Daily adventures of the Average Joe Driver road warrior

You can’t be Serious Sirius!

The 2008 Mustang I bought was my first exposure to the notion of Satellite radio. Back then XM radio and Sirius Radio were 2 different entities. I believe it was a FREE 3 or 6 Month trial period as part of the package of buying my Ford. I loved the music selection, the fact that it was commercial free (even though the DJs on Shade45 talk too damn much…I’d almost rather listen to commercials), and for the most part it was uncensored. I feel if you are going to pay for it, why cut out little chunks for me at your discretion? At the time I was traveling a little more while I was working with, or should I say FOR a carshow promoter. Having the Sirius radio was a benefit and I enjoyed it, except for when going under an underpass at which it cuts out. Apparently the satellite can’t shoot its music beams at your car through the concrete road over your head. I believe there’s a buffer because you have to be out of “line of sight” for a bit before it cuts out. I was so happy with Sirius that I opted to pay the ridiculous monthly fees for radio (at least I felt it to be ridiculous).

A few life changes later, namely becoming a dad, I decided to cancel my subscription. It also didn’t help that XM and Sirius united, in the process phasing out a couple stations that I liked and changing the format of a few others. The biggest complaint I had was why should I pay anywhere from $6.99-19.99 a month to have music in my car!? You see if the radio in the Mustang had a Sirius component that could be removed and taken into the home, like many 3rd party satellite radios, I could maybe get my money’s worth listening at home too. However, paying to only be able to listen for the short whiles in my car was just a luxury that fell to the bottom of my priorities list.

I received calls and offers to renew but I stuck to my guns.

Fast forward to today. The Mustang is gone and in its place is a 2010 Ford Escape. Also prepackaged with a satellite ready radio. Also with 3 or 6 months free (I can never remember which). Also with a non-removable radio that means your Sirius music subscription can ONLY BE ENJOYED WHILE DRIVING!! I guess if I wanted to get my money’s worth of Sirius, I’d have to do alot more driving. Even if I added a portable satellite radio to the account, like a mobile phone, there is an additional fee per additional device on your Sirius account.

So again, come expiration time, Sirius will NOT be renewed. My wife has discovered satellite radio too and likes the 80s and 90s stations but agrees that the fees for radio are just not a necessity for us. She spends so many hours of her time playing the Grocery Game to save us bundles of money on food and groceries that it would feel like a guilty pleasure to have. Also now that I discovered Pandora FREE Streaming Radio, I am putting my existing expense of unlimited data on my cellular plan, as opposed to adding an additional payment of satellite radio to my stack of bills.

Until Ford starts putting removable Satellite Radio pods in their vehicles or Sirius doesn’t cost in the ways of up to 19.99 per month, we wont be listening to any Satellite radio. Well ok, maybe the data on my cellular at some point utilizes a satellite somewhere, but you get the idea.

Average Joe Driver