By Brandon Matthews
On a regular basis, I am pitched with unsolicited ideas on how to make Sirius XM Radio better. The ideas are sent to me by people in the hope that I can bring them to the attention of Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, which of course I cannot. In fact, I have made suggestions myself that turn out to be exercises in futility, such as including the Sirius XM option in job-site radios made by DeWault, Craftsman, Milwaukee and Bosch. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I have yet another to present. The success of American Idol has been staggering, and Sirius XM is missing an opportunity to be even bigger.
I am not suggesting that Sirius XM should broadcast American Idol, but rather learn from it. Part of Idol’s success comes from its interactive quality, which engages viewers by allowing them to become part of music history each week through their votes. As a result, water cooler topics tend to center on Idol as arguments are made both for and against the contestants. Even Howard Stern weighs in weekly to discuss the show. Idol has flaws however that Sirius XM and its nationwide audience could capitalize on, in ways that Internet and Terrestrial Radio can only dream of.
The most noticeable flaw to American Idol is that it is limited to certain genres of music. From rock to rap to blues, multitudes of would-be stars are excluded from the competition, which opens the door to Sirius XM to stage the broadest nationwide talent competition ever created. Another Idol flaw is that because it’s televised, people deemed unattractive, overweight or “weird” have little to no chance of success. A talent competition on Satellite Radio could actually be based on talent, rather than appearances.
Unlike the recent ad campaign that the company had hoped would result in higher brand awareness, this could create the buzz that Sirius XM has sought. Let’s face it, the recent Elvis commercial informed John Q Public that he could hear Elvis, Richard Pryor, Michael Jordan and Howard Stern on Satellite Radio. It left out far too much in the way of Sirius XM’s true content, and was far too exclusive to the preferences of men.
The infrastructure already exists to make this a reality. Sirius XM has the best and brightest in the industry employed within each genre of music. Tapes could be submitted according to genre, with the best played on air and voted on by the American public, creating an interactive listener experience. This could be done over an extended period of time, and it can occur simultaneously across every music genre.
Sirius XM could use its current recording industry relationships to offer contracts as prizes to the best new Rappers, R & B artists, Rock, Latin and Country singers and bands, as well as Pop stars. The idea can transcend the music channels to include contests for best unknown comedians. Even Martha Stewart can get in on the action with a best recipe contest, with the winning recipe being published in Martha Stewart Living and appearing on her show.
We now return to regularly scheduled programming….
Position Long SIRI
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