I have seen the future of radio, and it's wide open…"
- Stern Insider on SIRIUS Satellite Radio
The first thing you notice when you walk into the 36th floor lobby of the SIRIUS Satellite Radio offices is the giant, two story, glass enclosed satellite control center. It's a beautiful sight to behold. A giant video screen tracks the orbits of the three SIRIUS satellites as they fly over earth, each with its' own color coded orbit trail. On the ground level is an impressive looking control center with many monitors, computer screens, ticking clocks, and flashing lights and buttons. Now, I have absolutely no idea what any of those do or what they are for, but it sure looks cool.
I had the good fortune of being able to tour SIRIUS, the soon to be new home of the Howard Stern Show, and the people there were gracious enough to stand and explain exactly what was going on inside that booth. I nodded and gave a lot of "uh-huhs" and "hmmms" and even threw out some vocabulary words I remembered from college, like "geosynchronous" and "awesome", but I didn't really understand much of it.  All I gathered was that the 3 SIRIUS satellites were circling Earth in way that ensured full coverage 24 hours a day, nationwide, with the assistance of earth-bound transmitters and, uh, well that's about it. Oh yeah one other fact, SIRIUS has more satellites in orbit than any other satellite radio company. I kept getting distracted by the seemingly endless supply of attractive women that SIRIUS employed, and thought to myself that I'd much rather see them in a two story glass booth walking around (woops, did I say that out loud?).
 I had originally gone over to SIRIUS to begin documenting the construction of Howard's new studio, but unfortunately there was nothing to document yet. They hadn't quite gotten to the point of designing this yet, but they assured me that it would be, in the words of Crackhead Bob, "Totally Dawesome". So instead, I got a tour the entire facility and learned the ins and outs of how SIRIUS operates. Everything there was brand new and squeaky clean, but that was to be expected since SIRIUS is pretty new itself. I was shown the large, glass-enclosed room, where they keep all the servers that run each channel and beam information to the satellites. At least, I think that they are called "servers" and I'm pretty sure that's what they do, but in any case, it was a lot of high-tech looking computer stuff all in one room. So I'm assuming it does something important.
 As my tour of SIRIUS continued, I realized that the truly amazing part of that control center, and really the rest of SIRIUS, was its' very openness. EVERYTHING is enclosed in glass, from the studios to the engineering booths, even all the programming director's offices and board rooms. It was the most open environment I've ever seen, and to me, represented much of the excitement that satellite radio is all about. It was like having your entire radio dial, with all the different stations all on one floor, in glass studios, where each channel and it's respective personalities and programmers could interact with each other throughout the day. I think that's a great thing, because all those different personalities and musical tastes and ideas interacting with each other can only create good things. Even Eminem's Shade 45 Studio was residing peacefully next to Sirius' all gay channel OutQ, and if that doesn't tell you something, nothing will! In all there were 45 unique studios on the floor, which I was told is the largest number of radio studios under one roof in the world. I got a chance to look inside a lot of them too, and saw some of the shows that were on at the time. For example, in the NFL studio, I found exactly what you'd expect to find, two grown men wearing football jersey's talking about sports. It is like when Gary wears his Knicks jersey to work, except he doesn't have a sports show. Or play basketball. But you get the idea |
The studios ranged in size from large to small, but they were all to be equipped with state of the art technology and most of the studios had windows in them so you could look into the studio next door. When you take into account that each channel, with its studio and shows, is really more like its' own radio station, it's even more impressive.  That would be like Howard having a window in his current studio that looked right into Lite FM's morning show studio. Not that that would be terribly exciting. Except maybe for the people at the Lite, who would probably salivate jealously over our RoboSpanker and try to figure out ways to incorporate that into their show between consecutive Barry Manilow cuts. SIRIUS also has three (three!!) studios set up for the sole purpose of playing live music. I would imagine the acoustics are way better in those studios than they are in Howard's current one, and if Scott the Engineer can remember to turn on all the microphones, I think everyone is in for some real treats when bands come in to play.
 The offices were pretty cool too. First of all, the views looking outside were awesome!!! They overlooked Midtown on all four sides. All the program director's offices were side by side and again, glass enclosed. The open office part had tons of little desks and at each desk there was enough equipment to practically program the entire station I was told. DJ's could go to their desk and mix and record bits, put together song lists, load it into the server, and Bam!! There is a show. It was pretty cool. There were also posters all over the walls and other things that people found interesting. A few guys had put up some Howard Stern quotes on the outside of their offices. SIRIUS looked like what you'd expect a radio station to look like, with people actually being able to express their individuality in a loose, fun environment. Basically, Tom Chiusano wasn't there scraping bumper stickers off the walls. And I think I saw some people wearing baseball caps too, which was a plus for those creative types that don't want to pretend they are still in the third grade. I forgot to ask if they have a policy on how long is the appropriate amount of time to wash your hands after going to the bathroom, but for some reason I have a feeling that they don't have one.
That'sabout all I have to report for now. The guys there said they want to have me back soon to begin documenting the construction of Howard's studio and they said I might be able to up on the roof to check out the giant satellite antennas first hand. I have to say that after walking around SIRIUS, I'm even more excited about the move than ever. The people and place were awesome and they seem really driven to do one thing: make great radio! So keep checking back for more updates.
Oh, and one more thing. In case Artie had any reservations about the move, he should know that I got to sit in on a meeting and it was completely catered! Pasta with red sauce and feta cheese, salad, sandwiches, cookies, the works! And FREE pretzels and soda in the break room! Artie may end up putting on a few more pounds when he goes to SIRIUS, but I have a feeling he won't have a problem with that all (the tech guy told me that everyone was weightless in space anyway).
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