David Margolese | |
---|---|
![]() Margolese on the Red Sea in 2012. | |
Born | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | October 24, 1957
Nationality | Israeli |
Alma mater | University of British Columbia (dropped out) |
Occupation(s) | Co-founder, Chairman & CEO, Sirius XM Radio Co-founder, Rogers Wireless |
Years active | 1978–2003 |
Spouse(s) | Faranak Margolese (m. 2000;div. 2017)Michal Margolese (m. 2019) |
Children | 3 [4] |
David Margolese (born October 24, 1957) is an Israeli entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder of Sirius XM Radio, [5] serving as chairman and CEO from 1993 to 2002. [6] Considered "one of the earliest advocates of pay radio," [7] he "effectively created the industry." [1]
Margolese was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. [1] He attended the University of British Columbia, dropping out after one year. [1] His father, Leonard, also dropped out of college, to sell television sets in the early 1950s, ultimately building a successful television store. [1]
In 1978, at the age of 20, Margolese founded Canadian Telecom, a Vancouver-based radio paging company. [8] He struggled in his early years as an entrepreneur. [1] In 1980, he changed his company's focus to what would become the future cellular market. He prognosticated in his 1980 position paper, years before the commercial introduction of cellular and at a time when computers were in use by less than one percent of the public, that cellular "has the potential to become all pervasive." He also envisioned that it would "be used for much more" than just phone calls. [9] When cell phones became widely available, it paid big dividends for Margolese. [10] [11] His company joined with Rogers Communications to form Cantel (a contraction of the name Canadian Telecom). Cantel would ultimately become Rogers Wireless, [8] as of 2012 the largest cellular company in Canada, with over 9.3 million subscribers and revenues over $7 billion. [12] [13] Margolese cashed out of the company in 1989 to found his next venture. [8]
Following a brief, unsuccessful stint in Israel struggling to land a license for his new cellular consortium Teletec, [1] Margolese moved to New York City in 1990 and purchased control of a newly formed venture named CD Radio Inc. [14] [15] He served as chairman and CEO of the satellite radio company. [7] Margolese believed that, like cable TV, satellite radio would find an audience willing to pay for variety. [10] [11]
The primary obstacle faced by CD Radio and then Sirius was resistance from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who were under pressure from the National Association of Broadcasters, who felt threatened by the competition. [7] In 1997, the FCC granted both CD Radio and XM Satellite Radio licenses to use a part of the S-band spectrum, costing CD Radio $83 million. [1] [8]
In 1999, Margolese changed the name of CD Radio to Sirius Satellite Radio, so as not to be identified with the outdated technology of compact discs. [16] Margolese raised $1.8 billion to launch Sirius. [17] [18] Some of the money was obtained by gaining exclusive rights from Ford, Chrysler, BMW and Mercedes-Benz to feature Sirius in their automobiles. [6] [19]
Along with co-founder and former NASA engineer Robert Briskman, Margolese oversaw the development of the custom satellites, receivers and other technologies to bring satellite radio to consumers. [16] [20] Margolese also designed Sirius's $40 million headquarters at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. [8] According to Margolese, each satellite cost about a quarter-billion dollars to build, insure and launch. [21] At the end of 2000, Sirius launched its third satellite into space, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [8]
In November 2001, Margolese stepped down as CEO, remaining as chairman until November 2003, with Sirius issuing a statement thanking him "for his great vision, leadership and dedication in creating both Sirius and the satellite radio industry." [22] [23] [24] Sirius acquired XM in 2008, becoming Sirius XM Radio. [25] Through 2013, Sirius XM has reported 25.6 million subscribers, up 7% from the previous year, and revenues of $3.8 billion, up 12% from the previous year. [26] In 2012, one of Sirius's original backup satellites, now decommissioned, was donated for display to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. [27]
Margolese was named one of ten finalists for the 1999 Entrepreneur of the Year by Harvard Business School. [28] He was inducted into NASA's Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2002. [9] [29]
In 2002, Margolese moved to Israel, fulfilling a lifelong dream. [1]
Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a broadcasting-satellite service. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than terrestrial radio stations, and the service is primarily intended for the occupants of motor vehicles. It is available by subscription, mostly commercial free, and offers subscribers more stations and a wider variety of programming options than terrestrial radio.
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its service included 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels, and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels were identified by Arbitron with the label "XM".
Globalstar, Inc. is an American satellite communications company that operates a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for satellite phone, low-speed data communications and earth observations. The Globalstar second-generation constellation consists of 25 low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites.
Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., formerly part of AT&T Corporation, was a wireless telephone carrier founded in 1987 in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and later traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "AWE", as a separate entity from its former parent.
Liberty Media Corporation, commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty, is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in Formula One Group, Sirius XM, Live Nation Entertainment, and by the end of 2024, Dorna Sports. The SIRIUS XM Holdings segment operates two audio entertainment companies, Sirius XM and Pandora. Sirius XM offers channels and information and entertainment services. Pandora is a streaming platform for searching for music and podcasts. As of 2024, Liberty Media is set to own three global motorsport businesses in the form of Formula One, MotoGP and World Superbikes.
1worldspace, known for most of its existence simply as WorldSpace, is a defunct satellite radio network that in its heyday provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern, southern and northern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia with 96% coming from India. It was profitable in India, with 450,000 subscribers.
Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian wireless telephone company headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billion in 2018. Rogers Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in Canada, with 13.7 million subscribers as of Q2 2023.
Melvin Alan "Mel" Karmazin is an American executive. He was the president of Infinity Broadcasting and eventually became the president and CEO of CBS television. From 2004–2012, he was the CEO of Sirius Radio. In October 2012, Karmazin announced that he would be stepping down on February 1, 2013. Upon his departure, John C. Malone took over Karmazin's role at SiriusXM.
Sirius Canada was a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005, to introduce satellite radio service to Canada.
Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by the broadcasting corporation Sirius XM that is presently based in Oakland, California inside of the United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project", which is a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits such as genres and shared instrumentation. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service that would generate personalized channels based on these traits as well as specific tracks liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier and additionally a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, which is an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors.
Martine Aliana Rothblatt is an American lawyer, author, entrepreneur, and a transgender woman. Rothblatt graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with J.D. and M.B.A. degrees in 1981, then began to work in Washington, D.C., first in the field of communications satellite law, then in bioethics and biomedicine. She is also influential in the field of aviation, particularly electric aviation, as well as with sustainable building.
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, merging them into SiriusXM Radio. The company also has a 70% equity interest in Sirius XM Canada, an affiliate company that provides Sirius and XM service in Canada. On May 21, 2013, Sirius XM Holdings, Inc. was incorporated, and in January 2020, SiriusXM reorganized their corporate structure, which made Sirius XM Radio Inc. a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius XM Holdings, Inc.
SoundExchange is an American non-profit collective rights management organization founded in 2003. It is the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound recordings. It pays featured and non-featured artists and master rights owners for the non-interactive use of sound recordings under the statutory licenses set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 112 and 17 U.S.C. § 114. As of 2023, the company serves a community of over 650,000 creators worldwide, offering various products and services.
Primosphere Limited Partnership was one of four companies bidding for Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service, or SDARS, licenses in the United States. The service would have been an advertisement-supported digital audio service with an emphasis on serving music genres that had lost exposure in the terrestrial radio market during that period, such as classic jazz, "beautiful music," "pop standards," and swing music. Two dedicated public radio talk channels were also proposed along with traditional talk radio channels.
Robert D. Briskman is Technical Executive of Sirius XM Radio.
Eddy W. Hartenstein is a business leader and has with a career in the media industry. Hartenstein currently serves as a board member at Broadcom, where he is also lead independent director, TiVo, and Sirius XM Radio, where he is also lead independent director. He also remains a director of Tribune Publishing. He previously served as a director on the boards of City of Hope, Oath, SanDisk, Technicolor and Converse.
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. is a Canadian broadcasting company which distributes the services of American satellite radio provider Sirius XM in Canada.
Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. is an Israeli public company. Gilat is a global leading provider of satellite-based broadband communications technology, its main expertise being the development, manufacture, and marketing of ground-based satellite systems for global communication on satellites.
Joseph P. Clayton was the CEO of Dish Network, a Colorado based Direct Broadcast Satellite provider. He both took the role from and was replaced by Charlie Ergen.