>Often in the car my daughter puts the radion on commercial stations here because she prefers them.

Maybe they have the music she likes, and she grew up without developing such a deep aversion against advertising?

>What about Sirius www.sirius.com ever tried that ? is it any good ?

I'm not spending that much time in the car to be interested. And now that I've looked at their website, it's... well, just the same as any company's website, written by PR team. What good is it that they list four bands for each channel? Show me what you played last week - ALL of it. And if I like it, I may give it a try. Don't try to awe me with fancy soundbite sentences - everyone has them. And don't try to phish for my email address when giving me a trial run.

Now this is something... the more I read, the less I like it. First, you have to buy their radio (or maybe... I've seen some satellite radios sold elsewhere... so their ink may work on others' pens? - not that it's easy to find the rules of the game on their website). The medium model has a "100-frequency wireless FM transmitter with FM preset button" - what's that for? Why would a radio need a trasmitter (specially, would it still be a FM transmitter if it wasn't wireless? :).

Skip to Plans. One year subscription gives you a miserable 8.33% discount, though they think it sounds so much better if it's called "one month free". Two years subscription gives you 12.5% discount, still not too steep. It's $13 a month (they say $12.95, but it doesn't say whether the price includes taxes or not). And now listen to this language:

"Subscribe for the lifetime of your radio! Pay ONLY $499.99 once and forget about bills. Plus, act soon and you can transfer your lifetime subscription to a different SIRIUS Receiver when you upgrade or replace your radio — up to three times — for only $75 per radio. Offer ends July 31, 2006. Hurry!"

What? Is this Microsoft or are these guys Sirius? If I upgrade, I get to pay a reactivation fee of no less than $75? And what do they do for that money? I have no idea, since the nasty activation details and other fine print are not easy to find on the website... ah, here it is. It requires you to send them the serial number of their receiver (doesn't say what happens if you bought it elsewhere) and your credit card number over the phone or the web, then tune it to channel 184 (which means this channel is for the management overhead - that'd be one less than advertised), and then it probably unlocks it if the serial number fits what it broadcasts. Mmm... are we sure these radios don't broadcast anything back? And yes, there may be taxes - which means I was probably right about the difference between 12.95 and 13 - it'll probably be 13.xx, or maybe even 14.0x.

All in all, I'm not sure I like the idea, and specially the website. There's no single place where I can find their complete channel lineup; the interface is different for music and news (all listed one by one vs grouped and each group has a combo), the deal is not laid in simple terms anywhere. At least the technology doesn't allow them to have packages.

If I had to spend more than three hours a day in the car, I'd think about this. But as it is, I absolutely don't need it.