Goodbye, satellite radio

XM Radio turned off internet access for its radio subscriptions recently. Now you have to pay separately for it.

A month ago, I could have switched to XM's Internet-only access and paid $7.95 a month for it.

Now the English-as-a-second-language customer service rep at XM tells me that all they can do is let my radio subscription run out, because they don't do refunds. And if I want internet-only access, I have to call Sirius.

I checked Sirius.com, and the price for Internet-only access is now $12.95 a month.

I don't think so.

I originally picked XM because I liked their channel lineup better than Sirius', and XM had better business smarts than Sirius (which paid shock jock Howard Stern half a billion dollars to carry his moronic show). Now that Sirius and XM have merged, there's nothing left worth listening to, certainly not for $13 a month. That money would be better spent on ammunition.

There are thousands of radio stations available on the Internet for free, which far outstrips the 80+ stations on Sirius.

To listen to those thousands of radio stations, various manufacturers would rather have me buy an internet radio that finds them automatically, but I can find them on my own, thank you very much.

Sigh. Goodbye, satellite radio. You were fun while you lasted.