Very surprised that people listen to that many hours of radio in a day. As Brian noted on Saturday, conventional radio seems to exist mostly for people who commute to work or drive around all day in their cars. There are specific radio programs on different channels--CKLN, CIUT, CBC, that I find interesting but eventually, with each station, I soon find I've got to move on.

One my company's business partners in Michigan has a satellite XM receiver in his office and I think it's awesome. He pays $10 a month and can choose from about 100 different channels, . Unlike the 100 cable universe, where the same news story, reality show, decorating challenge, or syndicated sitcom from years gone by replays on a 24-hour monotonous loop of crap, satellite radio at least offers some interesting choices. When I was working at his office one afternoon, I heard artists like the Decemberists, Public Image Ltd., Devendra Banhart, Interpol and others, on one of the stations and John Scofield, Medeski Martin and Wood on another. The song title, artist, album title, and release date all appeared on a small screen attached to the receiver, and there were no commercial breaks, bombastic station identifiers, or what passes for witty repartee between disc jockeys.

Though I now own most of the above artists' discs, there was something refreshingly about hearing these songs in a random order. Like you, I enjoyed listening to cfny in my bedroom as a teenager, and felt that thrill of excitement whenever a song came on that I liked, even though I may have already owned the song. Maybe there's some validation in hearing something I've purchased on my own or a feeling of being linked to a community of like-minded music fans, outside of a web-trolling experience. I like listening to the radio and can only hope that my local options for doing so get better.

So I welcome the entry of satellite service providers to the Canadian market and to those arts groups and broadcasters whose self-serving lobbying to the CRTC for more protection and regulation of an already arcande system, I give a giant raspberry (I'll keep my middle finger in check for now).

The two links on the right, for KEXP in Seattle, and KCRW in LA, two listener-supported (National Public Radio affiliate) stations that play an interesting mix of hand-picked music, stream their music online and are similar to what you get on satellite. You can't listen to these stations on the go (unless you happen to be in either of those cities) but at least you have a better option for home or the office.