The news is that SiriusXM is going to file for bankruptcy protection. I cannot say that I am in any way surprised.
A few years ago, XM showed up on my DirecTv subscription. I thought it was the best thing since packaged white bread. There were so many channels, and so much music to ignore ....uh...enjoy. A few years later, I realized that I was getting short-changed by DirecTv on basically the same package from Dish Network. For the same monthly subscription charge, I could have the same (except for three or four) channels available plus all of the Encore network (Encore West) and two western feeds of The Movie Channel AND lots of additional educational programming which was not available on DirecTv at all.
Dish Network did not carry XM. It had its' own aggregation of music channels, in addition to some older monaural channels from Muzak. It did carry the same amount of musical channels from Sirius. Therefore, I had no reason to go out and buy any decoder for either company. I listen to my own cd compilations and local news in the car. Why buy another subscription?
Then, I discovered WI-FI. I had been building my own computers for some time. An old Compaq/HP was just about to go out the door with the still-working monitor when I started to actually think. I upped the memory a bit, and found that the Celeron already installed plus the lan card I had installed made this machine ready to do one thing very well. It could bring all of the music available in the world into my home at no cost. At no cost sounded good (I had the memory sticks available from earlier builds).
I made sure that XP was up to date. Then I downloaded the next version of Winamp. I also learned along the way that there was a program called MediaMonkey which also had a listing of radio sites and other available tools. I downloaded the free version. Both Winamp and Mediamonkey offer a paid version which includes other 'top notch' tools. These programs in their free versions are all I need.
From there on, I only had to decide where plug in the computer on my Onkyo and Yamaha (I set up a way I could switch between the two receivers). All one has to do at this point is kick on the computer, open Winamp, and go to the Shoutcast page. Shoutcast is a fat list of music available from commercial broadcasters and free broadcasters around the world. Of the commercial broadcasters I enjoy Radio Flemme (France), and Radio Rouge (Italy). There are many others. You make the choice. Of the non-commercial broadcasters my favorites (at this time) are Radio Paradise, Pandora, all the offerings of Swiss Radio, and a smaller broadcaster calle IP from Swizerland. You will find the Swiss offerings more easily in the Mediamonkey program. Go to the Icecast compilation and you will find Swiss Radio immediately. Type slow in the search bar, and all the IP offerings will appear. Once again, please remember how many others there are. You will be amazed.
I have to mention that if you decide not to use Winamp or Mediamonkey, there are tons of free and commercial stations available just using your browser. I do not use anything Windows. I use firefox. Type in a search for AOL radio. It may even come in as CBS Radio (all the AOL stations are being hosted and produced by CBS). Once their program comes on the screen make a new account up (no charge) and follow the instructions. You will be able to choose from dozens upon dozens of lightly commercialized music stations. In addition, if you miss your home town, you will be able to listen to most of the larger cities in the U.S. over your computer by just finding the city, and choosing the station you want. This is where you will find out how many stations exist in one place owned by only ONE company. That is a let-down. On the other hand, having lived on Long Island for so many years, it is nice to hear WINS or WCBS am come in as clear as a bell. I get to laugh at the traffic tie-ups on the Van Wyck, or the Southern State Parkway.
Finally, I should mention that the music, and anything else you hear in this manner will be marked as to its headroom. That is to say that a 24 mb is probably alright for speech where a 128 mb will be generally the bottom for good music listening. Try the highest you can find and work down. I found that the Icecast listing on Mediamonkey has an IP station at 256. Presently, I am listening to their soft rock at 160 which is already excellent.
That's it. When you think that old computer is a goner, look again. There are companies ready, willing, and able to sell a machine which will ONLY tune in the stations (not all of the stations available to your PC) to the tune of about $200 or more. Stand back for a second and see what is good for you. I grew up with shortwave. That's all about screams, and pops and lots of hissing before a staion comes in sounding like it was canned at a Green Giant plant. I like my music as close to the original CD as possible.....PLEASE. Plus, I also enjoy picking up what other countries try to pass on as Rock and Roll. You'll be amazed how many European radio stations play "Trance" music. You'll also be surprised (using Winamp) how many German stations there are broadcasting music and a live picture of the DJ in the studio. It is a learning experience to say the least.
The sky's the limit. You say you want to get rid of that old 486? I have a junked power supply..........Good luck
PS: For Linux users, the same rules prevail except that Mediamonkey and Winamp do not exist in any Linux distro. You can get a listing of radio channels off the Firefox web browser. You can also fire up AMAROK in both the Mandriva and Ubuntu distributions ( I am not familiar with other distros as I use only Mandriva and Ubuntu on my personal machine). AOL/CBS has now been tweaked to work correctly with the Firefox browser in Linux. The sky is still the limit. BTW...the AMAROK listing is VERY complete. Good luck
AFG
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