Mike and I are huge fans of satellite radio: I've really fallen in love with listening to the radio all over again. It's been like a rediscovered a first love. Back when I was a teenager, I'd listen to the radio for hours on end. I'd flip between stations, eager to hear something new, something different. I don't remember ever being disappointed. This was back before the days of rigid playlists and what I like to call repetitious radio: hearing the same song every two hours like clockwork. Radio back then had a more renegade feeling, I think, an exciting, you-never-knew-what-song-you'd-hear-next sort of freewheeling sensibility. Maybe I just didn't know any better at the time, but I felt like I was getting new music I wanted to hear on a regular basis.

Before we got satellite radio (and we've had it for years now), I had gotten to the point where I didn't really enjoy turning the radio on any longer. Sure, I listened sometimes because I felt like I had to keep tabs on who was doing what, to keep an idea of trends in my mind for my job, but I can't say I found it fun. Rather, it was an exercise to be done for work. For someone who has been a major music fan for as long as I can remember, that was downright depressing to me. But satellite radio changed all of that.

I find it has filled a void in my music-loving soul. I love to put on my favorite CDs or turn on iTunes on shuffle on my computer as much as the next person, but there is something wonderful about having someone else doing the programming for you. Currently, there are two companies offering satellite radio services -- XM and Sirius -- and both have many, many channels as part of their service -- and they'll be merging eventually. There are multiple channels that appeal to me, and I love the sense of freedom in the programming, so vastly different from the too-tight playlists found on commercial stations. I hear several songs back to back that I'd never imagine I would, yet they work perfectly well to my ears.

Since it's a paid service, I don't have to be bothered that much commercials on the stations I love. I can flip among them and just hear music -- as much new music as I could possibly want, old favorites, things I'd never in a million years hear on current commercial radio stations. And, as a publicist who works with many developing artists, I find that the opportunity to hear music that wouldn't be heard otherwise to be one of the best parts of satellite radio. It is giving many hugely talented artists a place to be played, as they should be. It gives people a chance to hear them and to fall in love with their music, which is perhaps the best part of all.