Nice article about XM Radio and why we should support it. It also goes into decent detail about why FM radio is so horrific. Personally I have not listened to FM radio for a good four plus years (thank you mp3s, www.kcrw.com, and channel one- from bbc radio), but would think about getting XM. I have been to numerous stores that use it, and they play some good music that mr. clear channel would never play.


Who needs radio anymore?

You do, when it's good. Because there is something that radio can do that you can never do. Sure, you can download your entire CD collection onto your iPod and walk around with it. But those are the songs in your library, and even in random play there is a certain joyless satiety to that. The magic of radio long has been and will continue to be: You're alone in your car, flipping the dial, and, every so often, at exactly the right moment, exactly the right song comes on the radio. It makes you slap the steering wheel with happiness. The serendipity is spellbinding.

FM still manages to capture that magic, once in a while. But the response FM increasingly engenders is, "I'm so sick of that song."

But are we sick enough to pull out our checkbooks? Lee Abrams and his colleagues at XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. are betting their reputations and considerable money that we are. XM is a fledgling business, a company that beams satellite radio to your car or home for a monthly fee. Abrams, an FM radio legend for more than 30 years, is the man who dreamed up XM's 100 channels. He thinks XM can find that perfect song at the perfect moment for enough paying listeners that it can became a sustainable business.