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Satellite Delight

12/7/04

So, thanks to my friend Tricia "Hot" Ocampo, I was able to purchase an XM Satellite Radio subscription and a boombox for cheap.  Since I am a big fan of cheap, this worked out quite well for me.

Let it be known--I love this stuff.  From the too-long-to-be-believed channel listing to the Delphi SkiFi2 player to the ease of its use, I might stay a satellite radio customer for a long time.  While I’m sure I would enjoy Sirius Satellite Radio as well, I don’t have that, so you can go ahead and spare me the "Sirius is SO much better!" e-mails since I won’t ever have a need for it, unless XM goes out of business. 

I got my SkyFi2 last week with the XM Boombox, since I only have plans to use this at work right now (my roundtrip commute is less than 20 minutes each day).  I brought the gear into the office and activated my SkyFi2 by phone; I was up and running in about 15 minutes.  I have been running through material the last week or so, and here are the highlights:

The Interface

The Delphi SkiFi2 is a pretty cool unit; the display is large enough for even the most ignant folks out there, it has 30 presets and comes with a remote control in case you get too lazy to reach all the way to the unit.  The scroll dial isn't solid enough; it would have been better if the jog dial was more difficult to turn from side to side, but as it is, sometimes it doesn't lock into place as you turn from channel to channel.  (You have to play with it to know what I mean.)  However, this is made up by the fact that the SkiFi2 has TiVo-like capabilities--you can rewind up to 30 minutes of live time to listen to music, news, comedy or traffic over again, perfect for when you just heard a great song and want to play it again, or want to replay a funny comedy skit.  Plus, you can pause live time for up to 30 minutes.

Yes, my friends.  Pausing a radio in real time is simply fantastic.

“Urban” Channels

My first stop, naturally, was to make sure the hip-hop and R&B stations were the daddy, and happily, the seven urban stations have been quite sweet.  I haven’t been able to figure out which one is my favorite, although The Rhyme (classic hip-hop) and The Groove (classic R&B) have been in heavy rotation so far.  The song listing regularly hits songs outside the top 40 hip-hop, since popular hip-hop has its own station (The City), so I can get a heavy dosage of A Tribe Called Quest or The Pharcyde or Cypress Hill or other groups I love.  There is almost no talk on these channels--when they say commercial-free, they MEAN commercial-free--just a very steady supply of great music.  Plus, The Groove just has a ton of those 80s and early 90s R&B songs that I love…I thought I would never hear Keith Sweat or Jodeci on the radio again, but man, I was singing along with “Come and Talk to Me” like it was my first year at UVA.

Sidenote:  seriously, you almost forget until you hear their songs again that lots of people in the 80s had a freakin’ huge R&B run.  For example, Jeffrey Osborne was an absolute monster in the mid-80s; DeBarge is almost a joke now, but man, DeBarge was monstrous 20 years ago!!  And, even though Young MC only made one “great” song, “Bust a Move”, the lyrics for that song just get better and better for me.  He even talks about dropping $5 on going to the movies; man, talk about old school.

Dance Channels

There are four dance channels on XM—The Move, BPM, The System and Chrome.  Chrome is steady disco, although for the holidays it has been converted into a holiday music station; the other three channels have had varying strands of house, trance, industrial and techno, all interwoven with some DJ sets that are played in late hours.  The Move and The System seem to specialize more in dance mixes (continuous DJ sets also seem to have a home here); on BPM, it’s more dance singles, softer stuff that still has a driving beat that is usually classified as techno.  This is great afternoon music, especially when I need a boost during the food coma time.  I would probably listen to this more at home, but alas, I leave my Boombox here at the office.

Decades

That’s right:  there’s a channel that just plays songs from the 1940s (big band/swing), the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.  On the 50s channel, there was a Sinatra marathon going on recently; on the 70s, you get a mix of stuff, whether it be classic soul, disco, hippie rock, you name it.  Today on the 80s channel, they were playing 12” extended versions and B-sides of popular songs like Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” and Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.”  Seriously, have you ever heard the “long” version of “Rapper’s Delight”???  So good.  Quickly, I feel myself falling in love with the radio again.

Pop/Hits Channels

There are nine stations in this grouping, but the only channel of the Hits group that I have listened to is the Cinemagic station.  This is quickly becoming the coolest station I have heard, because all they play on this station is songs from popular movies, plus dialogue from the accompanying movies before and after each song.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, they were playing songs from Michael Mann movies one recent Friday afternoon, so they played two sequences and songs from “Collateral” and two from “Heat.”  Genius.

Jazz & Blues

Another great change-up group that I sometimes will play out for 20 or 30 minutes, I love the Frank’s Place and Bluesville stations just to have something new to listen to.  Something tells me that if I loved jazz, this would be the place for me because some of these songs seem to be far removed from the popular ear.  On Bluesville, I don’t think I heard a DJ or an XM promo for about an hour recently.  Lovin’ it.

Sports

I haven’t sampled much on these channels besides ESPN Radio, but now that I can listen to that here at work without having to download anything from the Internet to play the stream, I am much happier.  That, and now I can get the Colin Cowherd show “The Herd” in DC since he has been replaced locally by The Tony Kornheiser Show.  I can’t do more than about two hours of talk radio, though, because they never seem to talk about anything original.

Comedy

Yes, my friends, unedited comedy clips on XM Comedy is probably going to end up my best satellite channel friend when all is said and done; all we get are five-minute clips from hundreds of comedians and some of this stuff is hilarious.  The programmers on this channel are wise to mix big names like Bill Cosby, Ellen Degeneres or Jeff Foxworthy with regulars on various comedy circuits that appear on shows on Comedy Central.  Man, this can be great, if laughing out loud in your office is not a problem.  I’m sure they do shows as well; on XM Comedy last week, they played six hours of continuous Richard Pryor shows.  Yes!

Other Channels

The rock stations don’t seem too bad, although I haven’t given them much of a chance so far.  I did listen to XMLM today (heavy rock) and there was a song on by Cannibal Corpse called "Frantic Disembowelment."  Somewhere, a metalhead was listening and telling a buddy "Bro!  That new track by Cannibal Corpse is on...this shit rocks!!!"

The Latin stations are great…I was hangin’ out on Caliente (Tropical music station) this afternoon, and I started to do it up in my cube before I realized my place.  Sassy!  There are a ton of news stations, but I haven’t sampled any of them.  There’s a DC traffic and weather station; haven’t needed it yet.  E! Entertainment Radio?  MTV Radio?  Nope.

The Rub

My only negative so far is that there is no "lounge" or "acid jazz" station.  I listen to a ton of lounge music (Thievery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister, etc.) at home, and I can't believe there isn't a station for this right now.  This isn't that big a deal--with Internet radio stations like Liquid Lounge on Radio Free Virgin, SOMAFM and Jazzmusique, I've got it covered--but it would be a perfect service if this burgeoning category was addressed.  There is some of this played on the dance channels, but lounge is not dance music, so there needs to be a channel solely for this category.

Otherwise, I have been quite pleased with the service.  And, just wait until we get baseball in 2005!

 

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justin@bellviewmovies.com