Two radio-related notes for you today. One, did you see last week's episode of Mythbusters? They took on the myth of a large bass speaker (subwoofer) causing a car to explode. I found this intensely interesting, for two reasons. One, because the inner workings of audio fascinate me; it's amazing that a piece of paper moving back and forth can bring forth music. Two, because I used to be a car audiophile myself (took out the back seat out in favor of two 15" MTX subs in high school). My subwoofers generated frequencies so low you couldn't hear them (but could see the speakers vibrate two inches from their original position).

In any case, they created a 51-inch subwoofer that was powered by the crankshaft. Pressure inside the car increased rapidly when the speaker started moving up and down, and might have blown the windows if it hadn't blown the sunroof seal first (at which point the speaker dislodged itself from its frame). Occasionally Mythbusters revisits myths based on user feedback and this is one I think they might have to look at again (without a sunroof this time).

But my other radio-related note today is about XM Satellite Radio. When we got a new car [JessePedia] I insisted on satellite radio as our only extra option because my wife and I are as crazy into music as we are into TV, and usually bring a large case of CDs to switch out on long trips. Well, I can say that XM is very enjoyable. Here are some pros and cons:

PROS:

- Over 170 channels (Snazzy PDF) of music, talk and news
- News channels such as FoxNews, Weather Channel, etc.
- Cuts out and fades much less than FM radio
- Online streaming version with 18 extra channels (sponsored by AOL)
- Snoop Dogg

CONS:

- Sound quality lower than FM or CD (due to satellite bandwidth expense)
- 30 channels are sports [JessePedia]
- Won't work inside garages / parking decks
- Some stations have commercials (this is not gonna work, folks)
- No Jimmy Buffett channel (that's over at Sirius)
- Cuts out in high mountains or cities with high buildings*
- Opie and Anthony

*I presume they have some sort of repeater system in large cities to avoid this.

The online streaming service includes all their music and news channels, plus an additional 18 online-only channels, and is free to subscribers who have XM in their car (and I've paid more than XM's monthly fee for limited online streaming audio in the past).

To help give you an idea of what types of music I listen to, here are my presets, where I'll generally be listening to if I'm in the car or on the J-Cam:

XM8: THE 80S: Enough Said!
XM29: U-POP: International Pop Hits
XM41: BONE YARD: "Stadium Rock and Hairbands"
XM44: FRED: Classic (i.e. when I was in college, early 90's) Alternative
XM49: BIG TRACKS: Later (i.e. 80s) Classic Rock
XM54: LUCY: Classic (later 90's) Alternative
XM65: THE RHYME: Classic Rap / Hip-Hop (Uncensored)
XM66: RAW: Modern Rap / Hip-Hop (Uncensored)
XM80: THE MOVE: Underground Dance
XM82: THE SYSTEM: Electronica/Techno
XM83: CHROME: Disco
XM90: FUEGO: Latin Rap / Hip-Hop
XM101: THE JOINT: Reggae / Jamaican
XM103: WORLD ZONE: International Music (Online Only)
XM121: FOX NEWS: Actual TV Feed
XM122: CNN: Actual TV Feed
XM125: THE WEATHER CHANNEL: (sorry, no AccuWeather -- yet)
XM127: CNBC: Actual TV Feed
XM300: 1 HIT WONDERS: Finally, all together (Online Only)

My latest obsession is XM90 FUEGO. Don't be fooled by their name (Reggaeton Hits), this channel is essentially Latin hip-hop and rap. According to Wikipedia, Reggaeton is "Latin dance" but I think this really goes beyond that into the realm of what you'd hear on XM66 RAW, but with a Latin tint. This is the type of music you'd hear frequently on CSI Miami, for example, and it was a genre I had been looking for, ever since I heard (admittedly cheesy) Gerardo in the 1990's.

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