If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll know that I’m planning to sign up for the 3-day online trial for Sirius Internet Radio. All this so that I can catch the special appearance of Dan Klass on Father Dave Dwyer’s Busted Halo Show on Sirius 159 (The Catholic Channel), as well as listen to Greg and Jennifer’s The Catholic’s Next Door on the same channel. Yes, I’ve done it. I’ve signed up, and started listening. And yes, the secret is already out, so I can finally mention the host and the name of the “mystery” show which Dan was scheduled to appear on. (more on my comments of show at the end of this post )

Let me first say that ever since I discovered podcasts, I’ve practically stopped listening to radio altogether, except when my MP3 player runs out of juice/podcasts. I rarely listen to internet radio anyway, because most of the time, the sound quality is not as good, and the audio can get choppy at times. Besides, I was starting to find the radio content available rather boring. However, Sirius has turned out to be quite the “ear-opener”. Sirius has a wide selection of content. From various genres of pure, commercial-free music, to comedy. From sports to talkshows. From politics to religion. What I loved the most was being able to get religious, and particularly Catholic, content 24 hours a day, everyday! This isn’t something I can get with my local radio stations. I had a blast switching between The Catholic Channel and EWTN and the various music channels. I was so engrossed with the great content I’m getting, that I listened all the way into the wee hours of the night. I think if it wasn’t for all the backlog of podcasts I have to listen, and the 12-hour time difference, I really would consider paying the US$12.95/month subscription fee.

My first taste of Sirius last night was Greg and Jennifer’s The Catholic’s Next Door. They were talking about what to wear and what not wear for mass. Great show! Very much like an extension of their Rosary Army Podcast. I’ve got another 2 days left on the trial to listen to this, and I’m sure I’ll miss the show after that. Hmm.. maybe I should try to extend my trial.. somehow.

And now about Busted Halo Show. I’ve been actively reminding folks on Plurk to listen to the show on 23rd Sep 2008 at 8:20pm EST to catch Dan’s special appearance. Of course, Murphy had to have his way. I wasn’t able to get to the computer the whole morning (Singapore is 12 hours ahead of US eastern time), and when I finally had the sense to check my email on my mobile phone, I saw that Dan had emailed me at around 5:20am my time (5:20pm EST) to inform me that his appearance has been brought forward to 7:20pm EST so that Father Dave’s producer Robyn could be around when he was on. Great, I missed the show AND I didn’t update the rest of the world in time. Doh!

Luckily, I realized there’s a rerun of the show at 3am EST (3pm Singapore). BUT I have a meeting scheduled at 3pm, which mean I’ll probably miss the first hour or so of the show, thus missing Dan’s appearance AGAIN! Bummer! Thanks to some picky customer with what they claimed was a program bug, my product leader excused me from the meeting so I could look into the problem. I was happily desk-bound again, and all ready to tune into Sirius on the office computer.

The show was fantastic! Apparently, all the hush-hush was because Dan was suppose to be a surprise guest on Father Dave’s show. Father has absolutely no idea who Robyn has invited onto the show, except that he’s someone from his past. In attempt to fish information from Robyn and the rest, Father Dave prepares a list of hilarious questions about the mystery guest’s identity. Obviously, Father was pleasantly surprised to hear Dan’s voice over the phone. It was quite a “radio moment“.

Like I mentioned previously, Dan and Father Dave were ex-classmates. What I didn’t know was that they co-hosted a morning show on WJPZ called Crazy Morning Crew, back in the days when they were both studying in Syracuse University. Father Dave was then known as “Happy Dave” and Dan Klass was known as “Danny the K“. They recalled the good old days of college radio, school plays, skipping classes *gasp*, and where their friends are now. It was fun-filled show, and I was grateful for being able to catch the rerun ultimately. If you visit TheBitterestPill.com, you’ll see an old photo of the Crazy Morning Crew.

Tags: Humor, music, Podcasts, radio, rant, Reviews, sirius, technology