Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

I’ll listen to these guys once in awhile. They were on Sirius and terrestrial before this.

XM Becomes New Satellite Radio Home to “The Midnight Trucking Radio Network”
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 — Washington D.C. and Dallas, Texas — XM announced today it is now the satellite radio home to the Midnight Trucking Radio Network. Hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, the popular program featuring news and entertainment for truckers can be heard from 1-6a.m. ET seven days a week on XM’s Open Road channel (XM 171), beginning October 8.

Most of the Trucking Shows on satellite and even on AM long before XM came along, are basically the same format. Country and Western between or during the show or sometimes, just a C&W music show. Which I’m sure dates back before Satellite when a lot of the drivers were C&W fans and had to memorize the AM Superstations to keep their favorite late night show tuned in.

Some of the shows let callers ramble on and on while the host goes for coffee. I would listen once in a while, and sometimes, between all the chit-chat I would actually learn something. Even the commercials would be about trucking stuff, which I thought was pretty cool when I first started driving.

Eric and Gary run a different kind of show from their direct competition on WLW, also on XM. They call drivers by their names and not their “handles” and most of the time, they have more control over their show instead of just a free-for-all on some of the other shows. Which some people prefer, I just couldn’t get into the chit-chat and the rambling waiting for the useful information.

Most shows have their hard core fan base so the move isn’t going to affect either shows audience. It may cause the purchase of a few more XM radios for the MTRN fans, but I don’t see them giving up their Sirius because of it.