So, no Big Funny today. I’m in Washington, and nothing’s funny here.
Still, to make up for that, I’ll clue y’all in to what I’m doing here. I’m making a pilot. With Doug Berman. For NPR’s Sirius Satellite Radio station. It’s a morning show. I’m hosting.
Exciting, yes? But don’t rush out to get Sirius just on my account. A pilot is, after all, only a pilot. It’s entirely possible that after various executives hear it, I’ll be replaced by Tony Danza. That’s how these things work.
Fanny Roborat
18 comments
Landis
July 27, 2005 at 10:43 am
1Wow! Tony Danza! Where’s my local Sirius outlet? I’m totally signing up!
Good luck Adam. If NPR would let Sirius carry the shows that I listen to I’d be much more inclined to sign up. As it is they usually only carry one or two of the ‘good’ shows and a lot of the ‘also run’. Maybe they should let some of the bigger affiliates (KQED, WNYC, WGBH, WHYY) have their own channels so that there isn’t as much worry about losing all of the membership revenue to a pay service. But I digress…
I wish you the best of luck and could really use another show to listen to instead of the Morning Edition repeat if I start listening to the radio before 8am.
Lynne
July 27, 2005 at 10:59 am
2Good luck indeed!
Let us know what we can do to help get this on the air!
Cliff
July 27, 2005 at 12:03 pm
3Adam, If Sirius doesn’t work out, try XM.
ralph
July 27, 2005 at 12:37 pm
4Yeah, try XM. Their public radio channel could use some help. (But I think they’ve already got a morning program, some guy named Edwards….)
tim
July 27, 2005 at 1:45 pm
5Watch out for Tomlinson’s ombudsmen. Hey, “Tomlinson’s ombudsmen”. I like the sound of that. He was probably waiting his whole life to get appointed to the head of something so he could hire “Tomlinson’s ombudsmen”. Or he’s an unsufferable prick, one or the other.
Murray
July 27, 2005 at 2:15 pm
6Great, just great, now I have to subscribe to Sirius, and they want money every month. Oh, well.
Is Susie part of this too?
madbard
July 27, 2005 at 3:23 pm
7so are you going to work out of the DC HQ or NPR West?
I heard NPR doesn’t want the hallmark programming (Morning Edition and All Things Considered) on satellite because then the local affiliates will have NOTHING to hang their pledge drives on. And can public radio be very public if it is a private satellite network?
Thompson
July 27, 2005 at 4:56 pm
8With your shield or on it, Adam.
Good luck; the world needs more witty show hosts.
Landis
July 27, 2005 at 5:09 pm
9That’s my understanding too, Madbard. That’s why I think that if they had individual stations with their own satellite channel it would go over much better. Then I could still get the programming that I like and not lose it when I travel.
Lobster knows how many times I’ve strained to hear Adam through the static as I’m heading off for a road trip on Saturday morning.
Auros
July 27, 2005 at 7:14 pm
10Why would I subscribe to Sirius (or XM) when everything ends up archived online anyhow? I haven’t listened to WaitWait at its locally scheduled time in MONTHS!
tess
July 27, 2005 at 8:18 pm
11Auros,
Same here. Though I wouldn’t mind signing up for sattelite radio if only (1) I can afford the radio and (2) if I could afford the monthly charge because I needs me some new music to listen to. I’m tired of listening to whatever shitty pop/rap/hip-hop gets blasted out of cars and SUVs driven by drunken frat boys and sorority girls.
b
July 27, 2005 at 10:59 pm
12As a current Sirius subscriber who doesn’t have to run out and join up, I am desperately hoping the pilot gets picked up. Would this be the first NPR show produced specifially for Sirius? As far as I can tell all the current programming on all three public radio streams are shows that are also broadcast on at least one local affiliate.
What more, if anything, can you tell us about the program? Since it’s you I’m assuming it’s funny, but I got to say that I’m kind of sick of the standard format for just about every a.m. program on the Sirius streams — that being interview/call-in. Brian Lehrer, Diane Rhem, To The Point, TotN. Don’t get me wrong, these are good shows, but I would love a little programming variety in the before-noon hours.
Bob
July 27, 2005 at 11:59 pm
13If Sirius doesn’t pan out, Adam, head on over to XM. Their big talk show draw is Opie and Anthony; 10 minutes of listening to that and you’ll have some idea of what it would be like to go into junior high school and never, ever come out. Believe me, they need you.
I love the XM music channels, but the talk, she not so good.
ice weasel
July 28, 2005 at 1:55 pm
14I just dumped Sirius after being a huge initial supporter. Their music is average, at best. But the reason I got them, their public radio streams seemed to get worse and worse. Then they got, and lost AirAmerica. After a while there was little to listen to anymore.
Adam, best of luck. I hope your show gets picked and maybe it will be time for me to reconsider booting the dog.
And now for a little birthday blogwhoring. My site, a site for Prius hybrid owners has about 700 visitors. I would love to see that jump up today. So I’m out doing something I’ve never done before (thankfully), posting about it all over.
If you have a chance, please visit it. No pop ups. No ads. Just a little site about a greener car.
www.priusownersgroup.com
Thanks very much.
-russell
Pete IVDL
July 28, 2005 at 6:45 pm
15Wow! Now Adam’s a pilot! Gosh, I’m so proud of ya!
Now, while you’ve got ‘em over a digital barrel, ask ‘em to stream or archive the show, otherwise your Southern Hemisphere Felbernaut Glee Club (’shuffaguck’ to the afficionados) will miss out on another Felber bowstring.
Which reminds me - I take it our European brethren may also miss out on your digital piloting skills, or is Sirius available across the pond? (I can never remember if it’s Sirius and/or XM that’s the digital thingamabob or the satellite whosamawhatsit, mainly because of what happened to Iridium -sob-)
Pete IVDL
July 28, 2005 at 6:50 pm
16BTW, Ice Weasel… all you gotta do is find a smooth, 1600km-long slope, and let Newton and the Prius battery do all the work! Or better yet, set up a Maurits Escher Circuit! That’ll stump ‘em for two reasons…
And HBTY, too. How many hits did you finally score?
ice weasel
July 29, 2005 at 6:24 pm
17Thanks to everyone who visited. It was very nicie to see so many people coming from this site over to the POG.
As of now, we’re at 863 visitors. That’s pretty cool.
Also of note, three people were nice enough to leave comments, all people from Fanatical Apathy. You folks rock.
Thanks to Adam as well, for allowing to me whore my site here.
All in all, it was the best 44th birthday one could have. My wife did get me this fine “Morse Science High School” t-shirt I’d been babbling about months ago. That was pretty cool.
Pete,
You’re clearly far more knowledgable about the electronics end of the car than I am. The thing that impresses me about it, I don’t have to know a thing. I just drive it and it works. And it has cut our family fuel expenditure down significantly. Oh, and it’s a blast to drive.
I’d love to find that slope. South central PA is pretty hilly but we don’t have downhills quite that long. At least that I know of. I’m still fairly new here.
Back to the topic, I was in a store looking over new satellite radio hardware. Not much has changed since this winter’s CES. I’m kind of surprised as there was supposed to be a few new pieces out this summer.
I want another satellite but I hate getting involved in a subscription plan when I don’t control the content. Sirius really let me down there. Maybe XM is the answer.
We’ll see where Adam’s new project ends up…
Thanks again to everyone.
cooper
August 1, 2005 at 9:46 pm
18ice weasel, brother! I went to Morse Science too, 1968 - 1979. More Sugar!!! When were you there? Oh, and that “urban legend” you heard about the 27 rabid porcupines in the Pooper’s coat closet - True! I swear to God! - for whatever that’s worth.
Murray, GODSAVEUS, indeed! Good job. Maybe Bush should stop with the twisted and contorted acronyms and just start calling it “The Troubles”, since the IRA won’t be using that phrase anymore.