Sirius/XM won't drive terrestrial radio into the ground. Sirius/XM is a dying buisness model. The next technologies are HD radio and streaming radio via wireless internet over cellular/PCS networks. Pandora on your cell phone, played over your car radio, is already possible and will be expanding.

 

You just may be right, but I hope your not. I've been a subscriber for the last 4 years or so, and I have to say I love the service and don't have a problem paying for it vs. the alternative. I can't stand ol' FM radio and haven't gone back to it since. Every now and again I'll be riding in a buddies car or truck that doesn't have Sirius, and I just want shoot their radio out with all the commercials you hear. FM radio sucks!!! It would be a real shame to see sat. radio go under.

 

I'm the same way, terrestrial radio does suck and I can't stand listening to it anymore. That's why I feel Sirius/XM will become bigger than terrestrial because HD radio isn't going to do anything for it because its still the same sucky programming with the same commercials. If they can pull through this slump and redo their business plan then yes they will drive regular radio in th ground, they are already losing lots of advertising money.

 

I don't see what the big deal is with HD radio. You get to hear FM radio suck in high def? And they want money for that

 

The sub-stations for HD radio (at least in my area) are commercial-free. If one of the stations carries your genre, it's golden. Otherwise, it is a better-sounding AM and FM (especially noticeable on AM).

 

How many sub-stations are there and what was the cost for the unit? It's just a one time fee for buying the unit right? In other words, it's not a pay service like satellite right? I'm just curious since I've nver messed with HD radio.

 

There aren't many sub-stations. There actually isn't that many HD stations to begin with, and yes it is just the one time fee to buy the radio, no subscription fees. It's not taking off like the radio industry thought it was going too, but like you said in your other post all your doing is listening to sucky radio in a little better sound quality, which still isn't all that good anyway.

 

Well, I looked it up. In Maryland (since it's a small state geographically, you can probably get all the stations), there are 18 stations broadcasting in HD and there are 10 sub-stations, with genres like alternative, indie, sports, country, classic rock, and the genre I'm really curious about, mother trucker. The stations for any area can be looked up at http://hdradio.com/find_an_hd_digital_radio_station.php

The cost is around $200 and installation is easy. As I said, the sub-stations in my area are commercial free and I believe the HD alliance has requested all sub-stations be commercial free for now to drive demand.

For the record, I do agree with ccoll5 that it has not taken off as they were hoping. Personally, I think people listening to FM are fine with the quality of reception and not that interested in paying more for higher quality audio.

 

Wow! It took me 6 months to cancel my service. After months of arguing with foreigner's and scam artists I finally got it cancelled. I would not have that service again if it was free. Sirius radio is a scam. I just sent them a check for a radio that was in a truck I that I sold 8 months ago. It was worth ten times that to rid my self of them!!
With other options such as i-pods and HD radio, along with them having rip off service and junk programming they are doomed to failure. GOOD BYE SIRIUS, GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!!!

 

People will pay extra for HD tv since u can turn up the volume to kill the sounds around you. Kinda hard to kill the sounds of bumper to bumper traffic in the big city. Not sure what the logic of HD radio is at all.