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September 25, 2000 9:15 AM, EDT

WASHINGTON — The next generation of radio, as its proponents like to refer to it, unveiled its state-of-the-art broadcast center Sept. 13 with a tour of the facility, a reception and a concert featuring recording artist Aretha Franklin.

XM Satellite Radio will allow truckers and other motorists to enjoy digital broadcasts of radio programming from coast to coast. With as many as 100 channels that will offer music, news, talk, sports and children’s programming, a vehicle’s radio, for example, will be able to be tuned into a program when the journey begins on the East Coast and hold that station all the way to the journey’s end on the West Coast.

The service is similar to cable television in that it will have a monthly subscription fee — projected at $9.95 when the service becomes available in the spring.

Programming will originate at the XM Satellite Radio facility and be beamed to XM’s orbiting satellites — dubbed “XM Rock” and “XM Roll” — 22,300 miles above the earth. The signal will then be beamed to the vehicle, home or portable radio.

For the full story, see the Sept. 25 print edition of Transport Topics. .