The Satellite Wars

I recently bought Sirius radio for my wife this past Christmas (she likes Howard Stern) and I thought I’d throw up a quick take on both XM and Sirius. A couple of my friends and colleagues at www.bitterfans.com have XM and at least one of them bad mouths Sirius every chance he gets, but I look at it this way: Sirius is a viable alternative to XM.

I’ve actually had a chance to listen to both satellite radio companies extensively. My boss allows any of us at the office to borrow XM to listen to if we feel like it. I’ve done that a lot leading up to buying my wife Sirius. XM has a large selection of stations with all kinds of commercial-free music. It also contains an exclusive rights package with Major League Baseball that will broadcast all MLB games on XM. Other radio personalities work there as well including Opie & Anthony, Ron & Fez, Snoop Dogg, and many others. Soon, the women will be basking in glory on XM with Oprah as well.

Sirius has been doing what they can to catch up with XM, since XM first gained a foothold on the satellite community. Sirus made up major ground by bringing on legendary talk man Howard Stern in January. They also have the NFL and the NBA on there too. Some of the other good stuff includes Maxim radio with hosts Covino & Rich, and Jim Breuer Unleashed. Women get their fill with Martha Stewart.

My personal opinion on the two is that if I had the money to dish out, I would own both of them. On XM it seems like they play a better variety of music you don’t ever hear on terrestrial radio, which I like. It also has Big 10 football and most importantly, MLB baseball, which is a joy to listen to on the radio. In the equipment department, XM also holds the edge on Sirius since they’re a little further along when it comes to portable gear.

However, I do enjoy having NBA Radio and the NFL Network on Sirius and I’ve always enjoyed Howard Stern…especially since he can get back to doing some of the stuff he used to do before the FCC started getting more annoying. I also love Maxim radio, and get a kick out of Jim Breuer. There are numerous other programs such as Tony Hawk’s radio show and others I would talk about, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I give two thumbs up for both radio companies, and give a slight edge to XM since they’ve been around longer. But I’m extremely happy with Sirius and I’m glad we have it.