I was initially intrigued by satellite radio when, I think, saw I this commercial as a trailer before a movie:
I don't know what at the time frustrated me about terrestrial radio. Was it the interference I got whenever I wanted to hear a station? Was it listening to the same songs over and over again on the local Top 40 station? Or were my tastes changing, and I wanted to hear jazz, and more alternative, and more obscure classic rock than the stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul were willing to spin?
My interest was piqued, but I didn't think about satellite radio (in this case XM Radio, which was in competition with Sirius Satellite Radio; they merged in 2008) until I got a, I will admit, junk mail offer from, of all entities, the St. Louis Cardinals. I had started going down to the Loo regularly, and I must have bought a ticket through the team instead of getting one on the street from a scalper, because they sent me an introductory package for XM -- featuring Cardinals Games, of course -- at a newcomer's price. I wanted to try XM, and I love the Cardinals, so I took this piece of mail as a sign I should sign up. But I lost the letter and the offer. At which point I was so desperate to get it that I called the Cardinals switchboard for help; I think the receptionist on the other end asked me for my mailing address so she could send another offer through the mail.
I think how I set up satellite radio is a good story, and one I can tell in a separate blog post (mostly because I'm tired now). But suffice it to say I loved XM. Not only could I listen to baseball Games from teams besides the Twins (and the Cardinals), I could listen to stations solely dedicated to jazz, reggae, blues, folk, old alternative, the grungier side of alternative, the janglier side of alternative, etc. -- many of them commercial-free. It was exactly what I wanted. And it still is; one cannot be the breadth and variety of music and, now that I'm older, talk channels that you can listen to.
I've had my ups and downs with satellite radio since. I actually started off on the lower Select tier. At some point, though I didn't realize it when it happened, I got bumped up to All-Access, which meant I had to pay more. Also, the merger between XM and Sirius, creating what is now known as SiriusXM, severely jacked up the price of subscription, which I have usually paid at the annual rate. More content was added to keep me happy at the All-Access tier for a little while, namely NFL Games and then sports channels dedicated to the five BcS college conferences. But satellite radio was still really, really expensive, and frankly, I decided that I didn't need to listen (or, to be more accurate, have access to listen) to Games for NFL teams besides the Vikings, or radio communications between drivers and crew chiefs for NASCAR teams (NASCAR was on Select, but then was moved to All-Access at some point), and it would save me $60 a year. So about two Years ago I busted myself down a tier.
I was fine. Getting many more sports and music channels is good, and I might miss some of the ones I had tuned in to from time to time, but I still immensely enjoy SiriusXM, and I saved myself some money. But then the news that MLB is going up to All-Access came down. Moreover, I thought the first e-mail I got about this (or was it an actual postcard through the mail?) told me that I would lose access to baseball Games starting on Thursday. Well, after seeing an e-mail last/Tuesday evening and then logging into the online SiriusXM app on my phone and then the player on the Internet, apparently it has already jumped, a day sooner than I thought it would.
Whether it happens today or tomorrow doesn't matter in the long run, I guess. This still won't convince me to upgrade my package back up to everything, even if I do have a steady job. I just don't know the reasons or the reasoning behind this move. Since when did MLB and/or SiriusXM decide it was going to be exclusive like this? I don't think I'll miss it. But baseball is the heartbeat of summer, and sometimes I'm really bored on a Sunday afternoon, and I have turned on my satellite radio and spun to the MLB channels just to take in a random Game between, like, the Pirates and the Mariners, and it's great to listen to because you get to hear different announcers and teams you don't usually follow and don't care about because they're not your team. I really hope I don't miss baseball then. But who knows?
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