The previous owner of the car I recently purchased must have been an XM radio subscriber (either that or the trial period hasn’t yet run out on the subscription). Anyway, I have been driving around the last month or so with XM radio and I thought I would share some thoughts on it.
At first the whole thing is a bit overwhelming. I imagine it’s sort of like getting cable if all you are used to is whatever you can pick-up off the antennae. How do you even create presets for a hundred or more channels?
After giving a few candidate channels a tryout I settled on a mix of 12 channels for presets. 1 comedy, 1 BBC news, and 10 music. I’m sure I will go back and give other stations a chance but again the number of choices is overwhelming so you have to limit yourself somehow.
The best thing I can say is that the music stations seem to be programmed by people who really “get” the genre. No matter what it is, you sense that the people responsible for the playlist know the music, know what is overplayed, know what is too obscure, and focus in on the good stuff. Even for a genre I don’t really care for, like the 70s, I find the mix of songs really good.
My favorite station is called Lithium (34). I’m convinced the dude stole my iPod and is just selecting good tracks off of that (plus adding a bunch of Rage Against The Machine which I guess I’m supposed to like but doesn’t really work for me). It’s supposed to focus on 90s/Grunge but it really is all over the place (in a good way).
XM is also helping me to “find” music again. Something I really haven’t done much of in the last 10 years. I can tune in and out of the “Alt” station (which is a lot of new alternative music) and find some gems without having to suffer through hours of music I’m not interested in.
One other cool thing was I noticed the 70s station plays Kasey Kasem countdowns from the 70s on Saturday morning. Not a re-creation, the actual countdowns complete with cheesy “long distance dedications”. Good fun.
Comedy channel is really hit or miss. There is some good stuff but a lot of crap. Also, some comedians like Emo Philips and Steven Wright that I thought were funny “back in the day” have not held up well to the test of time… Yeeeisssh.
I also notice that it is now nearly impossible to switch on “regular” radio. You don’t realize how much of the time is taken up with blabbering, commercials, traffic and weather, and other crap until you don’t have to deal with it anymore. SOOOOO refreshing.
I have no idea when my subscription will run out but where before I would never even consider paying for radio, I’m very tempted now. If you love music, and you spend a fair amount of time behind the windshield, it’s pretty awesome.
