SiriusXM SETS REVENUE RECORD & TARGETS DEVICE THAT INCREASES THE NUMBER OF CONNECTED CARS • RADIO DJ LOVE: “I AM WHAT I PLAY”

SiriusXM keeps gaining momentum every quarter and noncommercial terrestrial stations should be concerned.   

Like noncom public radio, SiriusXM’s many channels are also “noncom.” Now they are making a play to increase the number of connected cars.

According to news reports, in the first quarter of 2017. SiriusXM revenue’s was up 8% to nearly $1.3 billion. Also last week, SiriusXM announced the acquisition of Automatic Labs Inc. [link], maker of the Automatic brand adapter. The adaptors convert existing cars and trucks into “connected” vehicles.

The Automatic adapter plugs into a vehicle’s standard diagnostics port. 

The manufacturer claims Automatic will work in any vehicle with an on-board computer. Not only does it connect to the Cloud via a Smartphone, the device accesses the vehicle’s mileage, gas usage, performance, and overall engine health.

According to Automatic’s website, adapter units sell for $129.95.

One stat terrestrial broadcasters should follow is adaption of SiriusXM by millennial-age consumers. Last year Jacobs Media’s Public Radio Tech Survey 8 (PRTS 8) found that among millennials, only 9% listened to SiriusXM compared to 21% for the all survey respondents. The chart on the left shows all of the device and platform usage in 2016 as reported by Jacobs. Soon we will have 2017 data for commercial and public radio.

  

I AM WHAT I PLAY SHOWCASES THE RADIO DJ AS A CURATOR & CULTURAL INSTIGATOR

Content curation is a term you hear a lot these days. It describes the mediation process that a curator uses when he/she takes content from various sources and reorganizing it into a story, theme or topic. Because of human curation, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

The radio DJ is a curator, a role that is as old as recorded music. Now there is a wonderful movie playing at film festivals and art-house cinemas that tells the stories of four influential DJs from the 1960s and 1970s: I Am What I Play.

I Am What I Play features four legendary DJs: Meg Griffin, Charles Laquidara, David Marsden, and Pat O’Day. All four worked in the heyday of host-based rock radio before consolidation, voice tracking and algorithms. Today, hosts on noncom public media outlets provide the curation of Triple A, Jazz and Classical music. Check out the trailer for the film:

The full film is now available to stream or download (for a fee) in Vimeo’s On-Demand section. You can see it here. 

David Marsden at CHUM, Toronto

Roger King, producer of I Am What I Play, said in 2014 when the film debuted:

“As radio became more commercially-controlled and new media has taken hold, these DJ’s have had to carve out a new career space for themselves. Has free-form radio died, or has it reinvented itself in unexpected spaces?”

Pat O’Day (shown with his sons in Seattle)

When King completed the film, it opened to rave reviews in Canada but then it languished in the US. Because of word of mouth, interest in I Am What I Play never went away. A Facebook page [link] generated much of the current interest in the film.

Though some folks might say the message of the film is overly simplistic, it should be considered in context of time when the events portrayed occurred.