You see Marty Snider on pit road, in the booth, and interviewing Dale Earnhardt Jr.. Marty is a driven man, pursuing his goals, living out his dreams, and through it all, remembering where he came from.

This interview compliments a profile I did on Marty back in July 2007, and some of my questions were designed to verify my information and to find out more about the man that the profile couldn’t tell us.

Marty grew up in High Point, North Carolina and hung around auto racing since the age of 10, over at Caraway Speedway (Caraway Speedway opened as a dirt oval in 1966. It was paved in 1972 when the track joined the NASCAR weekly racing series.)

Marty’s sports coverage career started in 1991 while he was at the University of North Carolina where he obtained his Political Science Degree* and worked at covering NASCAR and other sports for the NBC affiliate, WYFF (Where he got an award for his photography), Motor Racing Network(MRN), CNNSi, ESPN, NASCAR.com and is presently working for TNT / NBC Sports. In my original profile, some dates overlapped, but Marty said it is not uncommon for reporters to work for multiple organizations.

*A PoliSci degree was the degree to get when you wanted to get into broadcasting.

While Marty was being mentored in his early days by Dave Despain, he learned about every aspect of his chosen industry to get the job done. From this, Marty developed a very deep appreciation for what his support crew does for him.

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SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Tony Stewart, two-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Champion, announced today the nominees for the first annual ‘Stewie Awards,’ honoring the best, boldest and funniest moments of the 2007 NASCAR season.

The ‘Stewies’ will be awarded during a special broadcast of Tony Stewart Live, on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio channel 128 on Thursday, November 29 (6:00 – 8:00 pm ET) during 2007 NASCAR Champions Week. The 2007 Stewie Award winners will be decided by fans around the country who can cast their votes online at www.sirius.com/stewieawards.

Here are the nominees:

Golden Stewie Award – Honoring a legendary driver from the Golden Era of racing (1960-85)

Best Duet – For outstanding teamwork by a driver and crew chief
· Jeff Burton & Pat Smith: Start at rear of field due to engine change and win Dollar General 300 NASCAR Busch Series race (Oct. 12)
· Casey Mears & Darian Grubb: Fuel strategy in Coca-Cola 600 leads to Mears’ first career NASCAR Nextel Cup win (May 27)
· Clint Bowyer & Gil Martin: Martin keeps Bowyer calm and team performs only one adjustment all day to get Bowyer’s first career NASCAR Nextel Cup win in Sylvania 300 (Sept. 16)

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http://www.radio-info.com/in3_src/images/SP07_National_Satellite_P12.pdf

Lots of interesting data, including the domination of Stern programming among Sirius listeners.

Post your favorite data extrapolation

Thanks to livingfruitvirus at XMFan for the find!

Checking out the merger site this evening, I came across this clever crossword puzzle that tests your knowledge of merger-related trivia,  http://www.siriusmerger.com/uploads/FINAL-Crossword.pdf  My personal favorite was 49 Down: a 3-letter “word” with the clue, Notorious Asserters of Balogna.  Hmmm, wonder how NAB could be merger-related?

Matchbox 20 will be performing live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio in celebration of the release of their new album, Exile On Mainstream. The album is the band’s fourth and features their greatest hits with six additional new tracks.

Tune in to hear the band perform songs from the new album and chat with SIRIUS host Kim Ashley on The Pulse on Channel 9 at 9 am on October 24th.

The show will replay October 24th at 8pm, October 25th at 3am and 12pm & October 26th at 11 am.

ALL TIMES are Eastern.

Matchbox 20 ascended to rock stardom with their debut album Yourself or Someone Like You. Released in 1996, the album went 12x platinum in the US and sold 20 million copies worldwide. Since then, the band has released three albums together and various members have also working on successful solo projects; notably, Rob Thomas’ Grammy® winning collaboration with Carlos Santana.

SiriusBackstage would like to congratulate Chris Jones for being named Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.  Chris can be heard on channel 65 at Weekdays 6 pm – Midnight ET and Saturdays 9 am – 3 pm ET.

Long time listeners may know that Chris has been on the Bluegrass channel since it’s inception, and that the Bluegrass channel was former-CEO Joe Clayton’s personnal favorite. (As opposed to current CEO, Mel Kazmarin, who’s favorite station is the CNBC rebroadcast.)

SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO LAUNCHES NEW WEEKLY SHOW HOSTED BY JOHN ANDERSON ON OUTLAW COUNTRY

SIRIUS Satellite Radio’s Outlaw Country, on channel 63, is launching a new weekly show hosted by country singer, and songwriter, John Anderson.

The show, called John Anderson’s Outlaw Hour will be featuring songs and artists from the world of Rock and Country.

The show will air on Wednesdays, at 8 pm, ET, and will replay on Fridays at 11am ET, and Saturdays at 12am, ET.

For more info on the Outlaw Country channel, visit the Sirius Satellite Outlaw Country web site.

In filings with the SEC this morning, both SatRad companies announced they will holding shareholder votes on the merger on Nov. 13th

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djhighlights/200710040938DOWJONESDJONLINE000561.htm