Whether you cruise down a boulevard with the top down or listen to your favorite Beach Boys song as you do chores around the house, there’s no question that listening to the radio is a pleasure. But the experience can be frustrating at times, particularly when your car is surrounded by tall buildings or other obstructions that interfere with terrestrial broadcast signals. That’s where satellite radio comes in.
The technology is based on broadcasting a digital audio signal to a satellite that then bounces it back to the Earth. That information can be received by specialized receivers, which are most commonly found in cars and home stereo systems. The signal is transmitted over the 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) S band of the electromagnetic spectrum, though it’s often augmented by ground-based repeaters in urban areas where interference can occur from tall buildings or bridges.
Briskman was part of a team that developed the satellite-based digital audio radio system, which was originally marketed as CD Radio. The company financed itself with private investors and in 1997 obtained the first of two FCC licenses to broadcast a digital satellite radio service. The other license went to American Mobile Satellite Corp., which later merged with Sirius Satellite Radio to become Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
Unlike FM or AM broadcasts, satellite radio signals can be heard almost anywhere. They don’t suffer from the interference caused by urban sprawl, high-rise buildings or mountains. Satellite broadcasts are also largely ad-free, since most subscribers pay a monthly subscription fee to access programming.
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