I am the ghost of groovymother.com. Woooooo!

This is an old page from Rod Begbie's blog.

It only exists in an attempt to prevent linkrot. No new content will be added to this site, and links and images are liable to be broken. Check out begbie.com to find where I'm posting stuff these days.

Ex(m)cellent

October 24, 2004

Ex(m)cellent

While I was killing time in Circuit City the other night, waiting for my new car stereo to be installed, I impulse-purchased an XM Radio Roady2 unit. My original plan was to play with it for a month, then return it, but after a weekend, I’m impressed enough to probably keep the darned thing.

First up, it has to be said that $9.95 is a thoroughly fair price to pay for commercial-free themed music. I’ll be getting my indie-kicks listening to the ‘Lucy’, ‘XMU’ and ‘Ethel’ stations, which, unlike the “You’re never more than 30 minutes away from an early 90s U2 song” world of Boston alternative radio, don’t go to 5 minutes of commercials every 5 songs.

And—oh joy of joys, can it be true?—pledge-break-free WBUR content on XM Public Radio. Hurrah!

For anyone who’s XM-curious, the Roady’s an excellent kit. It contains everything you need to get going in your car—cigarette lighter adaptor, receiver (including an internal FM transmitter), magnetic antenna to put atop your car (the entire roof becoming the receiving surface!)

There’re some well thought-out features built-in too. I particularly like the “memory” functionality—If you hear a song and want to find out more about it later, just hit the “memory” button, and you can lookup the track name and artist later.

The only downside? The temptation for Joy to channel-surf round the 60s, 70s and 80s channels may drive me nuts!


About This Site

This is an archive of groovmother.com, the old blog run by Rod Begbie — A Scottish geek who lives in San Francisco, CA.

I'm the co-founder of Sōsh, your handy-dandy guide for things to do in San Francisco this weekend.