Anyone buy satellite radio?

[ApatheticNoMore]

How much did it all cost you? Is it worth it? Ok the truth is I'm probably not going to do it, because I'm too cheap to spend money on it on my rather lame (mostly only compared to previously) current income. The only reason I even consider at all is I have too long a commute, and I'm really sick of most of regular radio (some became utterly un-listenable and just made me angry - I have deprogrammed that). And I only listen to music on the radio, I don't actually do news on the radio or anything. So yea I'm interested in the music aspect. I don't have a car that automatically came with it or anything, so it would be the whole setup I guess.

[herbgeek]

I got satellite radio 10 years ago when I had a sucky commute to sucky job. Was a life saver. I personally find it worth the cost but YMMV. My radio was under 50 bucks. I think the monthly cost is about 13-15 dollars. I pay annually so I'm not really sure.

[bUU]

We had it for free for a while, but ditched it when the free trial ran out. They kept coming back with better offers, but the best offer (confirmed on the dedicated online forums) was $25 for six months. I believe it has gone "up" a bit since then... the forums are saying that the best deal available is $25 for five months. That is, of course, for the lowest level of service... 80 channels.

It is still not worth it to us because it doesn't include Sirius XM Traffic service for our GPS.

[Float On]

We use it when it is free. The last freebie was 3 or 4 months so we got pretty used to it. But I don't want to pay for it. The kids are in charge of loading music onto memory sticks or their mp3s so we still have a wide variety of music to listen to.

[ToomuchStuff]

I am looking at what are called mechless radio's, for my vehicles. These do not have cd players, but do have sd card slots and or usb slots. They currently seem to get mixed reviews, with a lot of they work or don't (been looking at ones that are under $50), and they also seem to not have a lot of control (best used in the random function the way I read), but for long drives with no commercials, this seems to be the way I would go.
I also prefer to buy the music on cd, and rip it myself (easy under Linux) to whatever format/etc. I prefer. I decided this after my first digital music purchase, was lost when a drive crashed.

[Rogar]

I had it as a free trial but hardly ever used it. We have a few public radio stations that pretty much cover the bases for me. Jazz, classical, free form, and news/talk. No commercials. When my trial ended I got and continue to get junk mail and phone calls with the latest best offer, which kind of torks me. I have Pandora and internet radio at home, which is great and free.

[Alan]

I had it for 6 months free when I purchased my current car. I enjoyed it while it was free but once that ended, I didn't feel the need to renew. I also have it on my motorcycle, although I never once turned it on while it had service.

Several of my friends maintain a subscription and love it. I guess it's a personal choice, one which I'm apparently ambivalent about.

[cdttmm]

We've had a subscription since shortly after satellite radio began. We drove a lot for our first business and my partner drives a lot for his current business so it's totally worth it to us. We always renew our subscription on the multi-year plan and I can't remember what it works out to cost per month, but it's not enough to make us consider dropping it!

[bae]

I have it in one of my cars, it came with the car, and we renewed. We only get a handful of FM stations out here, and most of them are dreadful, so it is quite handy to have access to a wider range of sources. Though to be fair, I leave it on the Jimmy Buffet channel 95% of the time.

There is a whole category of political-oriented radio streams - right wing, left wing, and not much in the middle. Terrifying stuff, I have to hide under the bed if I accidentally tune there.

[bUU]

There is a whole category of political-oriented radio streams - right wing, left wing, and not much in the middle. Terrifying stuff, I have to hide under the bed if I accidentally tune there.I recently read an article making clear that that's simply the way things are, generally.
“The Monkey Cage – February 3, 2014” – Matthew Levendusky (adapted)

While the political can tune into Fox and MSNBC,those who dislike politics also have more options than ever for avoiding it. In lieu of the nightly news—or a televised presidential address—they can watch Sports Center, Entertainment Tonight, or a rerun of The Big Bang Theory. When confronted with a political option, they simply change the channel to something else that they find more agreeable. Even the most popular cable news programs get 2 to 3 million viewers on a typical evening in a country of 300 million Americans. In earlier decades, some of these individuals would have been incidentally exposed to political news and information (by, say, watching the television news at 6 o’clock, when there were no other options). Now that they can avoid news altogether, they know less about politics and are less likely to participate. So the growth of media choice strengthens the extremes while hollowing out the center, making the electorate more divided.

[Spartana]

I've only had it while using rental cars. I'm not a big fan over all but do like some of the genre-specify music stations (I'm a classic rock and metal head myself :-)!) and the traffic stations. Wouldn't pay for it myself though. It seems I spend most of my time "surfing" thru the various channels rather than actually listening to one. Kind of like I do when I watch TV.

[Florence]

I tried it when I had a long commute but didn't care for it enough to continue paying for it. I found listening to audio books was much better for me.

[Weston]

Got it for free for 6 months when we bought the car, and have had a few other free trials since then. Definitely wouldn't pay for it.

I much more enjoy the massive variety of shows and stations I get through the free TuneIn Radio app on my smart phone. I just plug my phone into the USB port in the console of my car. Much better selection and diversity than what I got on paid satellite radio.

[ctg492]

Husband has it, car was equipped for it. $186 a year or there about. He has had it for three years now. He must enjoy it on the commute.

[Bethers]

I had a little mobile satellite radio a while back and was able to take it with me on walks and also download podcasts. It was also used at work where the regular radio reception wasn't very good. I loved it, but eventually got rid of it because of the continuous monthly cost. If I got it again, I'd probably pay for a full year subscription or more as that seems to be the most economical.

[Glo]

We also had it free when we bought our car. After the free was up, they came back with $5/month so we still have it. I would definitely have it if I spent a lot of time in the car, which I don't. So for now, $5 isn't bad, but I won't pay the regular subscription price.