style that demands bigotry or hate...though the genre is often offensive and/or harsh. It also is free to question the basic tenets of good and evil, right and wrong, god, and godless.
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My point was that to be worth paying for the offered product ought to be at least reasonably differenciated from the commonly available corporate format radio. What I personally listen to is melodic to harsh doom/death/black metal the most. I also like other types of music but that's my staple.
I mentioned the Shaaban incident because I think it's rather funny (and hypicritical) of the people involved. Is Shaaban wrong for singing 'I don't like Isreal' is Madkour Thabet (a censor) wrong for having him change to lyric to 'I Hate Isreal'? Was Shaaban wrong to swipe the idea for the song from Awad Badaw and/or Ismail Khalil? The people who listened (and made it a hit) are they wrong? Was the American Jewish Committee wrong for having McDonalds halt Shaaban's advert for McFalafel? Is McDonalds wrong for stiffing Shaaban on his contract?
The AJC could not stop radio stations from playing the 'hit', but they could impact an ad. McDonalds shouldn't have used Shabban to promote the McFalafel, but he's a poor illiterate who happend to be in a excelent position to be used. Shabban was wrong to change the lyric to 'hate' and the censor was wrong to ask. That's my opinion anyway.
---
"Originally it was 'I don't like Israel', but I made a recommendation that they choose another word equal to the state of people's feelings," said Madkour Thabet, whose office has the power to ban tapes deemed politically or morally offensive.
http://www.arabia.com/egypt/life/article/englis
That is so not true and God forbid if I listened to some loud music in my car anyway. Run! its the loud music police. I generally do not listen to my music loud, but so what if I did. Sure its the safest thing, but damn, its not that big of a deal. Really, what percentage of the info you need drive correctly comes from hearing? not much.
Seriously, though, there is a huge difference btwn CD and radio quality, even at low volumes. This is especially true for the higher and lower ranges in my own opinion. There's no clarity to the high stuff and the low stuff is virtually non-existant on the radio...and its very noticable at low volumes. I don't consider myself a manic audiophile either. I bought my shit from CC or Best Buy mostly, and most of them 'experts' would scoff at my system. But its fine for me and its a great deal better than a factory system. Its certainly good enough that any untrained ear (such as mine) can tell there is a huge difference.
puck
Your ears are part of an "early warning system" of which you may not be fully aware. It sort of operates in background mode. There's a lot more to hear than just emergency vehicle sirens.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Imagine having a walkman that works on the plane, or a car radio that you never have to tune-in no matter how far you travel. It's not quite the same as radio in that respect. This functionality maybe worth paying for in my opinion.