XM Radio will be today's target! First, some history. Did you know what the big draw of cable TV was when they first launched it? No commercials. Can you imagine cable TV without commercials?! Of course, greed overrules quality and now we get 20 minutes of shows and 10 minutes of commercial (if we're lucky). I don't subscribe to HBO or other premium channels, but I hear that while they are not quite as common, they also have commercials now.

XM radio came with my car. Why do people listen to it? Well my expectation was two things: Big selection and no commercials. Let me start by dispelling that myth, there's commercials (and it even pops URLs up on my dashboard while they play!). Oh they USED to have no commercials, but a little greed goes a long way.

Worse, let me tell you about selection. I have 6 preset stations of varying types (80s, 90s. 2000s, and a few other random ones). The first two stations have ten years of music to pick from, so how is it I am stuck listening to Madonna's Like a Virgin (1984) and H-Town's Knockin Boots (1993) every time I take an hour long drive! Not to mention the strange theme they seem to have going. Worse, between two stations I have, The Pulse and the 2000s, I hear Hey Soul Sister (2009) literally every time I take a drive. I counted once, between the two stations they played it 4 times in an hour. NINE years (and almost four months) of music and they managed to play the same song TWICE in an hour?

What's that got to do with us? I'd like to say its our goal to bring you all quality, selection, and limited commercial interruptions and NOT be like Cable / XM Radio (or certain competitors) with the same old stuff and endless advertising. Ok that was a bit of a stretch as far as connections go, but come on, I am venting here! Vent YOUR frustrations at "mass media" on our forums below!

that's what the internet's for lol. plenty of shows/songs WITHOUT the commercials XD

I have been a subscriber to XM radio almost since it first came out.
The first time I was presented with XM radio was at the Mid-America Truck show in the late 1990's.
XM radio's first targeted audience in this area was truck drivers. Since most truck drivers cover a vast area in their travels, XM was a great idea for them. Imagine driving up to 500 or 600 miles a day and trying to find a radio station as the one you are listening to fades out. Then imagine doing this with EVERY radio station that fades out
during a 500 mile trip.
I hauled freight and drove over the road for 11 1/2 years. Of course, I subscribed to XM radio! I enjoyed knowing that I would be able to listen to my favorite radio shows no matter where in the United States or Canada that I was driving.
I did not subscribe because it was commercial free, though. So I can understand that if that is the reason you subscribed, that you may be disappointed in it.
For me, XM radio was a great solution to the problem of not knowing where the radio stations were located on the radio dial in various towns. I have enjoyed it for several years and plan on using their services for a long time into the future.

I'm absolutely with KTC's comment here,lol
But yeah,as far as I've noticed,most of the radio stations originally start out with only songs playing 24x7,but after sometime,when they've gained enough listeners,the commercials creep in. Then they start increasing till you almost make out that the ratio of songs played to commercials is more than at first. xD Both HBO and Star Movies have commercials too (which channel doesn't nowadays?) but the ads are shown for a comparatively less time.
As to when it comes to music,I'm always using the net and there's also a softonic toolbar which provides rap stations When in the car,I'm endlessly changing stations whenever they start broadcasting ads again xD *click!click!click!* xD

Sometimes I think those XM stations are just streaming from ShoutCast. They already have a preset list of songs to play and just put it on endless 'repeat.'

That's a good point whoop- I hadn't thought of it from a long haul trucker point of view. I can totally see that as the original target audience. It came free with the new car for 3 months, so its not like I went out of my way to subscribe.

My son drives a truck now too. He has satellite radio in his truck.
I have heard several travelling sales people or business people who travel from state to state subscribe to XM also.
I guess if you commute over the miles it is a good thing. If you are in a smaller area, it would be better to listen to local radio. It give information for your city such as local news, weather and events. We advertise our business on local radio.
There is an audience for just about anything you put out there now

Still that is too small a population to support what they created; its no wonder they had to merge with their only competitor and still ended up facing bankruptcy (and will likely do so again).

It's not cheap to launch satellites and set up ground relays.

Seems smarter to simply get a good phone and unlimited internet and put on Pandora / plug it into your sound system. But hey, to each their own. I don't reccomend investing in Sirius-XM

A friend of mine was a long time xm radio listener for free since it had more stations that could be received in her mountain home. I think it varies a little by location, but she had something like 500 channels of music.