After almost six years of listening to satellite radio, I gave it up and returned to regular old terrestrial radio earlier this year. If you want to know the reasons, read Why I Am Not Renewing My Sirius XM Radio Subscription. How am I holding up?
Here were the channels I most listened to on XM Radio and my new substitute.
| XM Radio Channel | Seattle Solution |
|---|---|
| XMU 43 - Indie Rock | 90.3 FM |
| BPM 81 | 89.5 FM |
| Real Jazz 70 | 88.5 FM (when NPR isn't on) |
| Soul Town 60 | MP3s |
| 1970s Pop | 104.5 FM (partially) and MP3s |
| Opie & Anthony, Ron & Fez | Podcasts |
For the most part, I am pleased with the substitutes. KEXP 90.3 FM is a great station and as a result I listen to more indie rock these days. My biggest shock turned out not to be programming, but sound quality. I miss the higher quality sound of satellite radio. I am strongly considering getting HD Radio. Going from XM to FM is like going from FM to AM.
Note that this post is not an endorsement of XM Radio. They are a bunch of criminals. Read the 40+ comments on Filing Fraud Charges Against XM Radio before you sign up and hand them your credit card number.
Just as long as you realize that HD radio isn’t necessarily higher quality.
Yes, it’s digital, but the ways in which it is generally use result in a sound quality roughly equal to regular FM radio.
I reviewed the WIKI. If I read it correctly, the HD technology allows for higher quality, but it is up to the station to determine that level.
“Stations may eventually go all-digital, thus allowing as many as three full-power channels and four low-power channels (seven total). As defined by iBiquity these channels could be sub-divided into CD-quality (100 kbit/s), FM-quality (25-50 kbit/s), AM-quality (12 kbit/s), or Talk-quality (5 kbit/s) channels. Alternatively, they could broadcast one single channel at 300 kbit/s.”
Most of my current FM problems are less to do with fidelity, but more about signal dropping. Micro-second fades to static. Worse than San Diego.
I’m probably just better off with MP3s, which I believe was your position 6 years ago.
My vote is for records.
Also you should consider working 91.3 into your rotation; community radio is awesome!
I tried records, but the needle kept jumping when I drove up Queen Anne Ave.
I’ll give 91.3 a listen.