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Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

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Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#12

> Aside from the content, according to Murphy, drivers like NPR for the continuity. They can keep listening to the same programs from state to state. Why don't truckers use satellite radio? They could listen to the same programs anywhere in the (U.S.? World?).

I have several truckers in my family. A couple of them do subscribe to SiriusXM but the rest don't because it's expensive relative to what they get out of it.

One cousin bought a lifetime XM subscription back in...2009? I think...and paid the $99 to upgrade it to "Lifetime Premium" or some such. He's had the same radio, a SiriusXM Edge, for the past 7 years and, according to him, "it's the best payback I've gotten except for that divorce lawyer." (He had a messy divorce...)

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#13

> it’s the only station that will go on mile after mile and I can pick it up again. I can vouch for that -- I just went on a road trip to visit all the state parks in Utah, and believe me, once you get out of Salt Lake, your choices are NPR, country music, or static. I listened to a lot of NPR.

I distinctly remember being on the long drive leaving my grandparents in Texas to go back north when Bob Hope died.

For very large chunks of that drive there was nothing we could pick up at all except for NPR.

And because it had just happened at the top and bottom and half of every hour they were talking about it and playing a little clips and the shows that were on may have been about him.

Nothing but hearing the same small amount of programming about his death for hours and hours and hours.

I normally love NPR but obviously it became too much. However I do get why truckers like satellite radio. To be able to listen to a station without it fading out, or to be able to CHOOSE another station no matter where you are…

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#14

I love NPR. My wife makes fun of me because sometimes I sit in the car with the battery / radio on after I park just to hear a story finish. New Hampshire Public radio has a lot of local news and features too, which I can't hear anywhere else. I'm sure other markets are the same. You can get it on Alexa too because most of the shows are also podcasts which is also great. I've also heard a lot from my conservative fri…

> Libertarian and thus social conservative and economically liberal

Isn't that the opposite of a libertarian?

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#15

I love NPR. My wife makes fun of me because sometimes I sit in the car with the battery / radio on after I park just to hear a story finish. New Hampshire Public radio has a lot of local news and features too, which I can't hear anywhere else. I'm sure other markets are the same. You can get it on Alexa too because most of the shows are also podcasts which is also great. I've also heard a lot from my conservative fri…

>I'm a Libertarian

As a libertarian, don't you find the economic news reports from NPS cringeworthy though?

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#17
post #14

I love NPR. My wife makes fun of me because sometimes I sit in the car with the battery / radio on after I park just to hear a story finish. New Hampshire Public radio has a lot of local news and features too, which I can't hear anywhere else. I'm sure other markets are the same. You can get it on Alexa too because most of the shows are also podcasts which is also great. I've also heard a lot from my conservative fri…

> Libertarian and thus social conservative and economically liberal Isn't that the opposite of a libertarian?

_Probably_ just a typo, imo.

Then again, I've never found two libertarians who could agree on what being libertarian actually means, so maybe not.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#18

I love NPR. My wife makes fun of me because sometimes I sit in the car with the battery / radio on after I park just to hear a story finish. New Hampshire Public radio has a lot of local news and features too, which I can't hear anywhere else. I'm sure other markets are the same. You can get it on Alexa too because most of the shows are also podcasts which is also great. I've also heard a lot from my conservative fri…

> I'm a Libertarian and thus social conservative and economically liberally

That's fascinating; I've been called Libertarian because I'm the opposite. I'm socially progressive yet fiscally conservative, and from what I've read, there are branches of Libertarianism that can embrace either extreme or a mixture.

I've listened to NPR since I was a teenager in the early 90s, and while I don't always agree with the commentators, I usually find the subjects fascinating and the content entertaining. Here in Atlanta the "Second Cup Concert" classical music show kept me motivated at work, and Lois Reitzes' voice was as soothing as listening to Bob Ross talk about his paintings.

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#19
post #14

I love NPR. My wife makes fun of me because sometimes I sit in the car with the battery / radio on after I park just to hear a story finish. New Hampshire Public radio has a lot of local news and features too, which I can't hear anywhere else. I'm sure other markets are the same. You can get it on Alexa too because most of the shows are also podcasts which is also great. I've also heard a lot from my conservative fri…

> Libertarian and thus social conservative and economically liberal Isn't that the opposite of a libertarian?

You're absolutely right. It is late at night here but regardless I have no excuse. I have no clue why I typed it that way (fixed the original post since it was within the edit window)

Re: Love it or hate it, truckers say they can’t stop listening to public radio

#20

> Aside from the content, according to Murphy, drivers like NPR for the continuity. They can keep listening to the same programs from state to state. Why don't truckers use satellite radio? They could listen to the same programs anywhere in the (U.S.? World?).

I suspect many do. Just that this isn't a story about them.

As to the coverage: North American only. There is coverage in Canada and Puerto Rico.

The XM satellite are geostationary, the Sirius satellites are in a highly elliptical "tundra orbit" where they use apogee dwell over North America. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_orbit )

SiriusXM is now only using the geostationary satellites.

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