Will Americans pay to turn on the radio?

"Commercial radio is antiartist, anticompetitive, and antimusic-fan," he says, noting the survey also showed that listeners are opposed to any more of the consolidation that began after Congress relaxed station ownership limits in 1996.

XM senior vice president and chief programmer Lee Abrams, who is credited with inventing album rock, classic rock, urban/dance, and many other radio formats, likens the evolution of satellite radio to broadcasting's big metamorphosis from AM to FM dominance.

In the late 1960s, he explains, AM was ignoring the explosion of new music being made. Stations sometimes played big hits by Jimi Hendrix or Santana late at night, but their outdated-sounding jocks didn't "get" the music – which sounded terrible anyway, because it was meant to be heard in stereo. "FM came in and embraced these artists," Mr. Abrams recalls. "Gave them their own format. Secondly, back then AMs were running 18 minutes of commercials an hour and choking people.

"It's the same scenario now, except FM is the culprit," he says. "FMs are not part of the new technological retooling that's happening with the Internet, cellphone, digital, Palm Pilot era. Just like FM took advantage of all of AM's vulnerabilities, [satellite radio] is taking advantage of all of FM's vulnerabilities."

Joe Capobianco, senior vice president of music content and programming operations at Sirius, says, "We exist to deliver programming directly to individuals, regardless of where they are. That is a fundamental concept that flips radio, as we know it, on its head."

Addressing the fears of land-based radio corporations and the handful of locally operated stations that remain, Mr. Capobianco says, "We will not replace [local] radio; we will coexist with radio – but we are now another choice."

A choice with lots of choices. For instance: Both services don't just play classic rock; they have channels devoted to each decade. Instead of one country channel, each has six, including classic, alternative, and bluegrass. Both have blues, reggae, gospel, show tunes, comedy, Radio Disney, the Weather Channel, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, and other news services.

They also share A&E, the History Channel, E!, and other variety channels. Sirius charges a few bucks more, but its big boast is having all 60 music channels completely commercial-free. XM has 71 music channels, but only 34 are commercial-free. Four are feeds of stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, which owns more than 1,200 radio stations and is lambasted by critics as the biggest of the behemoths that ruined FM. (Spokeswoman Pam Taylor says: "Clear Channel is obsessed with giving consumers what they want to hear.... We're more responsive to listener input than any other company.")

It has invested in the service, according to Abrams, on the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" premise.

Though both are available only in the contiguous US, Sirius claims its signal can be heard 200 miles into Canada and offshore, and in Alaska during certain hours.

Both have state-of-the-art broadcast facilities, XM in Washington, D.C., and Sirius in New York, where they produce original programming, record live interviews and performances, and store vast libraries of digitized music. In those offices, staffers like XM Americana programmer Jessie Scott say they finally have their dream job. Visitors like the Smithereens' Pat DiNizio clamor to work there. (DiNizio is now programming XM's "Unsigned" new artist channel.)

Both companies are competing mightily to win over truckers and traveling salespeople, but they also expect to serve commuters and customers in areas of poor radio reception or selection. XM's portable Sony plug-and-play unit, for both home and car use, is gaining popularity.

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