Sirius Sidebar: Over and Over and Over Again...

Okay, one thing to note about this channel...and it's not entirely unexpected. It...well...repeats itself a lot. Case in point..."Give it to Me," by Timbaland (featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake). Not only was it playing on the way to work this morning, but it was one of the five songs playing on the way to the bar for happy hour after work AND was on of the six songs playing on the way home from the bar.

Sure, it's basically a Top 40 station, but come on people...how about some variety?

Day 1: Sirius Hits 1

According to Sirius: "From pop to hip-hop and rock to R&B: Sirius Hits 1 is the sound of Generation NOW!"

Driving Circumstances: My morning drive, on the way to Whole Foods for a pre-work breakfast meeting. A little tired from lack of sleep the night before.

My Experience: I couldn't have asked for a better way to ease into this experiment. I got into my '96 Geo Prizm (that's how I roll), dialed all the way to the beginning of the Sirius dial, and was greeted by one of my favorite bands, Bowling for Soup (and their song "When we Die"). Nothing like something familiar and enjoyable to start your day. The music on Sirius Hits 1 was a good mix of things I knew (and liked), music that was new to me (and enjoyable)...yet tempered with stuff I wouldn't normally listen to.

It also had your typical "wacky morning radio crew," known collectively as The Morning Mash-Up which Sirius describes as follows: "What do you get when you put together a family man, a party girl, high maintenance pretty boy and the self-proclaimed 'biggest dork in the universe?'" I wasn't in the car long enough to hear if they fell on the "amusing" or "annoying" side of the comedy fence.

Finally, Sirius Hits 1 was subtly pressuring me to join something called the "Wutchuwant Crew," which encourages the sharing of personal data in exchange for being able to tell the folks at Sirius what kind of music you want to hear. I think once I turned 30, I immediately became ineligible to join any type of "crew."

Sample Playlist:

• Bowling for Soup, "When We Die"
• Amy Winehouse, "Rehab"
• Timbaland, featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, "Give it to Me"
• Boys Like Girls, "The Great Escape"
• The Fray, "Over My Head (Cable Car)"
• Green Day, "Working Class Hero"
• Snoop Dogg, "Drop it Like it's Hot"

Verdict: This was originally in my "favorites" list, and I'm keeping it there. It's never been part of my normal listening rotation, though, so I'm going to try to listen to it more...just to keep up with what the kids are listening to these days.

The Experiment Begins...Again

Last year, I decided to try a little experiment with my Sirius Satellite Radio. Over the course of several months, I spent each day in my car with a different Sirius Radio station...no matter what the genre. Pop, Talk, Country, Comedy, Foreign Language, Hip Hop...if Sirius has a station for it, I spent a good hour listening to it...sometimes a little less on weekends when I didn't necessarily drive as far as when I commute to work.

So, it's now a year later, and I've grown tired of listening to the same three or four stations all the time. And what better way to shake things up than to begin the experiment anew...but this time, with documentation about the experience.

Over the course of the next several months, I hope to track my journey through the Sirius dial, from Top Hits to Traffic Report, through the use of this blog. I may make some detours or sidetracks along the way, just to keep things interesting, so we'll see where this takes me.