Aw hell. Is it in English?
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Aw hell. Is it in English?
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Scooter Lesley
Guest
I don't, but there are many that pay for "Better" radio. Satellite would have never took flight, if Com/Ter Radio was worth listening to. The decline of the existing product birthed the idea. Cable TV was invented to solve the dilemma at Sea Level. Sat Radio has decade channels: 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's & 90's.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? Wonder why that is?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? Wonder why that is?
"Would have never Took flight"? And you are writing a book?
Anyway, satellite at around 25 million (including free trial periods) is in less than 10% of the vehicles in the US. A considerable percentage of subscribers are long haul truckers and people who drive long distances between cities. And many others find formats not feasible on terrestrial radio while some like the music channels with no ads.
For one of the reasons above, I have satellite in three cars. It's great when driving between towns where signals are bad or formats are limited. But the programming, compared to better curated commercial stations, bites.
Had satellite in my car for the same reasons, David. When you are driving long distances, satellite radio is a godsend because there are often few choices: usually country, sometimes urban, NPR, and a conservative talk station and lots and lots of evangelical christian preaching and teaching.
The ability to find reprieve with CBC, BBC, MSNBC (until XM dropped it), and Bloomberg Radio was a great advantage. The music channels were ok, but the high-data-compression rates and the inability to find a channel that I could just leave on was unsatisfying. I unsubscribed when I stopped driving 8 hours a weekend because I didn't listen to it enough to justify the cost.
P.S. I believe Scooter is writing his book in AFJ - Authentic Frontier Jibberish.
The ability to find reprieve with CBC, BBC, MSNBC (until XM dropped it), and Bloomberg Radio was a great advantage. The music channels were ok, but the high-data-compression rates and the inability to find a channel that I could just leave on was unsatisfying. I unsubscribed when I stopped driving 8 hours a weekend because I didn't listen to it enough to justify the cost.
P.S. I believe Scooter is writing his book in AFJ - Authentic Frontier Jibberish.
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Scooter Lesley
Guest
I know several long-time subscribers, that don't drive the lengthy. Their stated reason for willingly paying the monthly subscription price, is, as I said, the free stuff does not serve their audio diet. Back to my Topic: A 90's decade format alone would need some from inside both fences, to stay interesting. 85-89 & 00-05, to add both an interest, and a stretch. Shelf/Rest & Re-launch is always the key there. Just the amount of released product in the 80's provides much to pull from.
Really? That sounds like reinventing history to me. You were still on the air when the idea of satellite radio was "birthed." That's how long ago it was.
The reason satellite radio came about is because a group of people thought they could make money with it. It had nothing to do with existing product. That's like saying Burger King was started because McDonalds was inferior. There are lots of ways to do the same thing. That's what satellite radio is.
He's been fired longer than that.
The FCC started space segment and frequency allocations in the late 1980's and early 1990's. SDARS was an outgrowth of the low earth orbiting development done for Reagan's "Star Wars" program. The ability to have high-power transponders that had a reasonable lifespan, plus the computing power developed for terrestrial cellphones enabled intra-constellation communication for the low-earth orbiting birds that Sirius used. XM decided to use standard synchronous orbit space vehicles.
The business plan was still being developed in the early to mid 1990's. A number of licensees including Hubbard out of the twin cities won some spectrum. By 1995-1997 the licensees were negotiating with each other to aggregate enough spectrum to make a workable solution using the codecs then in a usable form. Consolidation happened behind the scenes into the two players that launched: Sirius and XM, who also later merged.
At launch they still did not know what would take off: satellite "cable radio" or highly segmented music channels. That gave way to the mix you have now. They still don't have a decisive answer. They marketed the music channel aspect against terrestrial radio but Clear Channel and others had made investments in both services, so there was really no drive to "kill terrestrial radio" since SDARS is a subscription (therefore private) service. The Commission and Sirius/XM discussed whether to regulate SDARS like broadcast or like a private service when I was interning at the Commission. Regulation as broadcast would have created new burdens for the licensees including profanity and indecency restrictions and the like. Since the model depended on subscriptions and therefore was not immediately comparable to FTA, SDARS was and is regulated as a closed audio muti-channel service. In short, Scooter, you are incorrect as always.
The FCC started space segment and frequency allocations in the late 1980's and early 1990's. SDARS was an outgrowth of the low earth orbiting development done for Reagan's "Star Wars" program. The ability to have high-power transponders that had a reasonable lifespan, plus the computing power developed for terrestrial cellphones enabled intra-constellation communication for the low-earth orbiting birds that Sirius used. XM decided to use standard synchronous orbit space vehicles.
The business plan was still being developed in the early to mid 1990's. A number of licensees including Hubbard out of the twin cities won some spectrum. By 1995-1997 the licensees were negotiating with each other to aggregate enough spectrum to make a workable solution using the codecs then in a usable form. Consolidation happened behind the scenes into the two players that launched: Sirius and XM, who also later merged.
At launch they still did not know what would take off: satellite "cable radio" or highly segmented music channels. That gave way to the mix you have now. They still don't have a decisive answer. They marketed the music channel aspect against terrestrial radio but Clear Channel and others had made investments in both services, so there was really no drive to "kill terrestrial radio" since SDARS is a subscription (therefore private) service. The Commission and Sirius/XM discussed whether to regulate SDARS like broadcast or like a private service when I was interning at the Commission. Regulation as broadcast would have created new burdens for the licensees including profanity and indecency restrictions and the like. Since the model depended on subscriptions and therefore was not immediately comparable to FTA, SDARS was and is regulated as a closed audio muti-channel service. In short, Scooter, you are incorrect as always.
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Sirius was founded by Martine Rothblatt, David Margolese and Robert Briskman. In 1990, Martine Rothblatt founded Satellite CD Radio, Inc. in Washington, DC. He was fired in 1993.
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Scooter Lesley
Guest
Well,....after sharing a pitcher of Carnation instant know-it-all, stroking each other's ego, and high-five-ing their little monkey hands, the mutual admiration society collectively feel content with their posted drivel. Take this back to the Treehouse: I was never fired from any Radio or TV job in 34+ years. None of you can match that! I resigned from WROQ on 2/21/94, to open a retail business. The decline of the existing Radio product began its slide in 1986. As I said, it began to suck, and the smarts of this world, began to ponder!
Official FCC allocation of spectrum for SDARS was 1992, with the Petition starting the process starting earlier than that. Even though Satellite CD radio was formed in 1990, when I was writing on SDARS in 1998-1999, Sirius and XM were still trying to figure out exactly how they would execute the service vis-a-vis the programming offered.
XM didn't launch to the consumer until September of 2001, with Sirius following in 2002.
But the point being is that Scooter was terminated/reassigned prior to his alleged epiphany about Satellite radio but long after his language arts teacher's ability to impart knowledge.
XM didn't launch to the consumer until September of 2001, with Sirius following in 2002.
But the point being is that Scooter was terminated/reassigned prior to his alleged epiphany about Satellite radio but long after his language arts teacher's ability to impart knowledge.
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I understand all that, but his statement was that satellite was "birthed" because OTA radio was bad. My point is that satellite radio was "birthed" specifically to make money, not because of programming. And truthfully, those who've listened to Sirius will tell you that satellite radio isn't really "better" than OTA. Just different. Especially since the merger.
That's an interesting year to pick. Some would argue that was also around the time that the music began to suck. It was that year that Run-DMC did their cover of Aerosmith's Walk This Way.
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I think we both agree on that. My point, despite meandering into the history of SDARS, is that even at launch they were not sure what reason would be the most compelling for consumers to subscribe. But it certainly was not "over the air radio sucks." And the unscientific reason given for subscribing for a lot of folks was that it provided more programming choice or had more coverage area. The only person that thinks terrestrial radio sucks is the guy fired from it over two decades ago and who does not even subscribe to satellite radio.
Especially considering that all of the programming people CAME from broadcast, and their mission was to basically bring what they knew from broadcast to satellite. XM's head of programming, Lee Abrams, could be blamed as the guy who single-handedly commercialized rock radio in the 80s.
This. And a point made that I did not think about.
I used to get Lee Abrams emails that he sent first to the XM programming and then made public. They were part Scooter Lesley style part-English/part incomprehensible jibberish. They were also part consultant bullsh*t and part truly original ideas, if not a little half-baked.
My impression was that Lee was radio programming's Ryan Adams: there were gems in the massive amount of garbage spit out unedited.
I've read what he and other have written on the topic of "Lee Abrams and Ken Burkhardt killed freeform rock radio." I think they made some good points in Lee Abrams defense: much of freeform rock radio was terribly programmed by terrible programmers and Abrams forced structure on rock radio and many jocks and some listeners hated that. But Abrams' point was proven: play the hits and listeners come and stay in droves. Don't play the hits and then head rapidly and quietly to the door and across the street.
The thing is that satellite radio is subscription based. OTA radio is advertiser supported. Those are two different models, and you program differently when you have subscribers. I spent some time in public radio, and we programmed differently, because we were aiming at members, not advertisers. So we were fine if our listeners were over 55. No problem, as long as they sent us a check every year. And they did. Same thing with satellite. They will gladly provide opera, bluegrass, or x-rated rap music if you'll pay $15 a month. Broadcasters can't operate that way. The thing I notice about boomers today is they want the kind of subscriber-based radio Sirius does, but they don't want to pay $15 a month. Lee always said he was making "radio worth paying for." What he didn't expect was that his prospective customers would be so cheap.
Go back even further in time. "Superstars" AOR programming originated at WQDR in Raleigh where Lee was the PD in the early 70's. They "took over the market" and it was not even a year later that Kent Burkhardt and Lee formed their consultancy and proceeded to blow away freeform or progressive rock stations all across the country.
A few of the more famous progressive stations, like KMET, lasted into the 80's. But most were gone before the end of the 70's.
You are only partially correct. Boomers (and perhaps everyone else) wouldn't mind paying a reasonable subscription cost for their favorite music but they want it in more than one location. Right now sat radio exists primarily in vehicles. I don't spend much time in my vehicle. Perhaps if I did I would subscribe. I do spend a lot of time on my computer but there are hundreds of choices I can make on the computer and they don't cost a thing. Sat radio is great for truckers and others who spend lots of time out in the sticks. For most Boomers, most of whom are now retired, it makes little sense. Especially since I already own most of the music they play.
It exists wherever you want it to exist. You want to listen online? They have a player for that. You want a portable? They'll sell you one. But it does cost.
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Scooter Lesley
Guest
Pardon me, whilst I weigh-in, as only I can! You boys are about to have a stroke, with this Topic, and it makes this Scotch taste all the better. To me, Lee Abrams is a Radio Pioneer, but Kent Burkhart Ain't! I left WANS-FM, in 1985, and some time after that, my old GM/the Owner, Nick Frangias, sold it to Burkhart for, reportedly, $7.1 Million. It was a license to Print Money....and he ran it so far in the dirt you would have had to look up to see the tailbones of rotting corpses...or is that corpi? That's it for now, as I gotta catch a red-eye, in the Morning to the left coast. Apparently, I have been appointed the new Head Coach of the Seattle Seahawks.....somethin' about a Consultant making a bad call?????????????
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Exactamundo! They DO NOT want to buy another "radio"! How many times has that been stated on these very boards?
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