Satellite Radio Coming in 2001

That Guy writes "This article explains how in a couple of years it'll be possible to drive cross-country listening to one radio station, in CD quality, with no static. " Seems like this is an intermediate step before all music is downloaded from the internet, and we just have cars with satellite net feeds. I guess it would matter to me more if I ever left the 5 mile radius around my house :)

Comments

Broadcasting begins with generalization

[bootp]

This service seems a bit like digital music available through major television cable companies. The idea is that you either install a new radio all together in your car, or you can just buy an attenna adapter that will let you use your existing radio. It's not the "free" radio that most of us are use to, where anytime you want you can tune in to any particular channel. Instead, there is a subscription fee ( $9.95 US for the CD Radio service), and supposedly this covers the revenues that commericial radio creates. Thus, commercial-free radio at a price.

Both CD Radio and XL offer 100 different "stations" respectively, with CD Radio dividing it nicely, 50 for news, 50 for music. Both companies have already produced primitive station lineups already: XL Radio and CD Radio.

Even though I have no direct evidence, I imagine many of the stations to be similar to National Public Radio (NPR) in their broadcast procedure. NPR reports news that is broadcast all over the nation, so reporting local events or weather is ineffecient for every single area around the country. Instead, NPR gives regional broadcasters space within the nation-wide program (anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes) to report local news, sports scores, and weather. If the new satellite radio companies really expect people to give up their old radios for the new deal, then they'll probably come up with a system similar to NPR's. The logistics of such an endeavour are beyond the scope of my knowledge.

If you want to get more news on the new technology straight from the horses' mouths check out both companies' websites at:

CD Radio ( www.cdradio.com )
XL Radio ( www.amrc.com )