A new year is upon us! This is the end of another holiday season and the end of the 2009 year. I always look back on a year with positive reflection and how far I have come as a person personally and professionally. Being able to write about a product I believe in and am passionate about is a great honour and a ton of fun. I love challenging myself to write about different channels and business issues related to SiriusXM. Please keep the comments, kudos and criticism coming.

I was talking to someone not that long ago about Terrestrial Radio versus Sirius, and some of the limitations imposed by the CRTC that choke local radio into having a fitted format. I am referring mainly to the rules specifying that a station has to play a certain amount of Canadian content every hour and every day. Locally where I am at, the station makes sure at quarter to the hour that it gets in the Canadian content to meet its requirements. While Canadian artists are great to hear, especially for me being a Rush fan, it gets to be part of a cycle that becomes boring and tiresome.

When listening to Sirius, occassionally I might hear a song that I will turn off because I could hear it on Terrestrial Radio any other time. If I want to hear Canadian content, I would at least like to hear a variety! Well Sirius takes care of this for me through channel 85, the Iceberg.

On Iceberg you can hear the great standards of classic and modern rock from artists like Neil Young, The Tragically Hip, and of course Rush. In between you can hear eclectic styles and Independent Label Rockers that you might not have heard of. I have been turned on to some great talent that I might not have otherwise heard.

Iceberg programmer George Christie and his crew do an excellent job with this station and I encourage all readers to cool off to some great tracks on the Iceberg.