| Listen up! Here's the scoop on satellite
radio |
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"If you like to listen to sports instead of watching
them at home, your choices are pretty clear," says Brendan
Tobin, a former radio reporter and disc jockey, who heads the image
management firm The Tobin Group in New Jersey. "But what if
you just want music, like me and most people?"
After six months of visiting electronics
retailers, Tobin picked XM, because Sirius didn't offer a portable
player. His local electronics store helped him figure out that was
what he wanted.
"I walked out with an XM2go,
a portable unit that can go on my belt with ear phones for me to
listen to when I walk, ride a bike or fly to places; in my car,
and in my office," he says. "Now I have satellite radio
on constantly and have been a happy customer for more than a year."
Tuning in
As Tobin notes, car radios are just one channel for accessing satellite
radio. Each service has exclusive factory-installation deals with
certain carmakers -- XM with Honda and General Motors Corp., Sirius
with Ford Motor Co., and DaimlerChrysler AG -- but if your car is
older, don't fret. Portable devices work in any model with a radio.
Hardware manufacturers are jumping on the satellite
radio bandwagon and coming out with loads of new portable car and
home receivers. Prices range from $50 for a car receiver to $300
for a sophisticated at-home system. Many models offer recording
capabilities, remote controls and displays that notify you when
your favorite bands are featured on any of the network's stations.
If you plan to listen to your favorite music, sports
and talk shows at home, at work, in the car, and on the go, a portable
player with several docking stations is probably your best bet.
Tobin spent a bit more than $400 to get set up, and
he pays a subscription fee of $12.95 per month. If you happen to
be outside the range of the network you subscribe to, the recording
features on portable players offer you the option to listen to music
you've recorded from satellite radio programming or your own MP3
files, Haynes says.
Equipment is available online through both the XM
Radio and Sirius online stores as well as at most big-box electronic
retailers, auto-parts stores and department stores such as Target,
Wal-Mart and Kmart.
Costs
If you want to subscribe on a month-to-month basis, both Sirius
and XM Radio offer a $12.95 subscription fee. There are various
promotions offering discounts for multiyear subscriptions; Sirius
offers a radio lifetime subscription for a flat fee of $499.99.
If your entire family is hooked, there are family
plans available for consumers who have multiple listeners and multiple
devices. Typical fees are $6.99 per month for each additional radio,
limited to four or five receivers.
XM Radio has teamed with Napster so that for
an additional monthly fee, XM Radio subscribers get access to Napster's
catalog of 1.5 million songs. Sirius offers a traffic service that
interfaces with your car's navigation system that you can add on
to your monthly subscription for an extra $4 a month; stand-alone,
Sirius Traffic is $9.95 a month. XM also offers add-on traffic and
weather content in select markets.
Editor's note: XM radio carries a regular feature produced by
Bankrate.com.
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