Imagine being able to drive from Los Angeles to New York to Tutwiler and never losing that one favorite radio station.
How about being able to listen to the radio commercial-free? Or, better still, wouldn't it be wonderful to listen to any kind of music desired at any time of the day or night?
Welcome to the future of radio. It's called satellite radio, and it's available right now.
Currently, there are two companies offering satellite radio nationwide - Sirius and XM.
Sirius is based in New York, N.Y., and XM is based in Washington, D.C. Each company owns satellites that are strategically positioned in outer space more than 22,000 miles above the earth.
XM, perhaps the more popular of the two companies, has two satellites - one on each coast - they affectionately call "Rock" and "Roll." The beams from these two satellites combine to span the entire United States. This enables the signals to reach from coast to coast. Built by Boeing Satellite Systems, "Rock" and "Roll" are the most powerful commercial satellites ever.
What results from this mega-technology is a radio like no other that blasts into the home and automobile with the impact of a tidal wave. No static. Digital-quality sound. A display on the radio that tells the listener the name of every single song and who's singing it. It surely gives a whole new meaning to "Name That Tune."
What can one expect to hear on satellite radio? If a music buff can think of any music genre or any artist imaginable, it can be found.
Johnny Jennings of Greenwood purchased an XM Radio about three weeks ago, and he knows it will be the next great thing.
"I think this is the McDonald's of the sky," Jennings said. "On Friday and Saturday nights, my wife and I will listen to various disc jockeys, and it sounds like you are back in the 1960s in San Francisco or something. They really get into it, and it's so nostalgic."
Want rap music? Got it. Looking for country music? No problem. Now all the listener has to do is figure out if he or she wants classic country, progressive country, Nashville country, traditional country or bluegrass.
Love that disco music from the 1970s? There's a channel just for that, along with channels for every decade from the 1940s through the 1990s.
How about a little rock and roll? XM offers 10 different channels of just that, including hard rock, heavy rock, new rock, alternative rock, classic rock hits, acoustic rock and progressive rock.
There's even Euro and global hits, Christian rock and pop, love songs, Spanish hits, reggae, African music, and yes, even Chinese music. Kids can find channels just for them. There's also a host of talk radio programs, CNN Headline News, the Weather Channel, NASCAR radio and many other news channels on just about any subject the listener can think of.
And, as of last Wednesday, there are live baseball games and other sporting events available right over the airwaves.
XM and Sirius both offer 100 channels. After the purchase of the radio, which can range from $200-$350, there's a minimal fee of only $9.95 per month for XM Radio, which has many commercial-free programs. Sirius offers its services for $12.95 per month, but their satellite radio offers completely commercial-free programming.
The radio can be installed in place of a regular car stereo, or it can be used in combination with an existing car radio.
Jennings has his radio mounted in his automobile, but he has an antenna and a docking station that allows him to bring it into his house as well.
"It's simply custom-tailored listening entertainment," said Jennings, who was first exposed to satellite radio at a couple of consumer electronics shows in Las Vegas. "They were advertising and promoting the concept, and I knew it was going to be hot."
Jennings, who travels quite a bit with his business, likes the dynamics of his XM Radio, particularly how he never loses the signal.
Johnny Freeman, a Greenwood musician, believes this is one more step to bringing the country closer together.
"You know, when new music and movies come out, Greenwood's often slow to get the new releases," Freeman said. "But with satellite radio, we don't have to wait anymore for new music."
There's even a place on XM's Web site - xmradio.com - where listeners can visit any time of the day and vote for their favorite song on Channel 20, which is the Top 20 Hits channel. This channel continuously plays the top 20 songs, and according to the votes of the listeners, a song that was number 1 at 9 a.m. might be voted down to number 8 by 2 p.m. the same day. It's an automatic way for listeners to react to the music immediately and voice their opinion.
At XM's studios in Washington, D.C., there are 20 multi-function production suites, 310 audio workstations and 82 different studios. They have a broadcast center of 150,000 square feet. There's also sites in Manhattan and Nashville where various shows will be broadcast live.
Satellite radio also will be a standard option beginning with many 2003 automobiles. XM has set up agreements with General Motors and Nissan, to name a few, while Sirius has joined with Ford, Mercedes-Benz and othercar manufacturers. The Cadillac will become the first automobile to offer XM radio.
Only a handful of people in Greenwood actually have a satellite radio, and they have only been available at places like Audio Center in Greenwood for a couple of months. Available models include Pioneer, Sony and Alpine.
"These things are hot," said Jimbo Ferguson, owner of Audio Center. "We can't keep them. We have even installed them in a few restaurants as well as Studio 55 in Grenada."
Audio Central can install satellite radios in cars. They also carry units for the home.
Nationwide growth of satellite radio is on a rapid increase.
According to XM quarterly reports, there were 76,242 subscribers nationwide as of March 31. That's a 171-percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2001.
As for the safety of fiddling with a new gadget while driving, the new satellite radio may in fact prove to improve our driving skills. It should, at the least, relinquish the need for the constant search of a radio station. And, it also comes with a remote control.
