December 30, 2004
My Dad's Sirius About His Radio... I'm retarded
A couple of months ago, my Dad got a new Explorer with Sirius Satellite Radio installed. Being a music junkie and an open critic of today's radio, I have been interested, but skeptical. Whether you go with XM or Sirius, you're still looking at corporate hijacked music, just like (almost) any FM or AM band radio station.
A few things stood out to me right away. First, there is a "New/College Radio" channel called "Left of Center". This is somewhat amusing because while "College Radio" has become almost a category of music on its own, it gets its name from the fact that such stations are broadcast by colleges. This one breaks from that mold in that it's not. At all.
Despite the fact that these "stations" have enormous playlist possibilities at their fingertips, most of of the ones playing anything new seemed to have the same small rotations that any Clear Channel station would have. I don't know if someone left the payola button on "repeat", but I heard Straylight Run's song, "Existentialism on Prom Night", no fewer than seven times in two days on three different channels.
The Sirius DJs are fairly interesting and incredibly professional. Some are a little weird, though. Like the "College" station DJ playing on Wednesday who came on in a cheerful sounding sing-song rant on her life. (Her cadence was much like that of the opening cheer routine in the movie "Bring it On!") "Hi! I'm Jewish! I'm 32 and Single! I'll be alone on New Year's Eve! I'm never getting married! I'm never having children! So how's your week going?" Strange, indeed. But she was pretty funny.
It was interesting to get to hear satellite radio only after becoming a regular podcast listener. There were several songs played on Sirius that I first heard on podcasts. MC Lars - "Signing Emo", the Dears - "Lost in the Plot", and some Andrew Vladeck, among a great many others. Every time I heard a track from a podcast, I would excitedly inform the other folks riding in the car, who quickly pointed out just how much I was boring them.
As professional as some of these DJs sounded, they really don't hold a candle to Funtime Ben (and Josiah!) at Tracks up the Tree, Jason Evangelho at Insomnia Radio, or RadioZoom's John. There's really something to that "amateur magic" that makes podcasting insanely addictive. When "real" people are not paid to play something, but are taking their time to speak with self-inspired enthusiasm about music they are genuinely excited about.
And speaking of money, I would guess you've heard satellite radio plugged as "commercial free". Um, kind of. The music stations are commercial free, but the branded talk stations seem to have missed that memo. So don't worry, Fox News listeners, you can still look forward to hearing Sean Hannity hock Whose-it's Whats-its. (Thankfully, I'm not a regular Fox News listener. I would probably start chewing on my steering wheel if I had to listen to Mr. "Let Freedom Ring" himself sell diet pills and eggnog substitute.)
While listening to the huge number of stations, I found myself in Distractionville. (It's just outside of Coverville.) Every time a song came on that I didn't want to hear, I would skim the thirty channels that sounded interesting, looking at the display as I did. (The display shows the artist and track title of each song playing as you turn the dial to each station.) In order to read what was playing on each station, my eyes were taken off the road - the dark, icy road - and down toward the display, located at cupholder level. I think it would be safe to say that satellite radio would probably get me killed.
The wrap: Is Sirius for you? I have no idea. Why are you asking me? Oh. Sorry. You didn't ask, did you... Well, I'd say if you like "less talk and more rawk" and don't mind getting the extra gear, it's probably a pretty good bet. I know my folks really like it. Me? I'll stick with podcasting. Infinitely superior in practically every way. Siriusly.
And I'm done with puns.
Oh yeah --- here's a sampling of some of the music that I first discovered on Sirius that I liked, along with which channel I heard it on. One station I enjoyed immensely was "Folktown". Newer Folk music is probably my favorite style, but it's just about impossible to hear on the radio. I really liked what I heard on this channel. If it was new, I liked it. And the classics were good to hear as well. Don't be stunned if some of it shows up on a future podcast.
Lowen & Navarro - "If I Was the Rain" (Folktown) Keren Ann - "Not Going Anywhere" (Folktown) Kasabian - "L. S. F." (Alt Nation) Adam Green - "Jessica" (Left of Center)
