From what I understand, satellite radio is a service you can subscribe to for them to beam radio stations directly to your vehicle. Supposedly you would be able to drive from one end of the country to the other and stay tuned to the same station.
This does sound like a romantic notion, but like the Iridium phone it may be slightly ahead of its time. I don't log that many hours on the radio to justify an extra $30 a month, besides I've got enough MP3 CDs to keep me busy a while, which is why I got the device in the first place.
I can definitely see the advantages in this, since it's subscription-based the FCC won't have them by the throat as much as the old brodcast medium. I'm sure eventually this technology will be the industry standard, maybe by 2006 all our new Volkswagens will be factory XM equipped.
I'm in danger of floating off-topic here, so let me conclude by saying I hope Santa delivers a set of quality speakers with that radio too. I'm afraid coal doesn't have the right fidelity but that's probably what I'll be left with.
rgj
