WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 — Tired of endlessly fiddling with the car radio dial to avoid commercials, improve reception or find a good song? The remedy could be radio’s response to cable TV: a subscription satellite service that beams 100 channels of music, news and other programming to cars — and eventually homes — with coast-to-coast coverage.
TWO COMPANIES are launching pay satellite radio in the new year, hoping to give listeners more variety, better sound quality and fewer commercials. Reggae lovers will have their own channel. Country and rock fans will have multiple choices.
Analysts say it will take a few years for the service to make inroads in the radio marketplace. Traditional broadcasters argue that consumers won’t pay for what they can get for free.
But the new industry players disagree.
Today, listeners have “one channel for all things,” said Dave Logan of XM Satellite Radio, one of the two new companies. “I have all channels for all things.”
XM’s Washington facility contains more than 80 digital studios to create content for those channels. The spacious rooms, filled with state-of-the-art equipment, will soon house on-air personalities and programmers assembling 24 hours of music and entertainment. Inside a special performance stage, live music concerts can be recorded and carried on the channels.
Listeners, on the road nationwide, will even be able to call in on an 800-line and make requests. XM plans to offers satellite radio by mid-2001.
Want to learn more?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/510821.asp
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-Administrator / Owner
"Everything was true. God was an astronaut. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed
TWO COMPANIES are launching pay satellite radio in the new year, hoping to give listeners more variety, better sound quality and fewer commercials. Reggae lovers will have their own channel. Country and rock fans will have multiple choices.
Analysts say it will take a few years for the service to make inroads in the radio marketplace. Traditional broadcasters argue that consumers won’t pay for what they can get for free.
But the new industry players disagree.
Today, listeners have “one channel for all things,” said Dave Logan of XM Satellite Radio, one of the two new companies. “I have all channels for all things.”
XM’s Washington facility contains more than 80 digital studios to create content for those channels. The spacious rooms, filled with state-of-the-art equipment, will soon house on-air personalities and programmers assembling 24 hours of music and entertainment. Inside a special performance stage, live music concerts can be recorded and carried on the channels.
Listeners, on the road nationwide, will even be able to call in on an 800-line and make requests. XM plans to offers satellite radio by mid-2001.
Want to learn more?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/510821.asp
------------------
-Administrator / Owner
"Everything was true. God was an astronaut. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed