Lee Abrams: The Early Days Of Satellite Radio

Again within the late 90’s,  XM was simply an concept.  We had a skeleton workers that was rising by the day,  however we weren’t but on the air.  One of many challenges was to inform the story of the programming mission.  There was no scarcity of those that considered XM as an  “audio service”,  a generic array of white bread channels that might have all of the soul of ……an audio service.

In actuality,  NOTHING  was farther from the reality.  We envisioned XM to be an natural,   residing,  respiration assortment of channels,  every with a distinct id and tradition.  The XM “sound” was not one thing that you’d hear on each channel,  however the XM SOUND was the mixture of every channel sounding totally different with the end result being a rainbow of various approaches that as a complete had a novel, revolutionary, and distinct  “sound”.  The eccentric Superb Tuning was 180 levels from the A.D.D. 20  on 20,  and that once you put all of it collectively,  there was THE XM SOUND.   Some channels have been to have DJs interacting nationally with a military of listeners…others DJ free,  counting on heady manufacturing and continuous music.  In earlier weblog entries, I addressed the Bootcamps we needed to liberate myself and everybody who touched the programming from clichés and assumptions.  At first, you’d are inclined to “assume” that every one channels wanted DJs.  Unsuitable.  The enchantment of some channels is that it’s all music with out interruptions.  On different channels,  the DJ is a crucial associate to the music providing an clever narration….different channels a DJ provides to the authenticity as within the ’50s or ’60s the place we work to re-live the way in which Prime 40 sounded in these eras.  The purpose is that the XM  SOUND relies on each channel having its personal Level of View and playbook leading to a various assortment of types,  but all tied collectively to the platform had a definite really feel and vibe.

Expressing this each internally and externally wasn’t straightforward.  There had by no means been something like XM earlier than,  so we would have liked for instance the plan.

A number of months in the past,  Bob Lefsetz the grasp of gonzo bloggerism,  visited XM.   Whereas hanging out in my workplace he requested what this huge chart with circles was all about and I defined it was a technique to graphically illustrate the variety of XM and the way channels match into totally different cultural zones.   He then stated,  “OK,  let’s hear the rap”.  So—I pulled out the chart and ran via it.  In case you learn Bob’s blogs you’ll observe that he thinks  XM Programming is nice however that nobody is aware of about it,  and was adamant that I video the factor and get it on the market.  SO—I did.

Our  workers will in all probability throw up in the event that they need to see this once more because it’s  turn out to be one in every of MY clichés,  however if you need to see a video of the  well-known “Circles” presentation

The fascinating factor is that whereas the roots of this presentation are 7 years outdated,  it’s nonetheless the anchor of what we do on the air.  Can we ship?  Not all the time.  Can we strive?  Sure.  Some channels are useless on it…others are shut…and others,  not so shut,  however we’ve over 160 channels and it’s not straightforward to get ALL of them firing on all cylinders directly…however we’ll get there so long as we BALANCE XM  as a enterprise and XM as an digital media artwork type.

We now have the expertise right here…it’s all about executing to the excessive requirements we preach,  evolving, however staying on plan.

www.leeabramsmediavisions.com

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