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Sirius Launches Satellite Radio Service

Sirius Satellite Radio! Following closely on the heels of XM Radio (launched on 25 September 2001) Sirius Satellite Radio today announced the commercial availability of their satellite radio service. It works like this: You buy a car stereo that is “satellite ready,” (either XM or Sirius), a satellite tuner and a small antenna and for a monthly fee of ~US$10 you can receive up to 100 commercial-free channels of digital stereo in your vehicle. XM Radio offers over 100 stations with about a third with six minutes or less of commercials per hour.


Sirius Satellite Radio! Following closely on the heels of XM Radio (launched on 25 September 2001) Sirius Satellite Radio today announced the commercial availability of their satellite radio service. It works like this: You buy a car stereo that is “satellite ready,” (either XM or Sirius), a satellite tuner and a small antenna and for a monthly fee of ~US$10 you can receive up to 100 commercial-free channels of digital stereo in your vehicle. XM Radio offers over 100 stations with about a third with six minutes or less of commercials per hour.

If you don’t want to change your vehicle’s existing stereo head unit an all-in-one “universal” model is available that will send the feed to any FM stereo via FM modulation. The down side with the universal option is that quality loss is inherent with FM modulation.

I have been an XM Radio user since December and have been thrilled with the service. There aren’t many commercial radio stations in my area that play the kind of house and hip hop tunes that your editor likes to enjoy and CNet radio is only available in the San Francisco bay area (and a few other markets) – Alas! No more…

If you are going through a music renaissance since the debut of the MP3 and later the iPod, satellite radio may be for you. Check out both vendor’s Web sites for channel listings and click on the “listen now” button for a sample. Sure, it’s another monthly fee (did you read my Palm i705 story today?) but it is definitely worth it. What’s your take?

(Psst, over here… If you plan to activate an XM radio account, email me first and I will tell you how to get a FREE month of service.)

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.