Today, May 4th, is special for a couple of reasons. Of course it is Star Wars Day. "May the 4th Be With You". It is also special in my little corner of the universe as it is the day SiriusXM satellite radio shuffled its channel assignments to bring the merged services into concert. It was very inconvenient and I'm sure costly to have a single broadcast feed that had to announce and advertise its channel assignments on the previously separate networks.
Folks that know me in real life constantly get assailed by enthusiasm for my satellite radio. The thought of not having the correct presets on my little unit this morning prompted me to visit the SiriusXM website and jot down the new channel assignments. Much like setting the clocks for Daylight Saving Time at bedtime rather than 2 am, I took the time to reassign the presets last night so that I would not have to fiddle with the unit during my morning commute. Three of my ten presets could not be changed as the new channels were currently unused or not part of my subscription. Those channels I planned to change in the morning during breakfast. So first thing this morning I powered up the unit to marvel at my handy work and was greeted by a French-speaking announcer. Whoa. Must have made a mistake. After some short hopping through my presets I realized the smart little unit migrated its presets to the new channels automatically. The three that I could not change last night were correct and the seven that I did were most definitely off my listening preference reservation. A return to the list and another seven preset assignments later my world was right again. It didn't ask me to press OK and it didn't alert me. It just performed the necessary function.
If I had not messed with it, all things would have been well. I probably would not have even noticed the change in channel number as I often refer to the channel by name. I'm sure the mystery of the nomadic channels would have turned up sometime in the future, but I'm not sure the time spent attempting to manage the event was worth it. I guess the adage holds true - It is much better to act and ask forgiveness than to ask permission and never act. If it is the right thing to do, the forgiveness is rarely required.
My older unit did not automatically update itself and as such I am still struggling to find my stations. Luckily, my favorite station- 40's on 4- did not change so when I turned on my car this morning I was happily greeted by the Andrews Sisters. Thank goodness for routine!
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