Yes! I couldn’t agree with him more.

At its essence, radio is about the communication between the listener and the person on the other side of the mike. That person plays the music the listener wants to hear and provides information about the songs and the artists that keeps the listener plugged in. Additionally, that person provides a sense of companionship and community for the listener. Radio is the social network with a voice.

So as I sat there thinking a bit about radio and the definition of radio and of how radio is evolving, I began thinking about satellite radio. I listen to a lot of satellite radio here in the U.S. and I must say that there are many things I either hear for myself, or hear about through cross-promotion, that get me excited about listening. Things that give me the sense that the “true mission” of radio is being fulfilled there. I’ve written a few times before – here, here and here – about my fascination with and fondness for these “micro-channels” that both XM and Sirius do. To me, these channels kind of sum up what the benefits of satellite radio are for the listener, providing a snapshot of the best that satellite radio can offer.

The other day while I was driving home I tuned into one of Sirius’ such channels, the all-Springsteen “E Street Radio” channel. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon the beginning of an hour that featured a guest DJ, something that the channel regularly does. However this hour wasn’t featuring just any guest DJ, it was none other than long time member of the E Street Band, pianist Roy Bittan. I sat there in my car captivated as Bittan not only played songs that featured his playing – songs in Springsteen’s catalog as well as those by other artists – but also as he discussed in depth the particulars about each track and why it was so special to him. It was pretty incredible radio – hearing Bittan introducing “Born To Run” as he spoke about his first ever gig with the E Street Band back in 1974; about how the classic piano-outro on “Backstreets” came about; how the sessions for Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” album came to be and his experiences in the making of that classic album; how he came to record with David Bowie and his experiences with recording the “TVC 15″ track; about how the band recorded many of the tracks on “The River” in a live fashion and many others. Now keep in mind that each of the songs he played during the hour I’ve heard a thousand times – but hearing them with the context he provided enabled me to hear each song in a different way. Powerful stuff.

As I was driving along and listening to this incredible hour of radio, I was thinking to myself, “This is exactly why I subscribe to Sirius. I couldn’t hear this type of radio anywhere else.” And yes, it’s just one small example, for I don’t pay $13/month so I can hear Roy Bittan do one hour of radio. The fact of the matter is that the hour of radio I just described above is representative of not only what is happening on the “E Street Radio” channel, but what is happening on many other channels on the Sirius platform not to mention with what’s going on across the XM platform.

NPR calls them “car moments” – radio programming that is so compelling that you sit in your car to keep listening even after you reached your destination. The Roy Bittan guest DJ program provided me with a “car moment” as I sat in my driveway to listen Bittan introduce the last of the songs he was to play for the hour. And truth be told, I would have sat there in the car for another hour if he had kept on going – and that is the true testament to the power of great radio.

No matter the form of media, it’s all about aggregation. Aggregating the best content; aggregating the biggest audience, aggregating the “right” audience, aggregating the largest amount of hits and so on and so on. Obviously all these things are aggregated because it enhances the strength of whatever platform the aggregated content sits on with the purpose of (usually!) aggregating the most revenue.

Satellite Radio is a prime example. Each of the satellite radio companies has created or acquired numerous channels of music, news, information, sports and other content. All of this content is aggregated on the respective platforms and offered to consumers as one package that provides a wealth of various content appealing to various tastes and lifestyles. Each of the companies feel that the value proposition of the aggregation of their particular content is undeniable to potential and current subscribers.

But that’s not really the point of this post, it’s more about the creative benefits and creative freedom of having a platform such as those gives you.

The luxury of having 120+ channels, as both XM and Sirius have is that it gives them the ability to create some really unique programming. Specifically speaking, they have the ability to create the ultimate specialty programs – ultimately because these specialty programs that take the form of full channels. These channels can last for a few days, a few weeks or a few months.

I used to work at a powerhouse radio station in New York City – WCBS-FM. It was an absolute monster. It was the ’sound of New York City’ that played the ‘greatest hits of all time. It had all the legendary New York City jocks from back in the day, it had the heritage and it had “it.” There were many reasons for its success, but one of them was the emphasis put on specialty programming. Specialty programs ran every day of the week and throughout the weekend – artist and theme features, countdowns, request shows and theme weekends (British Invasion weekend, 60’s weekend, etc.) None of these were canned or syndicated features, they were programs that were created and packaged in-house and presented by the very familiar voices of the station. What these features did was provide an additional context to the music. To a large extent it was the same music that was played during the regular rotation (although it did provide an outlet for ’secondary’ hits that weren’t part of the regular playlist) but they were presented in a different context. When “Help Me Rhonda” was played as part of a 1965 countdown, it was surrounded by other hits from 1965 which presented the song in a very different context and provided people with a different way of hearing the song.

Anyway, the point is that specialty programming works! It works big time and it works for various reasons. The fact that XM, Sirius and us at WorldSpace can and do provide specialty programming not only within our individual channels but as full channels themselves, is a pretty great tool. A recent article in the Washington Post by Marc Fisher was talking about this very thing – so called “pop up channels” or “microchannels” that Sirius and XM have done which are dedicated to a very specific thing and can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to a number of months. Recent examples of these channels include Sirius’ Client 9 and XM’s Play Ball! Client 9 capitalized on former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal and Play Ball! featured nothing but baseball songs and readings in celebration of the start of the Major League Baseball season (XM not coincidentally has the exclusive national radio rights for Major League Baseball.)

Musical examples of these channels include Sirius’ “Rolling Stones Radio,” “Grateful Dead Radio” and “E Street Radio” which is all-Springsteen all the time. Now being a Bruce fanatic I must say this is fantastic. Again, it’s the context. Being as obsessive as I am about Springsteen I obviously have all of his music and can listen to any of it at any time. But it’s easier to just turn on E Street Radio and listen. No thinking required. The serendipity and all that. And by listening I feel plugged into the “Bruce community.” And also since they are doing this in cooperation with the man himself, they have access to stuff I don’t even have. So when they play a full Springsteen show from Pittsburgh in 1999 when he played an incredible version of Rosalita, I get to hear it. And not only do I enjoy hearing that and tons of other stuff, like when they have guest DJ Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine talk about Bruce’s influence on him, but it also validates the reason why I subscribe. This “specialty programming on steroids” fulfills the implicit promise of the satellite radio provider of providing unique, compelling and exclusive programming – this is great stuff you can’t get anywhere else!

And in addition to providing great content that keeps subscriber satisfaction and retention high, these “microchannels” serve another purpose – they serve as a marketing tool for the entire platform. Not only is the channel something to cross-promote across the entire platform, it’s also a great vehicle to promote to the “non-converted” folk outside the existing subscriber community. Think about it, even if you’re not a Bruce fan, when you hear this channel cross-promoted on the platform, it still provides that sense of “something exciting is always happening here” – it’s another piece of proof that they are indeed getting value for their subscription fee.

And that is what will keep satellite radio relevant in this ever evolving world of media and consumer preferences – the power of the platform and knowing how to use it creatively.