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Satellite radio offers welcome distraction to road-weary commuters Date published: 4/6/2004 By MICHAEL ZITZ • Click here to see video of Grant Paulsen in the studio.
WASHINGTON--Grant Paulsen is sort of a living, breathing metaphor for the satellite radio industry. Satellite radio is in its infancy. And King George High School student Paulsen isn't far removed from his. He began his own Saturday kids' sports talk show on XM Satellite Radio 18 months ago, when he was 13 years old. Like satellite radio, Paulsen got his start as a novelty--a 12-year-old sports columnist for The Free Lance-Star, who appeared repeatedly on "Late Night with David Letterman." Letterman sent the baby-faced kid to the World Series and Super Bowl to pose irreverent questions composed by the show's writers. Paulsen's becoming less and less of a novelty. And yet, as his voice changes and the child star verges on exhibiting a 5 o'clock shadow, it looks like he may be around, not just for 15 minutes of fame, but for the long haul. Again, just like satellite radio. He seems to have found a niche at XM. The two might well grow up together. "If I was doing at 35 what I'm doing now, at 15, I'd be thrilled," Paulsen said recently as he sat behind a Star Treklike console in one of 100 studios in XM's lavish headquarters in Washington. Judging from the amount of money spent on the cavernous facility, XM investors would seem to have no lack of confidence in the future. Competitor Sirius Satellite Radio is set up in similarly extravagant digs in Manhattan. Sirius spokesman Thomas Meyer said: "Every radio personality who walks through there is just blown away that this is radio. This is the future. It's like a space station, pretty much." Even though XM and Sirius are hovering around the break-even mark at this point, their stocks have soared on Wall Street. And recent sales of XM radios seem to indicate that satellite radio is here to stay. Listeners who like being on the cutting edge are giving it a shot.
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