Four years old!

 October 4 is our 4th anniversary and I couldn’t be happier about it. We have done some amazing programs in our short lifetime and we are in no danger of running out of new ideas. The Bob Edwards Show has matured and prospered–especially in the past year-and-a-half under the leadership of executive producer Steve Lickteig. For the past 18 months we’ve had the same solid crew and all of my producers seem happy to be here. Just to refresh your memory, they are:  Steve Lickteig, Dan Bloom, Chad Campbell, Andy Danyo, Cristy Meiners, Ed McNulty, Ariana Pekary, Geoffrey Redick and Shelly Tillman. And this seems like a good place to thank Addie Whisenant for the great job she’s doing as the replacement for Shelley Tillman during Shelley’s pregnancy leave. Thanks also to 20-year old intern Taylor Barnes, who has grown and developed so much that all of us regard her as our fellow producer–which is easy to do since she is, in fact, producing segments and entire programs. Taylor, you are welcome to refer prospective employers to this blog post. Whoever lands you will be the lucky one.

This anniversary occurs at a time of enormous transition in satellite radio. Our program was born into the XM family and now XM has been absorbed by our former rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, to form the new company, Sirius XM. We spent a year-and-a-half knowing this merger was coming and fretting over what it might mean for our fledgling program. Would our new parents adopt us or would they cast us into the street? I’m happy to report that they not only tousled our hair and chucked us on the chin, but they pushed us out before the cameras to take a bow. Our public radio channel is one of the first six to be offered to Sirius radio subscribers while also remaining on XM.  We’re very proud of that and we thank our new bosses Mel Karmizin, Scott Greenstein and Jeremy Coleman for giving us this opportunity to win over the listeners of our former rival.  It’s a challenge we’re happy to take on!  Beginning Monday, October 6, you can hear The Bob Edwards Show on XM channel 133 and Sirius channel 196. 

Bob Edwards Weekend continues our presence on terrestrial public radio and continues to add new stations. I used to joke that my career would spiral into oblivian and I would end up doing storm warnings on Guam. Now it turns out that station KPRG-FM in Guam is the newest station to pick up Bob Ewards Weekend. I hereby volunteer to pitch during their fund drive, but I’ll have to take a week’s leave to get there.

 I’ll close this post with a public challenge to my producers.  Your host is 61 years old, but I think he may be more open to change than you 20 and 30-year-olds.  At Sirius XM, you have an opportunity that doesn’t exist anywhere else in broadcasting. Our bosses have given us carte blanche–take advantage!  Bust this format!  Find new ways to tell stories.  Our only limitation is 59 minutes.

Bob