That where Sirius Radio Network comes in. Pay them a monthly fee, buy the receiver for your car and you've got any style digital music, any time, commercial free.
Sadly, I find satellite radio to be the same as regular radio, with swearing allowed. A friend has it and while their are some things played that do not hit regular radio, the stations all repeat the same stuff, just like regular radio. The techno channels I've heard had a LOT of disappointing stuff and were far from underground, let alone even relatively aboveground stuff like Orb etc. I think I heard a crappy Orbital song once, and Firestarter or something like it from Prodigy. Whee. Oh, and that Daft Punk "The Funk" (I think, their big one that goes bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow bow), which was kind of a surprise. Not like it was in a mix show or anything. But normally, friend that has it puts in on the grungy station, which still manages to play the same 15 songs. Just like regular radio - there are SO many obscure tracks from well-known mainstream artists even - that don't get play. It's always the hits for people who don't like music but use it for image, yet have to be comfortable. (And, as far as the more obscure stuff goes, observe how many people are poseurs there, just trying to be different - I mean, shit, how many people really like how punk sounds for god's sake?) Most people's reaction to the Orb would be "I've never heard music like that before in my life and if I have I don't know where I heard it." Of course, not enough would happen in the first 10 seconds to hold their attention, anyway. Christ, most "music listeners" think of Zappa as just a weird guy, and wouldn't know King Crimson from King Friday. T
I'm an imaging producer for 'hit' music radio stations in Vancouver and Toronto. I've tried to convince music directors to play an occasional dance hit...I was responsible for getting Alice Deejay Darude and a few others a little airplay but it didn't last long.... that's as close as I could get to anything dance/tech related. The audience wants 50cent, eminem and usher...anything else is just too much for their little brain to handle so they just shrug it off. It's really too bad.
-- Brian Kinney