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What will happen to POTUS '08 after the election? I have heard it called "politics of the United States" too. Will they keep it as a 24 hour political news station? The programming has been great! My mom is addicted to that channel......
Does this channel meet the "minority and public interest" programming guidelines from the merger agreement?
It looks like POTUS '08 is staying on the air for awhile anyway. I hope it stays on as a permanent channel......excellent programming!
http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelpage.xmc?ch=130
"POTUS...The Next Chapter
Sen. Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. You heard the campaign unfold on POTUS '08, now hear the analysis and witness the transition of power in Washington, DC. POTUS will continue broadcasting through the inauguration and beyond, covering the next chapter in this amazing story."
I think they will keep it around for a bit, as it has drawn a LOT of interest.
As far as the minority and public interest, no. The minority and public interest demand stated that the channel had to be independantly owned and that Sirius XM could have absolutely no editorial or content control of the channel.
Oh my God!
I just can't believe it!
I was just doing a little more research and this is not good......
Scott Walterman, XM's senior director of news programming and host of The Morning Briefing on POTUS '08 is being fired by Sirius and will be leaving in just a few days! This is horrible! He is the best thing about POTUS '08! My mom listens to him every morning on her way to work and loves listening to him! He is everything that is great about radio! I am disgusted with what Sirius management is doing! First I find out about Beyond Jazz getting canned and now this? It's one thing to lose all my money in this stock, but now they are taking my favorite programming away! My moms too! I feel like Sirius management is kicking me in my stomach......
This BS has got to stop right now!
Please call and email SIRIUS and raise some hell NOW!
http://scottwalterman.com/default.aspx
http://scottwalterman.com/images/Scott%20pic.jpg
Scott Walterman
Current position: Senior Director of News Programming, XM Satellite Radio.
Wow. It's over. Can you believe it? Great stuff. I love the fact that this election engerized people.
I'm so happy that this thing is done. I'm in the final few days of my employment at XM. I'll be leaving XM on November 15th.
This is not my decision, I'm not going to be retained by the newly merged company. I'm not sure yet what my last day on the air will be, it could be Tuesday November 11th - that decision should come soon I'm told. Stay tuned for updates.
I have loved being with you every morning and have loved being at XM. When we arrived in 2001, we really set out to change the world. For a while in the begining we walked the Earth as giants. Those days are gone, but the people I met and the opportunity I was given was one of the most wonderful experiences of my career.
Please feel free to hit the contact me button and send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. scott@scottwalterman.com
This is the kind of employee XM needs to keep.....I don't give a shit if Mel has to take a pay cut. This is BS!
http://scottwalterman.com/aboutus.aspx
http://scottwalterman.com/images/xm-potus-dnc-2.jpg
I've been in the radio and television news business since I was in high school. Since the mid-70's I have worked for some of the biggest and most respected names in news including ABC, CBS, NBC, RKO and some of the biggest local stations in the nation including WOR in New York and WTVJ in Miami. I've been at XM Satellite Radio since 2001 and am currently Senior Director of News Programming and host of the morning show on XM channel 130, POTUS 08 - 24/7 coverage of the 2008 Presidential election.
I grew up in Miami. When I first got into broadcasting the technology we used was - well you might not believe it - but there were no computers, we still used film and our news stories moved over wire machines from which we would use manual typewriters to create scripts using paper with carbon between the sheets to produce multiple copies.
I've seen a lot of stuff happen between then and now. Today, as you know, you can do on your own personal computer what it took our entire staff to create.
The first station I ever worked at was WCIX TV in Miami. It's now been renamed WFOR-TV and is owned by CBS. At the time I was there (in the mid-1970's) it was an independant station on Brickell Avenue in Downtown Miami. A round building, which made for interesting studio space.
We used 16 mm film to capture the news. It had to be brought back to the station to be developed. You've probably heard the line "film at 11." (we actually did a 10pm newscast at WCIX).
I remember the first time I ever shot film. It was a brush fire in western Dade County. They gave me a Bell and Howell silent camera (no magnetic strip and no way to record sound). I came back to the station with some great pictures - had the film developed - and turns out that I shot the stuff upside down. Because we recorded sound on a mag strip on one side of the film - there were only sprocket holes on the other side. They made me sit there and punch holes in that side so we could run the film on the air. Never did that again.
Today, you don't even use video tape. We haven't used tape of any kind for years. It's all flash cards and hard disc storage. Hard to imagine what it was even like back in the day.
XM News
XM has had a news department since the very first day. We've tried to be different than other news organizations - bringing you events as they happen and in total without commentary.
I don't know what the future of XM News will be in the newly merged company. Many of the people who helped create the brand and the product are being let go.
I'm so proud of what we were able to do in the past eight years - with virtually no staff and hardly any budget.
I had so much fun being a part of it I would do it all over again even knowing that I would be fired at the end.
Someone on XMFAN emailed Scott Walterman and got back a reply from him today....
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I sent an email to Scott thanking him and the others for the great
work that they have done.
Here was his response.
Thanks so much. I've loved being part of this. All the fights with management, defending my vision for the channel, the 20 hour days, all the bad stuff just melts away when I hear from you.
POTUS will be staying on the air (in name anyway), but Tim, Rebecca, Adrienne and I have been fired. I don't know what they have planned - I've not been a part of the new management team at all.
Thanks again so much for your kind words - be well.
scott
I have Sirius radio and Indie talk is what I listen to all the time. It was replaced this morning with POTUS... well sort of. There is actually nothing on channel 110 right now. Monday morning supposedly it is supposed to take the place of what was Indie talk. I have no idea who from XM may be on there, but if you go to Sirius.com and look at the new channel info you will see that Pete Dominick and Ron Silver are supposed to be on there and they were previously on Indie Talk. Vinnie Politan was on Indie talk and he is moving to channel 108 and I have no idea what the channel will be about or be named. Probably not what you want to hear but hope this helps give you some info on what is going on anyway..... and by the way I am not to happy with all the "great" changes from the merger myself.