My view from Satellite Radio
For almost 25 years, Bob Edwards was the voice of National Public Radio's ''Morning Edition." Last year, after being demoted from his anchor job, Edwards left NPR and joined
It's very exciting to be involved in something new, to be in on the ground floor and watch it develop. When I began at NPR 30 years ago, people didn't know who we were. When we booked an interview, you had to explain what National Public Radio was. The same is true for XM Radio now, although, of course, people do know my name.
Being a pioneer means that you can be experimental, innovative, and bold. Once you're successful, you risk becoming complacent. NPR offers the best news on radio; it is absolutely solid journalism, but it isn't as daring and outrageous as it was in the early days. I had Susan Stamberg on my show recently, and we went down memory lane about the fun we had in those first years at NPR.
I feel I'm bringing that back in my program now. My show is not a news program, where you have to be dead serious and give 12 different points of view. I do an interview program and, if I want to, I can talk with somebody for an entire hour instead of the eight-minute segments I used to do on ''Morning Edition." I had Susan on for an hour, and T.R. Reid, who wrote the book ''The United States of Europe." With Jeffrey Sachs I talked for an hour about ending world hunger.
I can also mix things up. Leave the studio. I went to Oklahoma City to do a program 10 years after the bombing. But I bump into interesting people right here at XM. The other day I saw Cal Ripken, who was in the building for an interview on the baseball channel. Then I noticed Ted Koppel, who had come out of the CEO's office, talking about who knows what. And then I ran into Peter, Paul, and Mary in the hallway and said to them: Come on in here; come on to the show.
It's very exciting to work in a place where there's something going on all the time. I love talking to the guys who do the music channels. They're all refugees from commercial radio. Now they're free from formulas, focus groups, and play lists. Free to do what they want. It shows in their programs. I have heard of bands reuniting because of XM.
The one negative about doing a show on satellite radio is that I don't have direct contact with my audience. Public radio is a network of member stations, and I used to go to the local stations to help with fund-raising. There would be breakfast and luncheon events where I would meet the listeners. XM doesn't have that type of structure. There is no place to go. Maybe I should put a notice in the paper: Edwards is going to be in Philadelphia, come meet him, something like that.
I don't see XM as competition to public radio. I see the two as complementing each other. There is an audience out there that is looking for alternatives. You see it in the rapid growth of XM. We now have 4 million subscribers and expect 5 1/2 million by the end of the year. The audience for public radio is growing also. I believe that is a reaction to commercial radio. USA Today had a story that the audience for commercial radio is down by 9 percent. They have only themselves to blame. They became so greedy, airing more and more commercials. They stopped serving their listeners. People want commercial-free radio, and they are willing to pay for that.
Subscribing to XM doesn't mean that people will abandon public radio. I tell my listeners to support their local public radio station. I find it upsetting that NPR sees me as competition. Apparently there are still some bad feelings. I had scheduled Scott Simon for an interview, but he was told that he could not appear on my show. Of all radio and television programs, I was the only one deemed to be a competitor.
I am convinced radio will survive. It's such an intimate medium. There are no distractions, no pictures; only the pictures that you conjure in your own mind. Wherever radio goes, I want to be there.
-- INTERVIEW BY FREKE VUIJST 
