SIRIUS Backstage

Grammy® award winning singer/songwriter, Pink will be hosting the SIRIUS Hits 1 Weekend Countdown, playing the biggest hit songs in North America along with updates on the week’s pop culture craziness.

You can catch Pink Exclusively on SIRIUS Hit 1, Channel 1,
Saturday, March 24 @ 3 am, 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm & 9 pm
and will be rebroadcast
Sunday, March 25 @ 12 am, 6 am, 12 pm & 4 pm
and
Monday, March 26 @ 12 am & 3 am (all times Eastern).

SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO’S ROAD DOG TRUCKING CHANNEL GOES WALL-TO-WALL AT THE MID-AMERICA TRUCKING SHOW WITH EXCLUSIVE LIVE BROADCASTS AND SPECIAL GUESTS

America’s premiere radio station for professional truck drivers is broadcasting live from the Mid-America Trucking Show March 22-24

SIRIUS Satellite Radio is bringing to you Road Dog Trucking Radio, America’s premiere audio entertainment destination dedicated to the professional truck driver, is broadcasting live from the 2007 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY on March 22-24. The Road Dog crew will broadcast from the Freightliner booth 3210 in the South Wing of the Kentucky Exposition Center and be joined by special guests such as Charlie Daniels and Tony Stewart.

The entire on-air team of Road Dog Trucking Radio, SIRIUS channel 147, including Charlie Daniels, “King of the Road Dogs,”,Carl P. Mayfield & The P-Team, Freewheelin’ with Meredith Ochs and Chris T., HammerDown Radio with DJ RigRocker, Open Road Café with Mark Willis and Elizabeth Walsh, and Midnight Trucking with Eric Harley and Gary McNamara will bring listeners three days of the best trucking radio on radio.

Highlights of the SIRIUS broadcast include the following special guest appearances:

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SIRIUS channel Area 33, recent nominee for International Dance Music Radio Station of the year, will broadcast live from Miami’s South Beach for five dance-filled days starting today, March 20. Listeners will have the chance to hear live extended DJ sets from SIRIUS’ own Paul van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold as well as other major turntable acts such as Bob Sinclar and Robbie Rivera. The party begins tonight at 9p.m. eastern time so get your Sportster Replay Boombox ready!

The party schedule is as follows: (All times Eastern)

• Tuesday, March 20^th (9pm-4am): DJ Behrouz live from Mokai

• Wednesday, March 21^st (8pm-12am): DJ Bob Sinclar from the Tommy Boy Records Party at the Victor Hotel

• Thursday, March 22^nd (11pm-3am): Richard Vission, Fedde LeGrand. Steve Agnello, Sebastian Ingrasso, Robbie Rivera from Nikki Beach

• Friday, March 23^rd (6pm-10pm): Christopher Lawrence, Above & Beyond, Bennie Benassi, Donald Glaude from Nikki Beach

• Saturday, March 24^th (8pm-10pm): Paul van Dyk from Space

• Saturday, March 24^th (10pm-12am): Paul Oakenfold from Space

Featured “behind the turntable” interviews in the SIRIUS Miami VIP Suite will include:

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Once again the productivity of office workers all across the country plummets as the nation prepares itself for the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. And of course Sirius will be there for every moment!

…beginning on Tuesday, March 13, SIRIUS will provide uninterrupted coverage of the 2007 NCAA® Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. (March 13 - April 2) From the opening tip-off to the final buzzer, SIRIUS delivers every game in its entirety with absolutely no blackouts.

To mark the occasion, we here at Sirius Backstage will be hosting a pool for you bracket-pickers out there. Those looking for an edge might choose to listen to one of the 2 tournament selection shows that Sirius will be airing Sunday afternoon.

The Selection Sunday Show
Sunday, March 11th 6 pm - 9 pm ET
SIRIUS Sports Action Ch. 123
John Tautges and John Thompson broadcast live from the NCAA Broadcast Center for the announcement of the field of 65. College hoops experts Dave Gavitt and Bill Raftery drop by to analyze the match-ups, as well as talk with coaches and the NCAA Committee Chairman.

Selection Sunday on ESPN Radio
Sunday, March 11th 6 pm - 9 pm ET
ESPN Radio Ch. 120
Long-time college coach Bob Valvano hosts this up-to-the-minute program of the bracket announcements. Andy Katz, senior college basketball writer for ESPN.com. and Doug Gottlieb also give listeners a three-hour course in bracketology as well as get insights from key coaches and the selection chairs of both the men’s and women’s selection committees.

To participate, you’ll need a Yahoo login. Go to this link to join our group. The group number is 52508, and the password is “SiriusMadness”. Although Yahoo will allow you to create up to 5 brackets, only one may be entered in this group. We are lining up prizes, so make your picks count! Please be sure to put your Sirius Backstage username in the name of your bracket and post your bracket “name” here in the comments so that we know who is who. Yahoo users who are not members of SiriusBackstage are not eligible for prizes, and will likely get kicked out of the group!

Here’s some of the special guests who will be at Sirius next week. Note that all times are subject to change.

KELLY ROWLAND, guest DJ (Hot Jamz, channel 50, Mar. 12 @ 12am ET)

MELANIE BLOOM, discusses deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and how to prevent it on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio, channel 112, Mar. 12 @ 8:30 am ET)

GEORGE JONES, Charlie Monk will share moments from his recent interview with George Jones (The Roadhouse, channel 62, Mar. 12 - Mar. 16 @ 8am - 11pm ET)

ROB DERHAK, moe. bassist, DJs on moe. Mondays in March (Jam_ON, channel 17, Mar. 12 @ 12 pm ET)

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN, World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, Mar. 12 @ 6pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded Mar. 11, 2007 in Uniondale, NY @ the Nassau Coliseum (The Who Channel, channel 29, Mar. 12 @ 9pm ET)

CARRIE UNDERWOOD, interview on Branson Coast To Coast (Prime Country, channel 61, Mar. 13 @ 12am ET)

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SANDY KENYON, entertainment reporter recapping the Oscars on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio, Feb. 26 @ 7:00 am ET
JARET WIESELMAN from In Touch Weekly on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio, Feb. 26 @ 7:00 am ET
AUGUSTANA, interview (The Pulse, channel 9 Feb 26 @ 9am ET and will be rebroadcast Feb. 27 @ 2 pm ET and Feb. 28 @ 10pm ET.
COLD WAR KIDS, World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, Feb. 26 @ 6pm ET)
DR. DOG, World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, Feb. 26 @ 6pm ET)
LORRIE MORGAN, interview on Branson Coast to Coast (Prime Country, channel 61, Feb. 27 @ 12 am ET)
TYPE O NEGATIVE, interview (BBC Radio 1, channel 11, Feb. 27 @ 12am ET)
DAVID BROMBERG, World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, Feb. 27 @ 6pm ET)
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Dear Backstagers:
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since I first drove five hours from New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi to get one of the first SIRIUS Satellite Radios in the nation.

I was just a freshman in college, sitting in the cold, eagerly waiting at the front of the line. The doors at Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City (the home of the DirecTV launch in 1994) opened at 7am. I was the first one in; I shook Joe Clayton’s hand, as well as Jim Collins (then SIRIUS VP of Communications) and then ran to the back of the store to pick out my Kenwood SR-901 tuner and head unit.

In those days, many thought SIRIUS would never pull off this launch, but I had to prove that it worked to the entire Internet community. Hard to believe this event would give birth to the largest satellite radio fan community.

It’s been a wild ride, and I’m forever grateful to the people who have embraced the SIRIUS Backstage Community, as well as the great people at SIRIUS who invited our original team up to visit: Tom Rielly, John McMullen, Ron Rodrigues, Elise Brown, Kid Kelly, Ethel Miller, Jim Ryan, Meg Griffin, Spyder Harrison, Jose Mangin. You guys were the inspiration for this concept, and you all gave me the passion to keep this going.

However, the true lifeblood of this community is our members. I tried to model SIRIUS Backstage off other great online community I frequented during those days. I wanted to craft a place where fans could interact, respect each other and share real life stories. I wanted the SIRIUS Backstage community to be above the rest of the Internet - a quality place where you’d actually meet good friends, learn something interesting and have a little fun.

I had no idea that I’d meet so many of my virtual friends and family in real life. We had some great times in New York and Las Vegas.

SIRIUS Backstage wouldn’t be here today without each one of you. Thank you for making this place the gold standard of online communities.

Jeff

US premiere of music from Erasure’s new CD/DVD, On the Road to Nashville, recorded live on May 6, 2006 at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. The new double disc features music from Erasure’s Union Street Acoustic Tour.

The new CD/DVD will be showcased on a special one-hour portion of OutQ in the Morning with Larry Flick. The hour will also feature an exclusive interview with Andy Bell during which he discusses his creative process of putting the show/tour together, the durability of Erasure’s music, and what the future holds for the band.

Over two decades of plugging in and wigging out, Vince Clarke and Andy Bell have sold more than 14 million albums around the world, staged Broadway-style live spectaculars, and topped the charts. The latest Book of British Hit Singles ranks the duo among the Top 100 Most Successful Acts of All Time.

On the Road to Nashville includes never before released audio and video of reworked hits and live favorites such as “Oh L’Amour,” “Love To Hate You,” “Stop!,” “Victim of Love,” and “Sometimes.” The DVD features the visuals of this concert as well as the short film The Road to Union Street directed by Rich Schlankser and Michael Slavens.

Look for this on OutQ at 10:00 AM EST on Wednesday February 14th during OutQ in the Morning with Larry Flick.

On February 14th, 2002, Sirius Satellite Radio launched service with a kick-off party at Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City in Jackson, MS. Also on that date, Sirius Backstage launched, starting as a fan page on technobistro.com. Over the next five years, while Sirius became the premier satellite radio provider, Sirius Backstage became the number one fansite for all things Sirius.

All this week Sirius Backstage looks back on five years of Sirius Satellite Radio. We have plenty of old advertisements, pics of prototype radios, channel lineups, and so on to talk about. From the loss of I-90 to the gain of Howard and everything in between. Today, we start with how Sirius came to be, the launch, and up to the end of 2002:

1990: Satellite CD Radio is formed, in order to buy spectrum the FCC is auctioning off for a “Digital Audio Radio Service”. They are competing with three other companies, including American Mobile Radio Corporation, now known as XM Radio.

1992: The company’s name changes to CD Radio

1994: CD Radio goes public with the ticker symbol CDRD, raising $7.5 million. They promise that when they start service, it will include 30 music stations and charge less than $10 per month

1997: CD Radio wins the auction, along with American Mobile, to acquire spectrum, and pays over $80 million for it.

June 1999: CD Radio signs agreement with Ford to be the exclusive satellite radio company for Ford vehicles.

November 18, 1999: CD Radio is renamed Sirius Satellite Radio. Ticker symbol changes to SIRI in January 2000.

2000: Sirius launches their three satellites June 30th, September 5th, and November 30th, 2000.

February 2000: Sirius and XM announce that they will work to form a satellite radio receiver that receives both signals.

Mid-2001: ClubXM launches, and quickly becomes the largest fan site and forum(at that time) for satellite radio.

2001: Sirius chipsets made by Lucent were not working properly, and delayed the company well past the original start date of early 2001. Shareholders sued, claiming that Sirius made false claims and knowingly lied when they stated service would start in 2001.

May 2001: Sirius announces it plans to charge $12.95 for the service, $3/month more than they stated before.

February 14, 2002: They launch their service at Cowboy Maloney’s in Jackson, MS. One young man named Jeff who went to Tulane University was there and took some pictures(and more here). He wanted to show the world, and Sirius Backstage was born.

Service was slowly rolled out over the spring of 2002, with the full nationwide launch on July 1st, 2002. The first radios included the Jensen SSR2000(left), which involved mounting a tuner box behind the Dash or under your seat. This baby loved to give off heat, and it could almost double as a skillet. Other radios available at the time of launch included the Audiovox Universal FM System. The Audiovox is also the only aftermarket add-on radio that had the same design for both XM and Sirius

June 20, 2002: A Sirius commercial airs on MTV, this is vastly different from most of their other ad campaigns so far.

August 15, 2002: XMFan is created as a joint venture by Ryan Morris and ‘Ziggy’.

September 20, 2002: As Club XM owners and moderators start losing their motivation, Jeff launches the Sirius Backstage forums in order to provide a new home for Sirius fans.

The image above is what people got to see for about 5 seconds every time they loaded a forum page; thankfully we haven’t had that for about 3 years now.

October 2002: Sirius announces a reorganization of the company’s debt, exchanging $1.5 billion of company debt, preferred stock, and cash for common stock, and causing the number of outstanding shares to increase tenfold, from less than 100 million to one billion.

October 7, 2002: Sirius announces Crispin as their ad agency. The agency would later produce the ‘it’s_ON’ ads for Sirius.

Fall 2002: Popular Science has a blurb about a new boombox(right). It has a Sirius tuner built-in, was supposed to be released by Kenwood(although the boombox itself was branded Jensen), and cost $500.

November 2002: New FM-modulated tuners are released, including ones by Kenwood, Panasonic, and Clarion.

November 4, 2002: I-60, the station for 60s Hits comes online. I-90 is taken off to make room.

November 15, 2002: Hertz to start installing Sirius in its vehicles.

December 31, 2002: Sirius ends the year with 29,947 subscribers

Tomorrow we will cover 2003: From ad campaigns and huge lineup changes to consultants and cool radio prototypes, 2003 had it all.

SCHEDULED GUEST PERFORMANCES & INTERVIEWS

FOR FEBRUARY 5-11

Don’t miss the following scheduled guests * on SIRIUS Satellite Radio! All interviews, performances and special programs (listed chronologically by date and time, below) are exclusive to SIRIUS. For more details, go to www.sirius.com. All times Eastern.

GUEST INTERVIEWS / PERFORMANCES:

NANCY CORZINE, home designer, on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio / channel 112, Feb. 5 @ 7:35 am ET)

DONATELLA ARPAIA, NYC restaurateur, on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio / channel 112, Feb. 5 @ 8:05 am)

CORINNE BAILEY RAE performance and interview on The Live Lounge (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 5 @ 10 am ET)

TOM WAITS World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 5 @ 6 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Bellini’s I Puritani (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 5 @ 7:30 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded March 24, 2004 in London, England (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 5 @ 9 pm ET)

BILLY DEAN interview on The Charlie Monk Show (Prime Country / channel 61, Feb. 5 @ 10 pm ET and Feb. 8 @ 12 am ET)

MOE BANDY interview on Branson Coast-to-Coast (Prime Country / channel 61, Feb. 6 @ 12 am ET)

AFI interview (Alt Nation / channel 21, Feb. 6 @ 12 am ET)

JAMES MORRISON performance and interview on The Live Lounge (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 6 @ 10 am ET)

RZA guest DJs Street Certified (Hip-Hop Nation / channel 40, Feb. 6 @ 6 pm ET)

ERIN McKEOWN World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 6 @ 6 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Janáček’s Jenufa (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 6 @ 8 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded March 25, 2004 in London, England (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb/ 6 @ 9 pm ET)

MARIBEL LIEBERMAN, founder of MariBelle Chocolates, on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio / channel 112, Feb. 7 @ 7:05 am ET)

FALL OUT BOY interview (Alt Nation / channel 21, Feb. 7 @ 12 am ET)

THE FRATELLIS performance and interview (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 7 @ 10 am ET)

THE RADIATORS performance and interview (Jam On / channel 17, Feb. 7 @ 4 pm ET and Feb. 10 @ 10 pm ET)

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS performance on Left of Sessions (Left of Center / channel 26, Feb. 7 @ 9 pm ET and Feb. 9 @ 12 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded March 29, 2004 in London, England (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 7 @ 9 pm ET)

THE KOOKS performance and interview on The Live Lounge (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 8 @ 10 am ET)

LUKA BLOOM performance on Coffeehouse Close-Up (The Coffeehouse / channel 30, Feb. 8 @ 12 pm ET)

CASSANDRA WILSON World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 8 @ 6 pm ET)

JANE GANAHL, author, Naked on the Page: The Misadventures of My Unmarried Midlife, interview on Candace Bushnell’s Sex, Success & Sensibility (SIRIUS Stars / channel 102, Feb. 8 @ 6 pm ET)

IMOGEN EDWARD JONES, author, Shagpile and My Canapé Hell, interview on Candace Bushnell’s Sex, Success & Sensibility (SIRIUS Stars / channel 102, Feb. 8 @ 7 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded May 20, 2004 in Boston, MA (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 8 @ 9 pm ET)

+44 interview (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 8 @ 10 pm ET)

LILY ALLEN performance and interview on The Live Lounge (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 9 @ 10 am ET)

JOE ELY interview (Outlaw Country / channel 63, Feb. 9 @ 11 am ET, Feb. 10 @ 8 pm ET, and Feb. 11 @ 12 am ET and 9 am ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 9 @ 8 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded May 22, 2004 in New York, NY (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 9 @ 9 pm ET)

SIR THOMAS BEECHAM archived 1957 interview on The Archives at Symphony Hall (Symphony Hall / channel 80, Feb. 10 @ 9 am, 2 pm and 7 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Leoncavallo/Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana / I Pagliacci (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 10 @ 1:30 pm ET)

SIMON WEBBE interview (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 10 @ 4 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded June 7, 2004 in Birmingham, England (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 10 @ 9 pm ET)

SARA EVANS interview on Branson Coast-to-Coast (Prime Country / channel 61, Feb. 11 @ 12 pm ET and Feb. 11 @ 9 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded June 10, 2004 in Cardiff, Wales (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 11 @ 9 pm ET)