Why I love satellite radio

Keeping in touch with home
The satellite service I subscribe to also provides 20+ stations of 24-7 traffic and weather news for major U.S. cities. While I live and drive in Seattle, I have one of my preset radio buttons set to the station for my hometowns of Minneapolis-St. Paul. When I'm homesick, I still get a kick out of hearing the old freeway names and interchanges I once knew so well. And on a gray Seattle winter day, temperatures in the 40s seem a lot warmer when I push the button for MSP and see "TEMPERATURE: SEVENTEEN BELOW" flashing across the screen.

Satellite radio also offers endless talk stations. Personally, I'll never listen to Howard Stern or any of the other extreme jocks. But I still find it entertaining that, in addition to right-wing and left-wing political chatter, there's a Christian talk station, an African-American talk station, and a trucker's channel.

There are numerous comedy stations, including one that keeps it G-rated for when the family's in the car, and my favorite, the old-time radio show station. It can be tough to get out of the car at the grocery store when an episode of "Dragnet" is on, but fortunately, my radio unit allows me to pause and replay up to 30 minutes of programming. (Think TiVo for radio!)

Sports fans who subscribe to a satellite TV service such as Direct TV already know they can get football or baseball games from around the league. Satellite radio offers the same thing, depending on the service you choose, with different sports available on different services. I'm not the biggest sports fan, but if my hometown Twins ever get those Homer Hankies waving again, I can cruise around and tune in to their every game as if they weren't 1500 miles away.

I've heard people complain about the quality of satellite radio, but that's usually about the point in the discussion where I completely tune out. It sounds fine to me, but then I'm not the kind of person who spends hours geeking out in expensive audio-video stores drooling over the expensive equipment. (I've been known to listen to — gasp — AM radio with nary or little problem.) Can I hear it? Yes. Can I understand it? Yes. Does it drop out? Not even in tunnels and underground parking garages. So I'll leave the technical debates to the geeks.

In the 10 years I've been married, my husband and I have driven cross-country twice, around the Deep South once, and had numerous long car trips between Seattle and Los Angeles. I love those drives and I love the company, but really, an hour outside of Bakersfield the boredom rolls in like an endlessly turning tumbleweed.

Closer to home, when an accident or random traffic jam stops up my commute, the car seems less like a Honda Civic and more like a prison. But now I can tune into "Dragnet," or an old Steve Martin comedy routine, or the BBC, or the unsigned bands station. The miles still have to be crossed, but they go by a little easier.

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is MSNBC.com's Television and Books Editor.

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