OK, I know I'm admittedly showing my age here... but does anyone else remember back in the prehistoric era when television viewers were literally held captive to the twelve channels of VHF and the roulette wheel of 14 through 83 on the UHF dial? The liberation of cable, and then digital TV, was initially quite overwhelming in terms of choice and quality. Now, the same revolution is occurring with the advent of frequency-free satellite radio. However, instead of the proverbial "57 channels and nothin' on ..." that The Boss so coyly crooned about, listeners are now privy to over 100 channels of everything on — which is especially true of music. Having spent a fair amount of time on both sides of the broadcast microphone and armed with a 10k and counting CD stash, quite frankly I thought I'd heard it all. Boy was I wrong! My ennui-riddled doldrums as a jaded music collector blossomed into a rapacious appetite for media trading. I am now, once again, uncovering rare and otherwise hard-to-find sonic nuggets. Having lived, breathed, eaten and slept with both XM and SIRIUS for a couple of months now, here are some of the more scrumptious morsels from my assessment.

I admit it. I have a fetish for taping and trading live performances. I figured, why should I listen to the same old music that I already have in my collection, or that I can go out and buy for that matter? Upon tuning in to XM Live — which features classic BBC and even more recent in-studio concerts — or SIRIUS Sessions, I knew I'd hit paydirt. So I did what any and every enterprising 21st Century music trader would do and began channeling and downloading sets from artists as far afield as Joan Armatrading to King Crimson. So psyched at the prospect of capturing these gems, I have, on more than one occasion, set my alarm clock for an ungodly hour so that I would not miss a second of the show. Plus, I can easily set up to record and not have to concern myself with editing out any station breaks — as the folks at SIRIUS are quick to point out, their programming contains no advertising. Plus, to XM's credit, they never interrupt their live shows with commercials either.
>For most music-intensive listeners, what is equally important as non-stop music is what actually gets played. Here, both providers truly kick into high gear as their respective programming literally defines the word eclectic. I was simply dumbfounded to hear the likes of Sun Ra's 20+ minute epic "The Magic City" in its entirety backed by Bob Dylan's "Only A Pawn In Their Game" on XM's Fine Tuning — a channel dedicated to creating an ultimate sonic pastiche, drawing upon every conceivable musical genre. Or, speaking of jazz, how about an entire day of interspersed Eric Dolphy sides in honor of the free jazz icon's birthday, as was recently served up on SIRIUS' Pure Jazz channel? Heck, I compulsively stayed tuned in just to play a little 'name that tune' solitaire. Now that, my friends, is entertainment!
The wife has even caught me once or thrice mamboing around the condo to 150 watts of pure P?rez Prado and Enoch Light during one of XM's On The Rocks compulsively motivating sets. Lucky for me, this incident didn't rile the neighbours nearly as much as the 12+ minutes of Teutonic rhythm madness provided by SIRIUS' The Strobe. I had the whole unit pulsating to Giorgio Moroder's extended mix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" — which involved a visit from the local "Boys in Blue." But alas, I digress.