XM vs. Sirius: Endless Options Narrow to One

XM excised channels for cool cocktail lounge sounds, African pop and a free-form mix of exotica from across the decades. Sirius silenced channels featuring swing jazz, baroque classics, and tropical and calypso music.

Still, what remains is a selection far beyond what free radio offers. Both services have stations dedicated to the pop music of each decade from the 1950s to the '80s; XM adds the '40s and '90s. XM's decade channels sound like radio stations from those eras; it's a fun, cartoonish approach in which Top 40 hits are mixed in with old commercials, bits from TV shows, and deejays who adopt the style of the time they're re-creating. Sirius does a little of that but generally opts for a more contemporary, serious sound.

What Sirius lacks in fun, it makes up for in the quality and intelligence of its deejays.

XM subscribes to more of a jukebox model, providing long sets of uninterrupted music on many channels. The theory is that since song and artist names appear on satellite receivers' displays, most listeners just want the tunes, thanks. On Sirius's more highbrow channels, especially, announcers provide more background about the music than do the deejays on similar XM channels.

I've heard great storytelling about artists and their music on Sirius from pioneering New York rock deejay Vin Scelsa, whose "Idiot's Delight" is a rare satellite show that feels alive and intimate. Legendary jazz jock Les Davis and folk and rock host Meg Griffin also do shows that hark back to the era of deejay as tastemaker, educator and entertainer.

XM has compelling deejays, too, such as Jonathan Schwartz, the dean of American pop standards; and two voices who once defined D.C. classical radio, Martin Goldsmith and Robert Aubry Davis.

But Sirius gives its deejays more time to shine -- and more to fail, too.

For all the smart stuff you hear from jocks on Sirius's jazz and classical channels, the banter on its pop channels sounds just as inane as on too many FM hits stations.

In general, if you're looking to hear new music and understand where it fits in, Sirius is the place. If you'd rather the jocks let the music do the talking, XM's for you.

Here are more distinctions, by category of programming:

ROCK AND POP

Both services devote a disproportionate number of channels to various forms of rock, and both slice the niches awfully thin (is a channel playing nothing but '80s hair bands really necessary?). Sirius (19 rock channels) dedicates some channels entirely to one artist -- there's 24/7 Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and Jimmy Buffett, though Buffett's channel stretches to include similar artists. And Sirius has more channels devoted to soft rock, love songs and what used to be called beautiful music. Sirius's cool exclusive: Super Shuffle, which appeals to the iPod generation by switching randomly among all genres of popular music. XM's background music channel, programmed by Starbucks, features music heard in the coffee shops. Some aficionados say XM's rockers (14 channels) go deeper into the archives, playing more surprises than you'll hear on Sirius. Edge: XM .

URBAN/SOUL/HIP-HOP

Sirius is heavy on hip-hop, with four channels, including one that serves as a clubhouse for performers who leave no word unspoken, no accusation against their rivals unhurled. XM -- which has two channels of contemporary hip-hop and one of classic hip-hop -- does a much better job with old-school sounds, offering three channels of black hits from decades past. The legendary Washington deejay Bobby "The Mighty Burner" Bennett is the voice of XM's "Soul Street," a terrific trip back to the soul stations of the '60s and '70s.