Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2006 > January > 10 > Entry
Forget Stern
Forget that my decision to buy a Sirius satellite radio may have had a tiny, tiny bit to do with Howard Stern and I used to listen to him on my commute when he was on Jammin 104.9 and that his absence after mid-December did cause me a small amount of panic and withdrawal. Forget all that.
Because it doesn’t matter.
When I tell people that I got Sirius sometime around the holidays, it’s assumed that Stern is why I got it and the people who know or think they know that I listen to Stern are going to give me the same pitying, disgusted look: like I spat in their open Ozarka bottle.
There’s no way I’m going to give them the satisfaction of telling them that I got up an extra hour early just so I could catch the West Coast rebroadcast of The Howard’s maiden broadcast. (Riddled as it was with sound glitches in the first hour, it was more than made up for by the sweet, sweet baritone of Mr. George “Ta-kay, not Tak-ai” Takei, who is now officially the Best Sport Ever.) Or that I stopped what I was doing on New Year’s to listen to Stern’s call-in in my car; before the stroke of midnight, he was legally unable to be heard on Sirius’ airwaves.
I’m a fan. Forgive me.
More of note, I think, is how completely bowled over I’ve been by the commercial-free music stations. There’s always something on. I never get bored with the artists and songs offered up. And the little miraculous $79 receiver (after $50 rebate) I bought can pause, rewind and fast-forward through 44 minutes of buffered content and can alert me when a favorite artist or song is being played anywhere on Sirius’ 100+ stations. (I never knew how much often play Elton John and the Ramones on the radio.)
We inaugurated the Sirius service with a five-hour drive from South Texas, and my wife and I jumped around the dial, listening to Broadway tunes, oldies, old-school rap alt-rock, Motown, Martha Stewart Living, the Raw Dog uncensored comedy channel and lots and lots of Kelly Clarkson. Installing the unit only took about 20 minutes, and although I do have some unsightly wires hanging around my dashboard, it’s no bother. (If my wife signs on, she’ll probably go with a professional install.)
If it sounds like I’m gushing, it’s because it’s been a while since I’ve been so blown away by a new piece of technology. Yes, I miss KUT, but other than that, I don’t regret signing off on endless commercials, bungled local traffic reports and music that is as repetitious as it often is irrelevant to my day. $12.95 a month seems like a small price to pay to avoid all that.
Stern’s going to get a lot of people to sign up for Sirius, but it’s going to be the deep variety of content and the seamlessness of the equipment (my receiver can be taken from the car to the house with just the unplugging and plugging-in of two wires) that’s going to keep people on it.
As for me, you can give me dirty looks about Howard Stern all you want, but it was Martha Stewart who gave me a great idea for a brown sugar ham glaze that I might just try out.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Austin, Gadgets
Comments
By DeAnn
January 11, 2006 6:49 PM | Link to this
My boyfriend got it as a Christmas gift from my family because he, too, was going to miss Howard and everyone knew it. However, he has come up with other very good reasons to have it:
1. You never lose your signal as long as you can see the sky.
2. It has NPR (TWO stations); XM does not.
3. With the recent NASCAR get, it has every major sports contract other than baseball.
4. I LOVE IT, TOO! I cannot get enough, in fact.
And, yes the East and West Howards are nice so that you can listen at 3 a.m. or at 6 a.m. (or to the replay at 6 p.m. or 9 p.m.); I am on the West Coast, though, so my times are probably different from yours.
Anyway, now I want my own for our house.
By Omar G.
January 11, 2006 2:50 PM | Link to this
To be fair, I sometimes feel like a 13-year-old mall rat myself, but I still love the stuff on Sirius.
By Wes
January 11, 2006 2:23 PM | Link to this
I bought Sirius with my new Jeep. At the risk of sounding gushy, it's probably the best option I've ever added to my car. There are three reasons why:
1) Infinite variety of music, sports, talk, and other entertainment.
2) Virtually no commercials (there are some on the non-Sirius-owned channels.
3) A complete and utter lack of "terminally hip" DJs on the music channels.
My truck is in the shop this week and I'm in withdrawl when I hear the morning DJs on "free" radio trying to show how funny they are.
Free radio has a price -- the appeal to the lowest common denominator -- 13 year old mall rats.