The National Association of Broadcasters, in its latest salvo targeting the satellite radio competition, this week launched an on-air advertising campaign that attempts to promote traditional radio's strengths.

The new ads highlight entertainment available through local radio, and the spots close with the tagline "Radio: You Shouldn't Have to Pay for It." The ads are surfacing during the holiday shopping season, in which consumers may be considering a satellite radio purchase, and prior to shock jock Howard Stern's debut on Sirius.

Stern is leaving traditional radio for Sirius, and is set to join the company in January.

NAB said nearly every major radio company is donating more than $40 million in airtime to the ad effort. The "Shouldn't Have to Pay for It" spots air nationwide throughout December and January.

From SkyReports

I don't mind paying for it to get rid of the commercials. In 20 minutes of listening to talk radio I can hear 4 to 10 minutes of commercials. It's a waste of my time and I'd rather pay a little to get 100% content that I might actually want to listen to.

I would prefer not to have to pay for radio either, but if the choice is between listening to the same 20 songs all day interspersed amongst 100 commercials (some people call this "free"), or getting my pick of a wide variety of music with no commercials drumming my ears, it's really no contest. I'll pay anyday!

I'll be going to satellite radio mainly so I can identify a song when I hear it. Conventional radio has the technology to provide this but they were too cheap to use it and they blew it. Looks good on them. Now watch them start squaking about all the services they can (but never intended to) provide. Sound familiar?

It is the lack of commercials, and the variety that is not available OTA in my, and most markets, which would drive me away from traditional broadcast radio.

These people don't live in Moncton.

/turn on radio
/tune to 94.5 --> commercial
/tune to 93.1 --> commercial
/tune to 93.9 --> commercial

/turn off radio

I didn't have much choice in Moncton until satellite came.

PS. I won't get into all the dead areas in NB where you get no signal!

I'll be going to satellite radio mainly so I can identify a song when I hear it. Conventional radio has the technology to provide this but they were too cheap to use it and they blew it. Looks good on them. Now watch them start squaking about all the services they can (but never intended to) provide. Sound familiar?

RDS, Radio Data Systems, is cheap to install at the transmitter. It's the consumer who's to cheap to support RDS. Currently, there are very few radio that support RDS. If the consumer demanded, then we'd see more RDS enabled radios. There are car manufacturers that include it, as my friend has an Impala that has RDS. In Calgary, just a handful of FM stations have RDS.

Every car I've had since '97 had RDS (2 Audi's, Infiniti and BMW).

Home listening is my priority and most component tuners I owned like the Magnum didn't offer RDS. For my purpose it would have been a great way to go but I guess satellite is the way of the future.

It's the consumer who's to cheap to support RDS. Currently, there are very few radio that support RDS. If the consumer demanded, then we'd see more RDS enabled radios.

I would say that the fault lies with the broadcasters. Jack FM could use one of it's promo slots to advertise they are broadcasting it. Many people who go into my car are amazed that it shows the song title if I press "info."

Satellite radio ads all show the radio with the song title and artist being displayed. Conventional radio has never mentioned they have that technology.

I would prefer not to have to pay for radio either...
Whom would you rather have pay for the radio and at what cost?

Home listening is my priority and most component tuners I owned like the Magnum didn't offer RDS.

....FYI...StarChoice's Galaxie www.galaxie.ca/en/0/0.php & MaxTrax www.maxtrax.com commercial free audio channels have on-screen pop-ups at the start of each tune with useful info.....then the screen fades to black.

....As I've posted before...."Modern Hit Music"- KZZU Spokane....(StarChoice Channel 835) has www.yes.com technology......they post every tune as it's played on their website....you can look back 24 hours too! www.yes.com/lookup.php?s=kzzu

Satellite Radio is taylor made for the 30% of us who live in the rural areas of
the country, turn the dial all you want with terrestrial radio, nothin but static and was not about to get any better with CHUM's lame proposal (sure they're goin to promise the world now) again just in the major centers. Oh and I don't give a hoot if it ain't CD quality, I got all the CD quality I can stand, as well as cable FM, Starchoice and all that jazz, but that don't get you far in the car. Your talking apples and oranges here. I suppose if I lived in the City and had the choices you people have, I might be reluctant to pay as well, but as it stands I have 3 radios already and I'm diggin' it. :D

So far I'm loving my RoadyXT (1 week), we will be doing a lot of travelling from Calgary to Radium this year and theres a long stretch with a lot of static - not to mention any stations in Radium.

....FYI...StarChoice's Galaxie www.galaxie.ca/en/0/0.php & MaxTrax www.maxtrax.com commercial free audio channels have on-screen pop-ups at the start of each tune with useful info.....then the screen fades to black.

Maybe if they equipped STBs with LCD readout Artist/Title diplays so you didn't have to have your TV on and could then feed line level audio to a couple of powered speakers it might have been far more useful and popular.

Personally I want a "Kitchen Counter Top" radio with a display of information such as song title and artist. I would never ever allow cable anywhere near my main sound system as it's prone to too much noise.

Looks like a home Satellite counter top radio is the best for my purpose.

if they equipped STBs with LCD readout Artist/Title diplays so you didn't have to have your TV on and could then feed line level audio to a couple of powered speakers it might have been far more useful and popular.

...That certainly is a good idea....Shouldn't be a big stretch.

I would never ever allow cable anywhere near my main sound system as it's prone to too much noise.

....we don't have cable (except for internet).....however the audio channels on StarChoice are the main source of content for our sound system (Pioneer VSX1015 TX receiver+ Sound Dynamics speakers(4 RTS 7's +RTS C1+ THS 3000 sub). We do have a Monster Power Center 1100 to clean up any noise. Things sound great to me. Is cable especially noisy?

Satellite Radio is taylor made for the 30% of us who live in the rural areas of the country, turn the dial all you want with terrestrial radio, nothin but static ...

I think it's more than just rural populations that satellite radio caters to. I'm just east of Toronto and there's a huge selection of stations (something you don't fully realize until you're trying to find an empty station to tune your sat. radio's FM modulator to). But for the most part, if you're outside of the listenership of mainstream/Top 40 radio, there's not a lot for you to listen to. Very limited indie rock, minimal amount of jazz (Jazz FM is great, but frustrating during pledge drives). Even for Top 40 listeneres, the appeal of the variety is a bonus.

It's the commercial-free component of sat. radio that's a selling feature. Especially since we're finding more and more ways to get around sitting through commercials (with PVRs), it gets really painful to sit and listen to that.

It's worth every penny ...

Things sound great to me. Is cable especially noisy?

Compared to a relly good OTH signal brought in by a good antenna....yes. Also, cable introduced elecrical hum has too be accounted for and, even when very low, can make a difference.

Another thing, with a good tuner and a signal like the OTH one described above the truncated dynamic range of the cable signal (specially FM) is quite obvious. That really makes a difference in serious music listening.

Personally the Sat radio I have listened to did not impress me at all. Quantity instead of quality. Most did not sound as good as my ipod. I believe the data rate they are using is half of what most people use for MP3's. Give me a good yagi and an RDS enabled radio and I would be happy. Unfortunately only RDS radios I have come across are for automotive use. Has anyone seen any RDS Tuners.

Denon has a tuner that has the RDS function.