XM Satellite Radio...Worth Every Penny

This, my friends, is why I LOVE XM Satellite Radio.
One of my top ten all-time favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, "Drive All Night", and one that I have NEVER heard on terrestrial radio in the 25+ years since it's release. Nothing but a three chord progression repeated for 7 or 8 minutes with no bridge and no real dynamic changes...just the sound of a man opening his heart and pledging it to his true love in a slow dance that you wish would never end. Factor in the exquisite, moaning wail of Clarence Clemons' tenor sax and you've got one of the most intense love songs ever recorded...raw and pure, a treasured memento of a priceless moment.
And it's right there on XM's Deep Tracks channel 40. Where else are you gonna hear it, unless you just happen to be listening to The River? It is truly a "deep track", tucked away on the 4th side of the LP's vinyl, towards the end of a 2-CD set that's already crammed with gems like "Independence Day", "Hungry Heart", "The Price You Pay", "Point Blank", and "Stolen Car", just to name a few. But, for me at least, "Drive All Night" is the album's capstone, the culmination of everything that preceeded it, melting it all down into a plea for the most basic of all human needs: love.
But I know that if I start rhapsodizing about The River it would consume much more time than I hope to spend on the computer today, and what I actually wanted to post about was XM Satellite Radio ...
I think I mentioned that I LOVE XM, didn't I? One look at the right side of this blog should be enough to make that evident. Those are my favorite XM channels, but by no means are they the only ones I listen to. There are over 65 commercial-free music options in a line-up of over 150 channels that XM offers.
I've had my XM gear since last December. Since that time it has dominated my listening and I can honestly say that I can count the times I've heard a song repeated on one hand...there are some channels that will put a song into rotation due to the format ("Top Hits"-type fare), but most of the genre channels have such deep catalogues to choose from that there's no need to play the same song again in a long time.
When I first got XM the monthly service fee was $9.99, and I felt that was more than reasonable. Of course, my luck being such as it is, the rates increased within the first few months after I subscribed. Now it costs $12.99 per month and you get the XM High Voltage channel and XM Online access thrown into the bargain. Truth be told, I could care less about XM High Voltage, which is nothing more than an outlet for their version of Howard Stern's schtick, the Opie & Anthony show. As for the XM Online, I've tried it out and it's pretty neat, with a couple of channels that aren't in the basic XM line-up, but if I'm listening to music while on the computer I guarantee it's through my hi-fi and not the puny little speakers hooked up to my computer. So as far as I'm concerned neither of the "added value" items they've given to make up for the rate hike are worth an extra penny. I'd have been much happier if they would have conjured up a couple more music channels...an IDM/Glitch/Experimental Electronic music channel would be great, or maybe a Praise & Worship Christian channel that would seperate that particular style from the glossy Christian pop/hits that it shares airspace with on The Fish...I could probably think of several options if I took the time to do it and thought they would actually listen to what I had to say.
Regardless, if I didn't think that XM was already worth the higher rate without ANY bonuses I might be complaining. As it stands, I feel that the music programming alone is well worth at least $12.99 ($9.99 was too good to last), and I'll no doubt hold my tongue until the inevitable hikes make it up to the 20 buck mark, at which point I will still pony up, but not without a fuss.