2003 was a big year for Sirius. We start off the year with the Consumer Electronics Show, held every year in Las Vegas, to see the new radios and announcments that Sirius has been working on recently. They also debuted a new ad campaign, added a plethora of OEM deals, changed around most of their lineup, added a (subjectively) hot spokesperson, and added three major sports leagues over the course of the year.

CES 2003(Mid-January 2003):
Sirius came to CES 2003 with lots of prototypes, new equipment, and ideas. First off, we got a preview of the Kenwood Here2Anywhere, the first Sirius PNP, with a release date of Spring 2003. They also announced the Audiovox Shuttle System - the prototype looks fairly different than the final product.

They had two different prototype Plug and Plays on display that never made it into production. First was the JVC PNP, which looks freaking HUGE(especially from the side), and the other one is a Sanyo PNP that never went into production. I think the Sanyo would have done a good job, and I would have preferred it to the Here2Anywhere.

Many experimental ideas were shown off during CES. One of them was titled Sirius Data Services and provided news, stocks, sports, weather, etc. on a display. Sadly, we haven’t seen a marketed version materialize. 2003 also marked the first time Sirius displayed video over their satellites, in what look like the most uncomfortable chairs ever.

Before Taylor started ColorMatchAntenna a couple years ago, Sirius wanted to release antennas that would(partly) match your car’s color. Speaking of antennas, this is their draft version of the Sirius home antenna, along with the Audiovox home unit. Kenwood’s home unit was on display too, although it wouldn’t be available for about nine months. And are you a business looking for a tuner that could give you 6-8 different zones at once? Have no fear, Sirius had a tuner for you! Too bad that was just a prototype that never went into production.

“If you wanted less auditory entertainment and more visual, Sirius had their own GAME at CES. It was a basic racing game. Pictures are available here, here, here, and here.

OEM Deals
The OEM department at Sirius seemed to make the news about every other month with an announcement about a deal with an automaker to have Sirius as a dealer option or factory installed. Sirius announced relationships with BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Audi, MINI, Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. They even struck a deal with RV manufacturers Winnebago, Fleetwood, Newmar, Gulfstream, Monaco, and Four Winds International to Offer Sirius on Visteon Equipped 2004 Coaches as well as Genmar Boats and Forumla Powerboats. Even today, Sirius still has a relationship with Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ford, Infiniti, Lincoln-Mercury, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, and MINI.

Hertz
In December 2002 (yes, this should have been covered in yesterday’s post), Hertz announced Sirius’ service would be available at major airports in California and Florida. Hertz customers could pay an additional $5 per day to rent a vehicle with Sirius already installed. The radios were available in 5 Ford and 1 Mercury model. Hertz had 20,000 radios to distribute and this was just two states. During 2003, Hertz expanded their offering of Sirius to more airports. On January 8, 2003, Hertz added Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. Sirius President and CEO Joseph P. Clayton remarked from CES 2003 that, “Sirius and Hertz were the first team to introduce satellite radio to rental car customers. We’re thrilled that in just a few short weeks since we launched the program in two key states, we have expanded the availability of Sirius to Hertz locations in three more major markets, including right here in Las Vegas. We look forward to further expanding our availability to additional Hertz markets in the near future.” Hertz announced that on April 1, 2003, Sirius would also be available in Atlanta, Chicago, the D/FW Metroplex, Detroit and had plans to expand to 33 airports and 28 vehicle models by July 1, 2003. Hertz continued to roll-out Sirius to 53 airports by year end. The additional cost for renting a vehicle equipped with Sirius was reduced to only $3.00 per day.

Radios & Receivers
-January 8, 2003 - As we mentioned in the CES section, Sirius displayed many different radios at the Consumer Electronics Show. Some went on to become production models, others went by the wayside.
-February 28, 2003 - Sirius begins to ship 2nd Generation Chipsets for New Products. These are the chips that are in the 1st Plug and play radios including the Here2Anywhere, Shuttle, Streamer, et al.
-May 21, 2003 - Plug-N-Play: Kenwood Here2Anywhere & Audiovox S.R.S. Satellite Radio Shuttle to Arrive at Retailers in June according to Sirius. The H2A arrives as promised, but the Audiovox Shuttle arrives about 4-6 weeks later.
-July 28, 2003 - FAA Approves Satellite Radios by Avionics Innovations for Sirius - these radios go into small airplanes and cost several thousand a pop.
-September 4, 2003 - Antex Electronics Unveils First Multi-Zone Satellite Radio Receiver - retails for $1999.99, but with one box you can control up to three different ‘zones’ to listen to Sirius in - with a different station in each zone.
-September 4, 2003 - Kenwood DT-7000S - Satellite Radio’s First Dedicated Home Stereo Receiver - The Kenwood DT-7000S retailed for $299.99. It was released, but had several critical bugs that needed patching. The only way to do that was to send the radio back to Kenwood so they could upgrade the firmware on the device. Eventually this problem was fixed for the later production runs of the model.
-September 25, 2003 - Sirius and Pana-Pacific announce the Streamer Radio for Truckers at the North American Truck Show. The Streamer is the first of the ‘gen 1.5’ of Plug and Play radios, has many new features the H2A and S.R.S. Shuttle do not, such as a choice of four fonts, a larger display, built in clock with alarm, stream alert, 20 SongSeeks, auto-dimming display, and more.
-Early November 2003 - Audiovox released an update to their S.R.S. Shuttle, creating the PNP2. It has all of the features of the Streamer but in a similar form factor to the Audiovox PNP1. A boombox was also promised to be available by Christmas
-Christmas Eve, 2003 - about a dozen boomboxes find their way into several stores in Texas, so Sirius technically made their self-imposed deadline.
-Holiday 2003 - Sirius spearheaded a new concept that is now done by both companies for the majority of their plug and play radios: they bundled the radio and the car docking kit together for the Audiovox PNP1 and PNP2, and called it the JamPackProgramming & Subscription Plans
Another announcement that came out of CES 2003 was a New Programming Lineup that debuted on February 3, 2003. The new lineup featured Jam Central (17), Planet Rhyme (41), Wax (42), House Party (60), The Rave (62), FolkTown (94), The Trend (18), and Movin’ Easy (04) music channels. Sirius also added a number of news and entertainment streams. They included The Weather Channel Radio Network including TWC East (110), TWC Central (111), and TWC West (112), SIRIUS Left (145), SIRIUS Right (144), Court TV, Plus (134). As with most lineup changes, some streams were canceled: The Express (44); Jazz En Clave (61); Tropical (70); Alt N (72); Tejano (77); SIRIUS Arts (161); The Hook Up (167); Intimate (172); SIRIUS Rock Hits; SIRIUS Country Hits; and Real SIRIUS (117). At this time, they also started to referring to channels as ’streams’ and disc jockeys as ’stream jockeys’. Google revealed this old thread started by TulaneJeff about this lineup change.

Two months later, the nation’s only around-the-clock broadcast entertainment service for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) community, was launched on April 14. Sirius programmer John McMullen moved from his role as host on SIRIUS Left to serve as program director and host of the new Sirius stream OutQ (149).

In the summer of 2003, consultant Walter Sabo stepped up to ‘retool’ the playlists at Sirius. Over the next six months, there was a noticable increase in repetition as many stations developed 300 song playlists, with some stations, such as The Pulse, repeating music as often as once every two hours. Listeners back then will tell you all about songs such as Blues Beach, The Zephyr Song, The Remedy (I Won’t Worry), Amazing, and others that are now ingrained into their heads from that summer. Totally 70s even had some problems with it, switching to mostly classic rock from the 70s in October 2003. Thankfully repetition has decreased drastically since then.

Two new subscription plans were announced on May 14, 2003. The Preferred Plan for multiple subscriptions would allow you to pay $6.99 for additional radios subscribed after the first. Sirius also introduced the Lifetime of Music & More Plan for the life of the unit purchased for only $399.99. Sirius created a plan for businesses too. Applied Media Technologies Corporation (AMTC) launched commercial-free Satellite Radio for Businesses on August 3, 2003. The plan only included the music streams and was $24.95/month. They even started the ball rolling to allow Canadians to subscribe. On December 10, 2003, Sirius and CBC/Radio Canada announced a joint venture to bring Sirius to Canada

Sports

This was a big year for Sirius Sports and the fans. The NBA and Sirius announced in January that 40 NBA games a week can be heard as a part of the regular line up of channels. It was announced in March that ESPN radio would broadcast a Sunday MLB game, along with all playoff games, including the World Series. Also this year the NHL announced that there will be 40 games a week, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs, would be broadcast on Sirius. Finally, the word that many NFL fans wanted to hear came in mid-December: Sirius lands all NFL games and all playoff games exclusively until 2010.

Advertising and Promotions

it’s_ON Campaign
Sirius created the it’s_ON Campaign with agency Crispin, Porter, and Bogusky. The campaign was meant to portray Sirius as a rebel company, and utilized sub-slogans such as mainstream_OFF underground_ON / commercials_OFF music_ON / corporate agenda_OFF experimentation_ON, and had the all-encompassing slogan it’s_ON. At the same time they retooled Mongo, the dog, and removed the words ’satellite radio’ from their name, opting to just be called SIRIUS. The move failed, and many of the ads that they ran didn’t even relate to satellite radio or explain that Sirius is satellite radio.

We have found one television ad from the it’s_ON campaign, although fair warning that the file is 10MB

One of the most memorable pieces of advertising they have from those days is the manifesto, which, coincidentally, is still available at sirius.com. Since it probably won’t be there for long, you can get a copy of it here. The manifesto, created by Avatar New York, summarizes the campaign up: Sirius wants to be edgy, offbeat, and a different breed of radio.

Other memorable ad ideas they had in 2003:
-June 6, 2003 - In order to promote the new Here2Anywhere, Sirius has an ad on TV that features a robot arm moving the H2A from home to car. While we don’t have that, we have a high quality print ad
-September 17, 2003 - Sirius signs Pamela Anderson for Commercials and Promotional Events. Pam makes the announcement on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, giving national exposure to the service. During her appearance on Leno, she calls it “Cable Radio”. She additionally hosted the short-lived (but much beloved) Club Pam show on Sirius Talk 105, and was the prize in a contest was held where the “winner” got their car washed by her. They promoted this with a very risque ad and an in-store cardboard cutout.
-September 22, 2003 - Sweepstakes: $1 Million for you and $1 Million for your friend is won by an Arkansas couple. The Jones’ each entered naming the other as their “friend” The rest of us just hated them for winning our prize!
-December 22, 2003 - Sirius offers “Party Pack” to listeners. Backstagers are all about free stuff ! The pack includes cups, napkins and balloons with the Sirius logo, as well as a few of the (now classic) *_ON t-shirts to offer your party guests as door prizes. To this day, we still don’t know why BenDee was so excited about the balloons.

Subscriber Milestones
Sirius subscriber counts hit a couple major milestones in 2003. During just the first three months of the year, Sirius more than doubled it’s number to 68,000 subscribers. Less than three months later, Sirius reached 100,000 subscribers on June 23, 2003. Less than six months after that, Sirius doubled once again to reach 200,000 subscribers on December 8, 2003.

Administration
There were some new additions to the offices at 1221 Avenue of the Americas during the month of June. David J. Frear was appointed as CFO, William C. Pratt was appointed as CIO, and Jay Clark was appointed as Executive VP of Programming.

Sirius Backstage
-October 2003 - The Admin/Moderator team coordinated with John McMullen and Tom Rielly for a visit to Sirius’ HQ. Jeff, BuggyBoy, Ryan, Professor Dave, and Tristan represented Backstage. They met with Ron Rodrigues and Jim Collins (Dir of Communications). Kid Kelly gave a tour of the facilities. Jeff and BuggyBoy were able to do an on-air interview. On the second day, the group met with Joe Clayton and were able to hold the Stanley Cup which Sirius had on-hand due to NHL programming.

2003 was a busy year for Sirius, but nowhere near as busy as 2004. We’ll have more on that later today(hopefully ) with Part III of our series on Sirius celebrating five years.

Thanks to RyanM and Michigan_Made for helping out!

Posted by BenDee on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 1:48 am.
Filed in Sirius.
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