When I purchased my new car recently one of the perks, aside from driving again, was a free three month trial of XM Radio. I hadn’t bothered to set it up until this past weekend but since I did a fair amount of driving on Saturday I thought it would be a good time to try it out.

After the initial set up it took about ten minutes for the signal from the satellite to reach my car. From that moment on I was in heaven.

I hadn’t bothered to set up the service because I really couldn’t see what I needed a billion channels for. I rarely listen to the radio when I drive because A, I don’t drive a whole lot, B, when I do drive I listen to CDs. There are plenty of radio stations around here and I have never really wanted for more variety. The only thing that has ever bothered me about the radio is that when one station plays commercials all the radio stations are playing commercials, except for NPR and I’m not a huge fan of NPR. I like my DJs yelling or doing wacky things. The soft calm tones of the NPR DJs (are they even called DJs?) is just to mellow for me. I need to stay awake when I drive and NPR just puts me to sleep.

There is a whole other world of listening out there and I haven’t even gotten to Howard Stern yet. There is a station for each decade starting in the 40s. I’m not gonna bother with that one or the station for the 50s and probably wont spend much time on the 60s either but the 70s and 80s, I’m all over those two stations.

I spent an hour listening to old Casy Kasem American Top 40s on Saturday. When I was finished driving I just drove around more so I could find out who the number one song was for the third week of March in 1974. Number two was Benny and the Jets by Elton John. Number one was some soul song I don’t remember and can’t even recall the name of the band but it was too much fun to listen to the old radio show I listened to every Sunday night during my childhood. Is Casey Kasem still alive? He is, I asked Google.

I could listen to the songs of the 70s for hours. Who doesn’t strut after hearing only the first few bars of Stayin’ Alive? No one, that’s who. The songs from the 70s may have been mostly disco and we all know disco sucked but they were fun then and even more fun now. Of course they are so much more fun now because my children become embarrassed when I start singing or dancing to these songs.

The stereo on the car was pre-programmed with 6 stations, presumably a variety for any potential customer. My car must have originated in the south however as the channels that were programmed for each button were NASCAR, Christian Rock, Christian Talk, The Moonshine Channel and the Road Kill Channel, which is all about identifying road kill and which make the best stew. There were several recipes for squirrel and turtle which I can honestly say I will never try.

My son switched all the channels right away. I now have four stations devoted to techno/electronica which is better than the metal he was listening to at the beginning of the year. I made him leave me two buttons for my 70s and 80s. The 80s station seems to only play the song Amadeus by Falco but it was a great song and they play both German and English versions so it was worthy of having its own button.

I’m sure I will tune into the Oprah Channel if for no other reason than to get updated on her vajajay. It’s been a while since I heard anything about it so maybe this week. Barbara Walters has her own show as do a slew of other celebrities. When the hell do they have time to do radio? Barbara is all over TV already, she writes books, referees fights from the women on and off the View, I don’t know how she finds the time.

I think I could learn to love XM Radio. I don’t know if I will subscribe when my three months are up but I will certainly consider it.