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August 12, 2005
Paying for radio -- who'da thunk it?
I admit it -- I was skeptical about satellite radio. But since Meg subscribed to Sirius a couple of month ago, I've had to do a flip-flop, because they provide a lot of value for the money. Most of the channels aren't of much interest to me, but there are several that offer good music, old radio shows, and other content that makes the subscription worth it. And it has a screen that tells you the artist and name of each selection -- that's a great feature, and it allows the DJ to stay in the background most of the time.
Who would have thought that people would pay for radio? Certainly not me. But commercial radio has become such a vast wasteland of nothing, that there is essentially no point in listening to it at all today. The pop stations play the same half-dozen songs over and over, the commercials are ever louder and more annoying, and you can't hardly find a decent classical station anymore, even on public radio. (KNAU, the classical station in Flagstaff, is a real-life version of P.D.Q. Bach's "Wall-to-wall Pachelbel" concept.)
So the satellite radio entrepreneurs came along and said, "OK, if you're fed up with the total lack of content on the air, here's some good stuff, if you don't mind paying for it." And people are paying for it. And I can see why. I'm a little annoyed that I sold my stock in Sirius -- I had it a couple of years ago, at around $1.50 a share, and as of this morning, it's trading at $6.57. I think I had 1,000 shares, so you can do the math on that one. (I sold all my stocks about two years ago, when it became apparent that I was in for a long period of career retrenchment here in Flagstaff. But that's beyond the scope of this discussion.)
But in any case, I can see why people are jumping on the satellite radio bandwagon.
Posted by Urbie at August 12, 2005 09:17 AM
Comments
Do you get good Sirius reception up in Flag? Is it hard to find a good signal from inside your home?
Posted by: CC at December 19, 2005 12:09 PM
Well, the reception is good enough, but getting a "good signal from inside our home" depends on what you mean by "inside." You have to position the antenna in a window -- it seems to work in one that faces south or east. I wouldn't recommend trying it if you live in a non-top-floor apartment facing north!
Posted by: Urbie at December 19, 2005 03:24 PM