Fans Drive NASCAR On Sirius Satellite Radio

December 9, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

As the 2007 season ends and we start looking ahead to 2008, NASCAR’s “Official Satellite Radio Provider” is also wrapping up their first year on the air. For those who don’t have Sirius, or who have never heard the shows they carry, you are missing a day of laughs and education. While it has been entertaining for the listeners, it has been a year of growing pains for the network, which took over from XM Satellite Radio on January 1st.

XM was the first “Official Satellite Radio Provider” for NASCAR, and during the day they would air a classic race, and then Claire B. Lang would take over with “Dialed In” in the afternoon, providing the latest NASCAR news while taking calls from listeners. She was followed in the evening by “Wide Open”, with Joe Castello and Thommy Noodlez, who also talked NASCAR (and other racing), and took calls from listeners and fans into the evening. On Thursday nights, there were shows with Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

This year, NASCAR moved to Sirius, the “new kid” in satellite radio. Sirius, which has best been known for paying Howard Stern millions of dollars to come on and say whatever he want without censorship, had hosted two racing-related shows…Sirius Speedway and Manifold Destiny…before this year. When I first heard those two shows last year, I wrote a column about how un-impressed I was, and how I was going to be happy to stay with my XM radio.

I am here to tell you…I was wrong. Not that I don’t still love my XM. However, I gave Sirius a chance….and I have been impressed with what they have shown me this year.

I recently talked with Steve Cohen, Vice President and General Manager of Sports programming for Sirius, Daniel Norwood, Executive Producer for Sirius NASCAR Radio, and Dave Moody, host of “Sirius Speedway” and lead turn reporter for MRN radio, about their thoughts on Sirius’ first “official” year of NASCAR coverage, and what they have taken away from the experience this year.

“You know, when I started, in the spring of 2004, I think we had about 400-thousand subscribers and moody was the afternoon drive show on Sirius Speedway -- on channel 123 at the time and it was an all motorsports talk show, they covered everything, and covered it very well,” explained Cohen. “Now we have millions and millions of subscribers and it’s very different. It is very interesting because we signed on January 1st, 2007 and the phone lines were jammed, and they have been jammed ever since. No matter which shows we run.”

Cohen knows that without the listeners, they wouldn’t have a product, and he has taken pains to make sure he listens to what they have to say.

“We’re talking to the fans. At 8:30 (in the) morning, I’m out in the parking lot and I’m talking to fans about the channel, on what they think, what they like, what they don’t like," said Cohen. "They are the ones that determine the programming in this sport, I mean, that’s the bottom line. These are passionate, hard core fans, and you know you just can’t be a ‘Johnny Come Lately’ and give them information. You’ve got to create something that they respect and I think we’ve done that in year one.”

“We kind of gauge our success by what the fans tell us as far as feedback it has been tremendous" Norwood adds. "Every fan, every listener that calls in says ‘you know, now that I found your station I don’t listen to anything else, I’ve locked it in.’ Day one when we went on the air January first, we had loaded telephone lines before we gave out the phone number the first time. The only way I can assume that people knew the number was we had done a couple of test shows in the off season, and people were so excited about it that they were craving for it, what we have done, 24-7-365 NASCAR coverage and I think it has been very successful.”

One of the reasons for the success has been the range of hosts they have on the air for 12-14 hours a day, every day.

Weekday morning’s start with “The Morning Drive”, which is hosted by NBC and TNT’s Marty Snider, and the Charlotte Observer’s David Poole.

Call them Mutt and Jeff -or- Laurel and Hardy, they bring their knowledge of the sport to the fans, and in the process have no problem taking shots at each other. They not only take fan calls, they talk to drivers (Bobby Labonte was on Friday), owners, even other reporters (USA Today’s Nate Ryan is a regular). They also have regular segments that ask for fan interaction, such as “Poole’s Postulates”, and David has his weekly “Dramatic Reading”, which involves him, well, dramatically reading the lyrics to a song (this week it was “Grandma got run over by a reindeer”). Poole, who many have an impression of from his days on “Pit Bull” as a gruff man, actually has quite the sense of humor. As I was sitting with Dan Norwood in Homestead, David came over and began poking fun at his boss, knowing he was in the middle of an interview. Snider, who is gone as much as he is there because of his duties working for NBC in other sports coverage, is harassed mercilessly for those absences, and takes it all in good stride.

After the “Morning Drive” comes “The Driver’s Seat”, which is hosted by Rick Benjamin and a rotating schedule of drivers and other NASCAR notables, including Ricky Craven, Buddy Baker, Chocolate Myers, Austin Petty, John Andretti, Johnny Benson, and Randy LaJoie.

Norwood told me they use “The Driver’s Seat” as a way to keep connected to “old school” fans. “One of the best people we have on our air right now is Buddy Baker…you can’t get a guy who is more old school than Buddy Baker. He’s got the best stories, the best insight, and he delivers it in a way where the fan feels like he’s a family member, I mean, you know Buddy, he’s just like a member of your family. So he can take you back to what it was like back in the 70’s, he can tell you what it was like to race against a legend, like a Cale Yarborough, and he can give you an expert opinion having been a driver what it’s like to go up against someone like a Juan Pablo Montoya, maybe he’s never driven against him but he’s been in those kinds of situations where he can kind of tie in the old school and new school as well, which is really great.”

Daniel told me some folks have liked what they have heard so much, they have asked to be on the network.

“One day I saw (Chocolate Myers) at the track," said Norwood, "He came over to me and put his arm around me and said ‘Hey, Mr. Sirius, I wanna talk to you for a minute.’ -- and he said ‘I wanna go on your air. I’ve got a lot to say and no one is letting me say it.’ and I said ‘Well, come on the air’. So we put him on (The Driver’s Seat), just as kind of a guest one time, and he was so good, he has such a natural ability that immediately I called Steve Cohen and said ‘We’ve got to get this guy on the air. He has to be a part of our regular rotation.’ So no, not only are we looking at him as a contributor but we’re looking to integrate him into part of the staff. I mean we really, really like him.”

Austin Petty is another new addition to the show this year. “He brings a young energy and a fresh, young approach. But because of his grandfather, because of his great grandfather, because of his dad, because of his brother, he understands the sport and he understands the heritage of the sport. So he can bring the Petty name and everything that is associated with it, but also his own fresh, young person approach and I think that is an amazing combination and something that we’re really going to benefit from.”

“Sirius Speedway” is the cornerstone show, marking its 4th year on the air the week after Homestead. The show, with its trio of hosts, ‘Godfather’ Dave Moody, Suzie Q. Armstrong, and Ryan Horn, is often a combination of news, interviews, and irreverence. The callers on the show are apparently the most loyal…and the most memorable. (Friday’s show ended with a call from a woman who was “hot, hot, hot” and was all about the fact she missed finding Moody at the track in Homestead because of how “hot” she was. It ended with her giving out her MySpace account information, and me sitting parked in my car, head leaning against the steering wheel, laughing until my sides hurt.)

Despite calls like that, Moody loves what he does, and is very happy with what they have accomplished with the show. “I am most proud of the fact that the athletes in this sport see "Sirius Speedway" as a place where they can come and be themselves. We're a little bit "off the wall" at times, and I think the drivers and team owners feel comfortable letting down their guard with us, to some degree. Hopefully, that allows our listeners to see a side of their favorite driver that they might not get to see anywhere else.”

Those drivers and team owners include Ray Evernham, Juan Pablo Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger and Brendan Gaughan, all of whom call into the show at appointed times every week. The show not only covers the news and takes calls, but they are also willing to go the extra mile to help out those in need. When asked about the most memorable moment of the 2007 year, Moody told me it was “Helping to raise more than a million dollars during the NASCAR Day Telethon in May. Either that, or when we sacrificed a goat to help change Ray Evernham's luck.” Never fear, they didn’t REALLY sacrifice a goat, but the bit they did do also had me pulling off to the side of the road to catch my breath from laughing.

The final notch in Sirius “weekday” belt is their Tuesday night (occasionally Monday night…sometimes Thursday night) staple, “Tony Stewart Live” show. Yes, it is really Tony Stewart (and co-host Matt Yocum) and it really is live. “Every week Tony Stewart opens up his microphone and we are honored to have him,” says Cohen. “I was just with him (in Homestead)…and he’s everything we hoped he’d be and far more. And Matty Yocum is just awesome, and what they do on their show is exactly what we wanted them to do. We didn’t want them to talk X’ and O’s and that stuff, we wanted Tony to take us inside his world and it’s a very interesting world and so that has been a blast.” Tony has been very up front about his encounters on the track this year, about his feelings about the races, his fellow competitors, and the NASCAR hierarchy. In April, after a multitude of debris cautions had been thrown in Phoenix earlier this year, he used his show to let his feelings be known.

"It's about the integrity of the sport," Stewart said. "When I feel our own sanctioning body isn't taking care of that, it's hard to support them and feel proud about being a driver in the Nextel Cup Series.”

“It's like playing God," Stewart added. "They can almost dictate the race instead of the drivers doing it. It's happened too many times this year. You get so frustrated. But enough of it's gone on that fans are writing in and talking about it. At what point does NASCAR get the hint? I guess NASCAR thinks, 'hey wrestling worked, and it was for the most part staged, so I guess it's going to work in racing, too.”

It is that bluntness that draws the fans to listen…and call in. Smoke invites people who both agree and disagree with him to call in and debate, and they do. Whether they love him or hate him, he answers their questions with the frankness he is known for. That is why the folks at Sirius are thrilled to have him on their team.

All of this, and I haven’t even touched on their race weekend coverage.

Saturday mornings start out with “NASCAR Collectibles”, a show that talks about all those collectable cars and cards and other items that fans like me have lining walls or closets in their homes. Race days can easily have 17 hours of live coverage, starting with the “Front Stretch” hosted by Pat Patterson, moving on to Press Pass with Jenna Fryer and Steve Post. Then you have the “Back Stretch” hosted by Yahoo’s Jerry Bonkowski. That doesn’t even include the race coverage itself.

“I am so proud of what we have been able to do with our post race show in getting the winning competitor on and the team owner and the crew chief," Steve Cohen told me. "To be able to do that, its great because we don’t expect the fans to be able to watch TV and listen to everything we have to offer. I mean with ten (driver to) crew channels this year, which is another thing I am really proud of, we’ve presented the race in a way it has never been presented before. I don’t believe in dead air, and that’s why we have the race underneath the driver (to crew) channels. When the drivers spoke you could hear what they had to say and then we took them inside the race and that’s the thing…expert radio, insider radio, call it what you want, we want to bring it to NASCAR and I think we have accomplished that.”

For the majority of the people you hear on the air, they not only are on Sirius, but they have the job which made them well known in the racing world. For Dave Moody, it means working seven days a week for more than 30 weeks out of the year.

When asked what drives him to work such a grueling schedule, he says “The only possible answer is mental instability! The schedule definitely wears me down at times, especially when I'm flying a red-eye home from California or Phoenix in order to be on the air Monday afternoon. But in the end, it's really the only thing I have ever wanted to do. I remind myself every day that there are thousands of race fans around the country who would happily do my job for free. My goal is to never give them that opening.”

Everyone who works with Sirius attributes everything back to us, the fans. They know that no matter what kind of show they put on the air, no matter how much knowledge they have about the sport, it would all be meaningless without the listeners.

“We wouldn’t be here if they (the fans) weren’t here. If there wasn’t a need for the product, then we wouldn’t be here. The fans are the ones who keep us on the air.” Dan Norwood explained to me when asked about what drives the network.

Moody sums up Sirius’ rookie year as the official “Satellite Radio Provider” of NASCAR this way. “For every hour on the air, there's at least another hour spent getting ready. It's necessary, though, especially when you're dealing with fans as knowledgeable as today's NASCAR fan. If you're not up to speed on what's going on, they'll let you know about it in a BIG hurry. I feel confident that we made NASCAR fans more knowledgeable and informed than they were before. We had a little fun, too.”

You can find Sirius NASCAR Radio on channel 128, and you can reach out and call the shows from 7 AM to 7 PM (Eastern time) Monday through Friday at 1-866-PIT-LANE.

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You can contact Kim at.. Insider Racing News

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The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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