Number 21

I am thankful for satellite radio.  I have always been one of those people who scorned those who actually pay for XM or Sirius radio, when you can get the regular radio for free.  I mean, it's kind of a no-brainer.  Plus you get local traffic and weather.

All that changed in 2008.

I had just gotten a new car and it came with a free 3 month trial of XM.  It took me, oh, I don't know, probably, 2 days to realize that this was something life-changing.  I quickly decided that I didn't care if it cost tons of money, I needed to keep this subscription.  I immediately saw the flaws of regular radio:

• No Commercials.  This was the biggie for me.  I absolutely loathe them.  I don't know many people who just love them, but still.  Eliminating commercials was the biggest sell for me.  And yes, there are stations that do have them, but those are shunned by me of course.
• Newer music.  Think of the most popular music station in your area.  Now think of the 5 songs they play at least 5 times a day.  Over and over.  And over.  The songs that you swear will make your ears bleed if you hear them just one more time.  XM has those stations, but again, they are avoided like the plague. 
• Cooler music.  And lots of it.  Sure, there are 80's stations on regular radio.  And classic rock stations.  But are there stations dedicated solely to acoustic/live songs, 90's alternative, or Jimmy Buffet?  How about 5 different stations, each playing a different genre of Christmas music?
• Not music at all.  I am not a fan of talk radio.  Or sports radio unless a UT football game is on.  But sometimes I want to listen to, well, not music.  Like stand-up comedy.  Or MSNBC.  And if I really wanted to, I could listen to news programs in french. 
• Your favorite station never fades out on a long trip. 
• You can get local weather and alerts if you have navigation.  You can also get traffic if you live in a big enough city.  Knoxville is not a big enough city, by the way. 
• It's cheap.  Like 10 bucks a month.  Often cheaper (like 6 bucks a month) if you threaten to cancel when your subscription ends.

See?  It really is the best thing ever.  It can make you not hate driving.  And if I ever get a hankering to listen to all Elvis, all the time, all I have to do is turn the dial to channel 19.

Now that I've written this, I'm thinking that XM should really be paying ME per month.  This post alone could get them lots of business!

It's so much better than this!