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Sportscaster and columnist Paulsen looks over notes as he interviews the head coach of an Arena Football League team.
The light signaling 'On Air' illuminates the XM insignia outside the studio during Grant Paulsen's weekly radio show in Washington.
Behind the console at XM Satellite Radio in Washington, King George's Grant Paulsen, 15, talks |
• 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.
"We hit a million units in sales faster than any other consumer electronics product or service save for DVD players," said XM spokesman Allen Goldberg. "Faster than cassette players, MP3 players, all the media that came before us."
In Paulsen's short time with the company, XM has indeed grown fast. It now has 1.5 million listeners nationwide. (Sirius has about 350,000 subscribers.)
By the end of the year, XM expects to have nearly doubled its subscriber base. And, by the time Paulsen is old enough to buy a beer, analysts predict it will reach the 20 million listener mark.
That could happen faster if the FCC clamps down on traditional--"terrestrial"--radio. Howard Stern, who has about 15 million listeners for his syndicated radio show, has threatened to jump to XM or Sirius if he is forced to change what he does too much in the aftermath of the Janet Jackson Super Bowl-bosom flashing.
Sirius' Meyer said the current tension between the FCC and traditional radio shock jocks helps satellite radio even if Stern stays put.
"One thing that's great about all this controversy is that it's really provided a tremendous amount of exposure for the satellite category as an alternative for these shock jocks," Meyer said. "We are not licensed by the same rules. We do have unedited content on our channels but we do have parental controls in place [as does XM].
"Overall, it has created more awareness of satellite radio," Meyer said.
He said those who worry that satellite radio might damage traditional radio are wrong.
"They're gonna coexist," he said. "We're not out to replace terrestrial radio. We'll never replace the local feel. But what we can do is offer entertainment they can't get anywhere else."
XM's monthly subscription rate is $9.95. Sirius' monthly rate is currently $12.95, but expected to drop to $10 in May. Extended subscription packages lower the monthly prices.
Both keep adding programming at a dizzying rate. In March, XM plugged in detailed traffic and weather information for D.C. commuters and this week it added Al Franken's "The O'Franken Factor," the flagship show of the new left-leaning Air America Network on XM Channel 167.
XM offers 100 channels of commercial-free music of impressive diversity and specificity. The addition of XM and Sirius weather and traffic channels for major cities underlines the fact that the industry realizes that commuters present a captive and lucrative audience.
XM traffic for Washington, channel 214, not only provides information on traffic flow, and red, yellow and green "jam" ratings, but also average speeds on each area and estimated travel time from point to point and exit to exit.
On XM, there's also right-wing talk radio, a variety of sports talk radio, sports news and audio feeds of cable television network news, including Fox News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC and the BBC.
The package offered to Sirius subscribers is similar, but with fewer music channels and more sports play-by-play offerings. Sirius has 61 music channels and 40 news, talk and sports channels.
The NFL, NBA and NHL are only on Sirius. Sirius carries the entire NFL. Neither Sirius nor XM have made an exclusive deal with Major League Baseball.
"Sports is really the difference," between the two services, Sirius spokesman Meyer said.
Chris Painter spends a lot of time in his car. Because of that, he has had XM radio in his vehicle for a year.
"I love it, I love it," he said of XM. Painter lives in Richmond, but often travels to North Stafford to visit his parents. His job as an independent sales rep for a furniture manufacturer takes him across the mid-Atlantic.
"The best thing about it is that it works out in the country, in the boonies--probably even better than in the cities," Painter said. "There's no buildings to block the signal."
Painter, a sports fan, likes to listen to the '70s music channel and to ESPN Radio. XM also has a Sporting News Radio, Fox Sports and a NASCAR station.
Spotsylvania County resident Mark Elliott, an officer of Fredericksburg Sand & Gravel, has XM in his truck. It helps him keep in touch with his homeland of England. He checks world news on the BBC and, "I can listen to my favorite soccer team back in the UK on a Saturday afternoon."
Elliott said he's happy with local radio here in terms of music, but, "I travel a lot and you're able to carry the channel you want to listen to with you."
XM will be available in almost 100 car makes and models for 2005. It's standard equipment in a number of General Motors and Honda vehicles.
Satellite radio has also been a success in the consumer electronics market at stores including Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart.
Sales people at Circuit City and Best Buy at Fredericksburg's Central Park said they've been surprised by how quickly both XM and Sirius radios are selling locally. One sales associate at Circuit City said he has XM in both his car and his boat.
XM and Sirius radio units can be permanently installed in cars and boats or plugged in and pulled out for use in vehicles, boom boxes and home stereo units. XM radios range in cost from $120 to $200. Sirius radios range from $100 to $2,000.
XM's Goldberg said music lovers appreciate that formats not generally available on terrestrial radio can be found on satellite radio. Blues, reggae, heavy metal, opera and chorale music, for instance, all channels on XM, Most genres have more than one channel.
There are also comedy channels that range from safe, warm and fuzzy 1950s Bob Hope jokes to explicit material. The future of satellite radio may depend on the personalities it signs, like Stern, and the ones satellite is able to develop.
Of Grant Paulsen, XM's Goldberg said, "He's huge," pointing out that the King George teen was featured in the lead column of Sports Illustrated a couple of weeks ago.
"I'd like to be able to buy stock in him," Goldberg said.
"He's a home-grown star," he said. "We're very proud of him here, and we're glad we can provide him with a national audience."
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408 mikez@freelancestar.com
