Growing up, I remember the coral-colored rectangular plastic box that sat on the kitchen counter top. It had a dial with gold numbers and two knobs with ridges....one knob was to dial the station and the other was to turn up the volume or turn it off. The radio was on a good share of the time, as my mom enjoyed listening to the radio while she worked in the kitchen. That was back in the 1950s.
Now in 2011, we don't have a radio in the house. But, we do have Sirius Satellite Radio in the car. We pay $165 a year for this. It maybe sounds nuts to pay for radio, but Sirius is a neat feature on a vehicle and is no different than paying to watch television in our home with cable. If you spend alot of time on the road, then it makes sense.
Most of the time we're tuned in to the '50s Rock and Roll Hits on Channel 05. We sing along and jive to the oldies, reliving the days in the 1957 Chevy listening to the same songs by the same artists, like Roy Orbison, Peggy March, Dion, Everly Brothers, and the rest of our teenage idols. When I'm in the car and behind the wheel alone, I'm apt to tune in to Family Comedy on Channel 105. Sometimes I find myself giggling at the silliness. Humor governs my life, so anytime I can laugh.....well, I do.
What's nice about Sirius Radio is that it's 100% commercial-free listening. None of that advertising or promoting of this, that, and the other ridiculous thing that only serves to annoy a person. I'll gladly pay for cutting the crapola!
Satellite Sirius Radio offers about every genre of entertainment a person can wish to listen to while toddling down the roadways. There's pop, there's rock, dance and electronic, hip-hop, country, Christian, jazz and blues, classical, sports, entertainment, family and health, religion, talk and news channels, and traffic and weather.
Why is it named Sirius? Well, ...
- Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. The name 'Sirius' is derived from the ancient Greek words for 'glowing' or 'scorcher.'
- Sirius is known as the 'Dog Star' in the sky because of its prominence in its constellation Canis Major (Greater Dog).
- The Romans believed that the added heat of Sirius, the Dog Star, caused the hottest days in summer....the dog days.
- Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in ancient Egypt. For the Polynesians, Sirius marked winter and was an important star for navigating their way around the Pacific Ocean. In Hawaii at the beginning of winter, the Hawaiians called the star of Sirius the 'Queen of Heaven.'
- In November of 1999, the name of North America's satellite radio company, Satellite CD Radio, Inc., was changed to Sirius Satellite Radio, and was named after 'the brightest star in the night sky.'
