Stern dollars

[Brian Vita]

> On my most recent trip to visit my family in Pittsburgh, the 
> Hertz rental car had a Sirius receiver built in, with all 
> channels available. (Didn't get a chance to play around with 
> it, though; my fiancee brought CDs. ;-)  Don't know if XM has 
> a similar deal with another rental firm, but that sure seems 
> like a clever way to get folks introduced to the concept

Many of the Avis cars that I rent have XM in them.  You have full access to
all of the standard channels.  You do not have access to the premium
channels which, at this time, are limited to the Playboy Channel (on radio?
- oh, your knobs are so big...)or the Dopie and Andy channel (called High
Voltage).

I've had XM in both of my vehicles since shortly after it went on the air.
Overall, I'm very happy with the service and the variety of programming
available.  I do a lot of cross country driving and it makes the drive a bit
more bearable.  I've listened to the same channel for hundreds of miles
without a loss.  Typically, depending on my mood, I'll start out with XM71
(Watercolors - smooth jazz), flip to XM121 (Fox News - TV soundtrack), drop
in on Tony Snow on XM164(ABC News/Talk), then Laura Ingram on XM165 (America
Right), and when I need some brain dead filler, XM162 E! Entertainment (wow,
an interview with Meg Ryan).

I still listen to local radio (WRKO, WTKK, WMWM) but not nearly as much as I
used to.  I think that the two mediums can co-exist but that commercial
radio needs to wake-up and reposition itself.  Get rid of the majority of
the consultants and use some common sense in programming.

I don't see any wisdom in letting Stern rant on stations like WBCN
essentially giving Sirius a free commercial to compete with BCN.  If they
can't censor it, they should pull him early and wean the audience onto
something else before D-day comes.

In the interest of disclosure, I should note that I've recently become an XM
commercial license dealer.  That is to say that I sell the radios with a
license to use in a business environment (retail, offices, etc). It was
because I liked XM so much that I decided to pick it up, not the reverse.

Brian T. Vita, President
Cinema Service & Supply, Inc.
77 Walnut St. - Ste 4
Peabody, MA  01960-5691 USA
+1-978-538-7575 voice
+1-978-538-7550 fax
www.cssinc.com