| December 13th, 2005 04:26 PM |
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| GimmeExile |
XM gives Bob Dylan his own show
Jeff Clabaugh
Staff Reporter
XM Satellite Radio adds another celebrity to its payroll, this time giving a show to Bob Dylan.
The District-based satellite radio broadcaster says Dylan, 64, will host a new music show on its Deep Tracks channel. The Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter's hour-long show will include commentary, interviews and a hand-picked eclectic mix of music, XM says in a statement.
Dylan's weekly show starts in March.
"A lot of my own songs have been played on the radio, but this is the first time I've ever been on the other side of the mic," XM quotes Dylan as saying. "It'll be as exciting for me as it is for XM."
News of the Dylan appointment comes just days after XM Satellite named Snoop Dogg the executive producer of its classic rap channel, The Rhyme. Snoop Dogg already hosts a show on XM called "Welcome to Da Chuuch with Big Snoop Dogg."
XM (NASDAQ: XMSR) has been lining up celebrities for various music, news and talk shows as it competes with smaller rival Sirius Satellite Radio for listeners. Other celebrities with XM shows include Wynton Marsallis, Cal Ripken, Tyra Banks, Tom Petty, Quincy Jones and Al Franken.
Howard Stern makes his debut on Sirius Satellite (NASDAQ: SIRI) next month.
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| December 13th, 2005 06:58 PM |
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| MrPleasant |
Also, this month, as part of their musical block: "December's Children: The Complete Rolling Stones".
Thanks for the data. |
| December 14th, 2005 02:57 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
The Airwaves, They Are A-Changin'
Bob Dylan Signs With XM Satellite Radio to Host a Weekly Show
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page A01
Bob Dylan -- singer, songwriter, former counterculture figure and voice of a generation -- has added another line to his rsum: radio DJ.
The enigmatic troubadour has signed on to host a weekly show on XM Satellite Radio, the D.C.-based pay-radio provider. Dylan will select the music, offer commentary, interview guests and answer e-mail from listeners during the one-hour program, which will start in March, XM said yesterday.
Dylan's hiring is not just a coup for XM, which is in a fierce battle for new subscribers with Sirius Satellite Radio, but also another score for satellite radio over conventional broadcasting.
XM and Sirius have been wooing big names and making high-priced sports deals to differentiate their offerings from terrestrial radio, and from each other. Sirius is counting on shock jock Howard Stern, who will move to the service Jan. 9, to help it close the subscriber gap with XM, which boasts more than 5 million customers to Sirius's 2 million.
XM's chief programmer, Lee Abrams, said his company talked with Dylan's management for about two years about the Grammy-winning artist becoming a host. XM declined to say what Dylan would be paid for the multiyear agreement. Howard Stern signed a $500 million, five-year contract with Sirius.
Abrams said that Dylan was attracted by the promise of a national audience, a commercial-free program and "total creative freedom" to air whatever he likes. Dylan also will broadcast from wherever he wants.
"This will be a peek inside the mind of one of the most important songwriters and poets of the 20th century," Abrams said. "He's a mystery to most people."
Once an almost reclusive figure, Dylan, 64, lately has attained about as much exposure as an Olsen twin. This year he gave his first TV interview in 19 years on "60 Minutes," and was the subject of a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary series on PBS in September. His memoir "Chronicles, Vol. 1" spent 19 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list last year.
He also appeared in, and provided the musical soundtrack for, a Victoria's Secret TV commercial last year. The women's undergarment chain, in turn, sold one of his promo CDs, "Lovesick," in its stores.
For Dylan, the XM deal might represent a way to reach younger music fans and stay "relevant" with those who have followed him for decades, said Tom Taylor, editor of the industry newsletter Inside Radio. "Great artists want to stay in front of their fans and want to be discovered by new generations," he said. "They don't need the money or the other things, but they do want to keep their hand in and stay current."
Dylan, who performs as many as 100 dates a year, is easily the biggest musical name to host his own radio program. Steve Van Zandt, of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, hosts a weekly two-hour show, "Little Steven's Underground Garage," that's syndicated to stations across the country (including WARW-FM locally). And XM previously signed programming deals with Tom Petty, Snoop Dogg and Quincy Jones.
Taylor said Dylan has a loyal following but has "never been a huge seller. He's a tastemaker, someone other artists watch." As such, his hiring "is a niche for XM. It's prestige."
Taylor added: "It's for the older baby-boomer subscriber. A lot of the early adopters [of satellite radio] are baby boomers. This will put an additional name on the marquee. It's an additional reason to subscribe."
XM and Sirius essentially are battling for the same pool of potential customers -- those who like radio enough to pay about $13 per month and, in many cases, buy a new radio (for about $50) for scores of channels, which are mostly music and mostly commercial-free. Although XM and Sirius have been growing -- each expects to add hundreds of thousands of subscribers this holiday season -- both have recorded heavy start-up losses. Neither has made a profit since the companies first sold their stock to the public in 1994 and 1999, respectively.
Taylor compares the signings of such big-name talent as Stern and Dylan to the rivalry between the old American Football League and the NFL, which fought each other for the best players in the 1960s. The signings make for great publicity, he said, but in the long run, that might not be enough to sustain both.
"Just like in football," he said, "at some point, do you have a merger and have one satellite service instead of two? Some people think that's eventually what's going to happen."
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| December 14th, 2005 09:25 AM |
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| GimmeExile |
TTM, where do you live? I see you posted the front page article of the Washington Post...Pretty cool to see that this morning (even if it was bottom-of-the-fold). |
| December 14th, 2005 09:33 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
GimmeExile wrote:
TTM, where do you live? I see you posted the front page article of the Washington Post...Pretty cool to see that this morning (even if it was bottom-of-the-fold).
Maine ... Currently sunny, windy, and 20 degrees F,
Translation: GODDAMNED COLD  |
| December 14th, 2005 12:20 PM |
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| glencar |
The NY Times article is titled "Star Wars On Satellite Radio" in re Dylan v. Ho Stern. |
| December 14th, 2005 12:47 PM |
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| Saint Sway |
if David Lee Roth can do it, then so can Zimmy! |
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