Satellite Radio: The New Technology Everyone is familiar with cable TV. To get TV signals sent to your TV via cable, the cable company runs wires to your home. It's similar to traditional phone services. Depending on where you live, the wires may be strung above ground or hidden below ground, but the signal to your TV arrives through a physical channel - a wire.

Some people have dropped cable TV in favor of satellite TV. With satellite TV, the viewers have satellite dishes attached to their homes. These dishes receive signals sent from satellites in space. While this seems like new technology, is it simply a major improvement on the first way TV signals were sent, from transmitting towers to each home's antenna. One of satellite TV's advantages is that because the satellite sending the signal is in outer space, it can receive TV signals from a much wider geographic area than previous technologies. By linking satellites, satellite TV has the potential to provide customers with TV stations from all over the world.

Until now, radio has continued to use very old technology, using towers to broadcast signals. Whether any individual could receive that radio station depended on the power (wattage) of the radio station, the power of their radio's antenna, antenna placement, and whether any obstacles came between the signal from the station...

The two companies are Sirius Satellite Radio, who invented the new technology, and XM Satellite Radio, which became available last September. The signal is sent out in a digital format. Newman (2002) reports that Daimler Chrysler and Ford Motor Company have helped finance this new technology.
Cars have to be equipped with an XM Radio in order to receive these signals, and then the customer has to decide from which company to buy the monthly service.

There are several potential advantages to satellite radio. First, because the signal is digitized, the quality is excellent. Quality is also enhanced because the signal comes from a satellite, so geographic features won't interfere with reception. Related to that feature, on a long trip, travelers, business people and truck drivers can pick their favorite stations and hang on to its reception no matter where they are in the country.

Satellite radio also offers a great advantage to rural…