Thursday, November 19, 2009

Are you Sirius?


It seems most new cars come with a Sirius/XM receiver built into the dashboard. They offer your six months of a free trial before you must decide if you will pay a monthly fee of a few bucks per month to have it continue to stream into you car and life.
I've had it for exactly a month and have to say that I find there to be almost no redeeming quality to it. Now I haven't concentrated very much on the music stations but this morning I spent 3 hours flipping between the talk stations and if the old adage 'less is more' holds true I think the same can be said for the inverse.
The people behind satellite radio are obviously using the model set by cable television and intend to offer virtually unlimited choice.
The problem I have is not with the concept but when your choice is between Wanda Sikes, Jeff Foxbury, some horrible morning Zoo show on the Playboy channel and the audio feed from CNN television or Sportscenter you haven't offered me anything. There are probably 100 some-odd non music stations and they are either dreadful or forgettable. Terrestrial radio may have it's limitations and obviously Howard Stern was given a King's ransom to bring satellite radio to the masses but listening to him after a 5 year hiatus for me was sad. Somehow everybody has convinced themselves that by cursing it will open up the format but instead it closes it. What years ago was a format which would allow for some imagination has left it completely exposed.
It's the difference of seeing a glimpse of a hot girl walking down the street and catching a bit of leg and turning on YouPorn and seeing some uninterested trut get plowed by some has-been with a limp winky. They have left any imagination out of the format. Howard 100 seems to dominate the airways but shows from the Playboy Channel are more blatant. Pornography is too easy to get today why do I need to get slapped across the face with it like I am a retard?
But my biggest issue is safety. I have to imagine that most people listening to satellite radio are in a car on route to work. Forget cell-phones and texting do we really need thousands of horny dudes taking matters into their own hands as they listen to chicks talk about some threesome while they are barreling down the interstate?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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