Last week, we bought our new electric blue Touring. It comes with Features (TM) and with bonuses. One of the bonuses is 3 months of free Sirius XM.
“Pshaw!” said the Stumps. “We will not keep this Sirius one second more than necessary. We are beyond that. We have a Nano, and we know where the jazz station is on the dial. We are Unimpressed.”
Catherine asked the dealer, “Will we have to shut this off?”
“No,” says Kandy (her real name). “Believe me, they will not let you keep it a minute longer. But you will get offers for continuing it, I’m sure.”
“We won’t need them,” said Bryon.
***
The mistake was turning it on. Kandy, who must have known what she was doing, managed to leave Sirius XM set to the 80s on 8. Like all creatures of my time, I enjoy the music of my college years. Every regular radio station that plays 80s music plays a set. Right now, I’m hearing songs that I haven’t heard in years. I’m not making any kind of quality statement about the music, okay? Some of it *is* bad. But I can’t remember the last time I head “Cult of Personality” or the theme from Miami Vice.
Would Sirius XM be worth the bourgeois fee if we could get some depth in our favorite kinds of music? And if it has 80s, what else might it have?
That’s when we discovered that Sirius has a movie soundtrack channel. Personally, I am not a fan of movie soundtracks. Now, Bryon? I’d say a full third of his personal CD collection is soundtrack. He could run down the road listening to samey incidental music as long as I wasn’t in the car.
Look! Jazz! Motown! The Grateful Dead Channel! A special limited edition Paul McCartney Band on the Run channel that ends in a few short days! My head reals with conspicuous consumerism as I see that my every whim in music could most likely be catered to, or at least suggested on a drop box card!
The only danger I know see would be listening to the Spa channel late at night and drifting off to sleep.
Will corporate America succeed in getting the once practical Stumps to buy Sirius XM? To pay for something they already have for free, all for the advantage of concentrated focus?
We’ll just see what kind of price they’re asking when they come knocking.
I’m so ashamed.
Catherine
Is this the same company that offers the book readings and Bob Edwards interviews? I would so totally pay for that, if not for My Librarian being much smarter than I am. Until he found out about the movie soundtrack channel. Then it would be all. over.
We had the same intro offer, but ended up not finding the catalog very deep upon repeated play. It was pretty shiny upon first glance, though. 🙂
Do you have a USB drive port on the stereo? That ended up being a pretty good alternative for us.
Kizmet, there ARE book readings. I don’t know about Bob Edwards, but there is plenty of talk radio.
Lindsay, we do have a USB port. We can also plug our Nano into the car. Still, it’s so EASY to just punch that button.
There is Bob Edwards. There is full-time NPR (two stations), which we didn’t have locally. I succumbed, only to have our local NPR/classical music outlet go to two stations, one of which is full-time NPR.
(Also, and belated, welcome to Elantra Touring Ownership! We bought one in January.)
Go to the First Wave channel — I think it’s 44 on XM. They’re a little too free with the Cars and Pretenders for purportedly being a “retro-alternative” station but otherwise, they hit my nostalgia buttons nicely.
I am really liking the Elantra Touring.
I will definitely look at First Wave. Sounds great!
Catherine
*grin*
Congrats on the new car, too!