By Jim Bessman
Satellite radio is usually touted as the answer for music fans who feel disenfranchised by the overabundance of talk radio programs and the corresponding contraction of music programming available on terrestrial stations. But it offers special benefits far beyond mere music for highway drivers - and for long-haul truckers in particular.
"There's a tremendous variety of choices that you can't get on regular radio," says Jim Collins, vice president of corporate communications at Sirius Satellite Radio, citing 120 current channels of diverse music and talk programming with capability for future expansion. But he points out the programming that makes satellite radio a key choice for the trucking community, which he identifies among Sirius's "specialty markets."
"We have dedicated channels for weather and traffic for the top 20 traffic markets in the U.S., probably covering about 40 percent of the driving public," says Collins, emphatically adding, "and it's continuous."
The XM Roady 2 caters to your every whim. It will alert you when your favorite song is playing on another channel, and you can color-coordinate with a choice of seven different backlight colors.
Delphi MyFi will go where you go. Yes, that includes those times you decide to walk or run a few miles. The rechargeable battery allows for five hours of play. And if you want some real world info, it has a sports ticker and a stock ticker.
The first Sirius plug and play radio, the Streamer GT, is compact, relatively inexpensive and offers the basics, including a three-line display, 30 presets and wireless remote control.
The portable Sirius Streamer plays in your truck, your home or even on a boat. Song seek finds and stores your favorite tunes. The clock automatically updates, so you're always on time.
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"Truckers spend a lot of time on the road and drive long distances," continues Collins. "It goes without saying that satellite radio's ability to cover the U.S. without interruption is something you can't get on terrestrial/regular radio."
Local stations are limited to a 30-mile range, approximately. "But satellite radio can go nationwide," notes Collins. "If and when some of the new digital technology is introduced in regular radio, it still won't change their range. If it does improve the quality of the sound, that's something we already have anyhow."
Competing service XM Satellite Radio has 21 traffic and weather channels that broadcast nationally, notes corporate affairs manager Anne-Taylor Griffith.
"We have emergency alert channel XM-247, dedicated solely to tornado warnings and natural disasters like fires in California or flooding in the South or some issue like that," says Griffith. "It relates evacuation routes or shelter information that can certainly be helpful for truckers traveling through an affected area."
As XM is based in Washington, D.C., it naturally offers complete traffic coverage of the capital vicinity. But Griffith adds that on-air traffic and weather reporters constantly monitor their beats nationwide using data obtained from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Weather Channel, local authorities and call-ins.
"It's not that different from local [reporting] but it's consistent - and it's there all the time," she says. "On Channel 219, for example, you can hear from Minneapolis and St. Paul and not have to wait for 'Traffic on the 8s' or anything like that."
It keeps coming back to "coverage and consistency," notes Griffith.
"Having a national satellite radio network is great for someone on a long haul," she says. "You have the same set channels, whether you're in the middle of Nebraska or down in Florida."
So both XM and Sirius have their own trucker-specific channels, known respectively as Open Road and Sirius Trucking Network. Each offers personality-driven programming with veteran deejays from trucking programs the drivers know from terrestrial radio, industry information, call-in shows and weather and traffic reports.
Experts in various trucking areas make regular appearances, so drivers can hear the latest from repair gurus at the Technology Maintenance Council on XM or get the legal word from lawyers connected with the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association on Sirius.
In addition to programming, both satellite radio services have developed trucker-specific hardware to facilitate easy in-cab access.
"The variety of products we have recognizes the importance of the truck driver market-and that they're very supportive of satellite radio," says Griffith, referring to special mounts for XM radios that promote positioning for easier view and use of the unit. Collins notes that the new generation of Sirius radios are much smaller - as are the antennas.
"This makes them very easy for truckers to install in the cabs, because they don't need to do permanent installations," he says. "A lot of them come with suction cup devices that allow attachment of the mobile unit to the windshield, and you can run the antenna right out the window to the rear or sideview mirror. You can plug it into a cigarette lighter and get the system going, or operate wirelessly with an available FM band that's not being used. So the unit can be put into a cab or moved from cab to cab very easily-making it very flexible for truckers."
Looking to the future, Collins says that later this year Sirius will introduce an expanded traffic data service requiring a new device with a screen showing traffic patterns, accidents and "predictive data"-in addition to the audio information provided on the radio. "This is all part of a move to offer more than just audio entertainment and information-and more in the way of data."
In fact, Sirius looks to offer video programming next year. "We'll have two or three channels of cartoons or music videos for kids or teens in the back seats," says Collins.
Incidentally, XM's futuristic broadcast operation center, which looks so much like the "Star Trek" main bridge that you expect to see Kirk or one of his successors sitting there in the captain's chair, should be well-suited for new technological wonders. Sirius' massive New York control center, however, has been dismantled to make way for the new home of the King of All Media - the always controversial Howard Stern, who joins Sirius in 2006. His studio, now under construction in the former control center's lobby facility, requires its very high ceilings to house the equipment needed for televising his show.
