Satellite Radio: What You Need to Know

AM, FM--these former stalwarts of traditional radio are quickly becoming dinosaurs associated with a past life defined by strict corporate control, static-filled reception, as well as uninspired and repetitive music and talk rotations. The future of radio is satellite and the future is now.

Actually, the future has been here for quite some time. Recently, however, the satellite radio market has truly taken off with consumers and experts alike. No longer do you need to worry about losing your favorite station when you leave town or drive out of broadcast signal range. Satellite reception guarantees that the signal will reach your receiver anywhere across the country.

If you are ready to jump on the satellite radio bandwagon, there are a few things you need to know before making that first key purchase.

The two major players in the satellite radio market are Sirius and XM. July 25, 2008 saw the merger of the corporate arms of these two giants of the satellite radio industry. However, there still remain several minute differences between the two providers despite a cross-pollination of resources and services following their union of a year ago.

Sirius, the home for several years of the self-styled King of All Media, Howard Stern, has now also landed his controversial brethren, Opie and Anthony. Sirius offers more than 130 commercial-free music channels, talk, comedy, and sports programming for a monthly subscription fee. The monthly fee starts as low as $6.99 for do-it-yourself plans up to $19.99 for the complete Sirius-XM-All-In-One package. Sirius also currently offers "The Best of XM," a package that allows you to add great XM stations like Oprah, College Sports, and The PGA Tour Network to your Sirius subscription.

Both providers offer great options for music. XM has over 170 digital channels, mostly commercial-free, with affordable monthly rates starting at $2.99 for XM Radio Online. Other package prices range from $9.99 for the Mostly Music and Sports/Talk options, to $16.99/month for the XM Everything Plus The Best of Sirius plan.

Once you've chosen which provider best suits your listening needs in the car, at home, mobile, or all of the above, you'll need to pick a top receiver to fully round out the listening experience. The Sirius Starmate 5 (car) has an estimated retail price of around $130 and offers the ability to pause and rewind live radio. It comes with a five-line LCD wide-screen, 30-channel presets, 30 song memory, updated game score alerts, car kit, and an optional home kit. There are concerns over the wireless operation of the unit, but it is very user friendly. The Stiletto 2 is a portable satellite radio player that will run you about $170. It has 2GB of memory, contains wi-fi capability, and has a microSD card slot for additional memory options. Optional home and car kits that will run you about $50 each are also available.

To get you started on the right savings path, check out these great SIRIUS coupons as well as savings of $80 on a Pioneer Portable XM Satellite Radio thanks to one of our Etronics coupons.

I hope that quick primer proved helpful. As always, feel free to respond to this post with your questions and thoughts. Be sure to keep following me on Twitter @SavingsGCapes where I'll be tweeting about satellite radio the rest of the week.