XM Classics is one of the three channels we usually listen to at home (the others being XM Pops and The Village), so I knew today’s Bootcamp visit would be a good experience. And it has been.

My only real complaint with XM Classics is really a complaint with the display on the receiver — 16 characters of artist and 16 of title is not enough room for the information I want about a piece of classical music (artist, composer, work, movement, conductor, and so forth). It’s often not enough for other music, either, but it’s really limiting when it comes to classical.

This problem isn’t limited to XM; I’ve been importing my CD collection into iTunes, and I’ve found that the information in Gracenote CDDB for classical discs is often messed up, with the composer listed as the artist (probably the most common problem) or other errors — on the other hand, popular music albums are almost always right. I did fix some of the albums when I noticed the problem before doing the import, but there are still plenty which are wrong.

As I tuned into Radio Classics, I was greeted by “a fiery horse with the speed
of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty ‘Hi-ho, Silver!'”

It was The Lone Ranger — and I probably would have enjoyed listening, if I hadn’t had to concentrate on work.

This channel, like Sonic Theatre, would be a great companion on a long trip, but it’s not very good in the office.