Satelite radio a sad salvation

Upon the launch of XM Satellite Radio on Sept. 25 and its competitor Sirius Satellite Radio beginning last February and expanding nationwide earlier this month, the two companies bet that the average listener has had enough of conventional radio and wanted something different.\nPerhaps this is so, and while I would like to see both of these companies succeed, the concept seems doomed for failure.\nXM, which was hoping for an initial signup of 50,000 but wound up with only 30,000, offers approximately 100 channels of programming for $9.99 per month. Sirius' service consists of a similar number of channels and costs $12.95 but has fewer commercials. The user must also buy a receiver with a retrofit radio that runs $300. Programming deflects off airborne satellites to receivers.\nProgramming could hardly be more diverse. From an opera station to a reggae station to a national sports talk radio network, XM and Sirius claim to have the widest possible audience.\nMajor auto makers promote the services. XM has a contract with General Motors for $120 million that includes factory-installed radios beginning in 2003 model cars. The Ford Motor Co. and Daimler Chrysler Corp. have exclusive deals with Sirius.\nNot only is reception crystal clear for all 100 stations all the time, it even maintains its signal for almost five seconds while driving under tunnels and has ground trasmitters for those who drive a lot in big cities where skyscrapers may interfere with the satellite reception.\nWhile satellite radio holds up under technological scrutiny and maintains a chance to survive due to its contracts with the automakers, the reason why satellite radio figures to fail has more to due with cultural use patterns.\nFor example, if you are making a ten-minute drive to the grocery store, you are probably not going to be so picky as to flip through 30 or 40 stations to determine what you want to hear.\nAlso, we as a society are resistant to new sounds. Does radio suck today? Duh. Is Fred Durst an idiot?\nWhat's pop in today's world is like comfort food. Playlists narrow because we, the listeners, have neither the capacity nor the demand for that much new music. Belle and Sebastian and Sebadoh don't make any of today's "alternative" rock stations' playlists because the public has told them that it doesn't like Belle and Sebastian or Sebadoh, though they make challenging and unique music.\nWe hardly live in a society that wishes to be challenged, especially one that gave huge television ratings to a "Carol Burnett Show" clip show special. The post Sept. 11 cultural landscape has caused many to appreciate what we have instead of striving for something new and better.\nJimmy Eat World found their way onto both alternative and mainstream pop radio stations with their self-titled 2001 release, which was initially titled "Bleed American" but changed after Sept. 11. The album was their fourth. What could they possibly have done wrong on their first three albums that they could not even get a nibble on the radio? Jimmy Eat World streamlined their sound and songs and got on a major label and suddenly they are not so anonymous.\nAs a society, we prefer pre-fab when it comes to our music. Shows like "Making the Band" glorify the process of putting together five guys who don't know each other and teaching them how to sing (lip sync?) and dance. They sell because corporations promote the hell out of them, and the listeners never look to broaden their horizons.\nWe also like our music in small doses. Just because somebody says that he or she likes punk doesn't mean that he or she would want to listen to it 24 hours a day. It might only mean that the person likes a couple of Green Day songs, but doesn't plan on getting a mohawk anytime soon or putting safety pins through their buttonholes or their noses.\nYou might have read a glowing review of the new Flaming Lips CD earlier in this section. The likelihood of their music getting airplay on a radio station larger than WIUS is slim. The Flaming Lips have received a consistently large percentage of positive reviews over the years, but their eccentricity, which included Zaireeka!, a four-CD collection where each disc is supposed to be played over four different stereos simultaneously, does not exactly fit where commercial radio is headed. They may now have an outlet on satellite radio, but that will only appease those who already own the CDs. So why not just listen to the CD?\nUltimately, familiarity breeds complacency. The two competing satellite radio networks try nobly to break it up and broaden our horizons. \nUltimately, we like things just the way they are.