Over the past four years or so, I have come to rely on XM Radio during my hour-long commute. Since I come from southern Pennsylvania to the suburbs of Baltimore, I had to deal with unreliable frequencies and way too many commercials before I got satellite.

Now I have a constant signal with plenty of options and very few interruptions. But something very, very bad happened yesterday.

I hopped in the car for the ride home and poked around my presets. Like usual, I started on my A group and worked through my main music channels before going to my B group, which is a mix of music and sports. I didn’t find any music I liked and ESPN Radio was at a break so I went to B-1, one of my standby stations. ESPN News – constant sports talk with short commercial  breaks since they were just simulcasting the TV feed.

It was gone. Poof.  Like Bill Belicheck with one second left in the Super Bowl, it just disappeared. Something called ESPN Xtra had taken its place and instead of the constant updates from analysts and athletes on “The Hot List,” I had to hear Michael Kay’s show out of New York blathering on about the Giants.

Listen, XM. I got your service just so I wouldn’t have to listen to the ramblings of sports talk personalities about the teams I like, I sure as hell didn’t sign up to listen to some jackass New Yorker.

I found out when I got home that ESPN Xtra is a combination of the ESPN News feed along with some talk shows from local ESPN stations. And, to make it even more special, they will broadcast Bill Simmons’ podcast a couple times a week.

Shoot me now.

I have waited patiently for XM and Sirius to merge, but I think I might just drop XM after this and get Sirius.  They still have ESPN News.