Dear Santa (a.k.a. Hugh Panero);

I’m a little ticked off at you. I pay for three XM radios (my Tao XM2Go, my wife’s Roady2, and my parents’ Audiovox XR9), and we all enjoy the heck out of ‘em. I originally bought the Roady2 last year (for $129, by the way) when you had the sense to hire Bob Edwards after he was unceremoniously dumped by the pinstripes at NPR, but I’ve grown to love more than just XMPR, Channel 133. But we have to talk about the whole repeater thing…

When I walk in downtown York, PA I get a terrestrial signal everywhere. I mean everywhere; in the coffee shop, in the big stone Post Office, everywhere I’ve gone down there I get three bars on my Tao with it just hanging on my waist; no external antenna, no aiming the unit, no work at all. Never a drop-out downtown.

When I walk around my parents’ home in the north/west end of town, I get a terrestrial signal almost everywhere. Admittedly, it’s only one-or-two bars, and I sometimes get a dropout, but that’s pretty rare so long as I hold the Tao instead of dropping it in a pocket. Their new Jensen boombox gets four terrestrial bars inside their house.

When I take my daughter to her swimming lesson at the Dallastown Area High School, which so you know was built in a bloody cow pasture, I get one bar terrestrial, and so long as I don’t go into the building can listen to XM without pointing the Tao to the sky.

When I walk in my populated neighborhood in the suburbs in the south end of town, I get bupkis. Nuthin’. Nada. Zip. Nought. Nil.

Now we have a really, really big tower right up the hill from my house, one with cell antenna, microwave repeaters, and tv antennas on it (it’s the transmitter tower for WPMT, and receiving antennas for CATV of York). one more little antenna wouldn’t be noticed, honest…

So please, Santa…you have XM repeaters all around me. For Christmas, I want one more, right up the hill so I don’t have to drive so far just to take my daily walks. And if they won’t let you put it there, let me know…I have space in my back yard you’re welcomed to use…