XM Broadcasts Country Music From Sommet Center

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Jon Anthony, program director of XM Radio Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Walk down Lower Broadway in Nashville and you can't miss the glass cone at the Sommet Center.

But many people have no idea what's inside those see-through walls. Inside the glass walls is Music City's most transparent broadcast facility.

"If you want the heartbeat of what's going on in Music City, right off Music Row, this is where it's happening," said a disc jockey.

XM Satellite Radio pumps out country music across the United States and Canada from the Sommet Center Arena Tower.

"This is a jewel of a space. It's right in the middle of everything," said Jon Anthony, program director of XM Radio Nashville.

Since January, Anthony has watched the glass cone of Nashville's downtown arena turn into a state-of-the-art broadcast center.

"You've got a space that closes in as you go up, so you lose square footage just in height alone," he said.

But XM engineers took on the challenge and the result was a place for everyone with a stake in country music.

"It's a great combination of both to be able to combine the access of the artists and the people who make the music and also the people who consume the music," Anthony said.

These days a face familiar on television now has a voice on XM. Air personality Storme Warren plays country's hits and he loves the place where he gets to do it from.

"In between songs, when I get up and stretch my legs, I overlook the Ryman, and the honky tonks of Lower Broadway, LP Field, it really makes you feel you're in the heart of it all down here," he said.

Soon county fans can get into the mix at XM.

"It will be the Times Square of Nashville, no doubt about it," he said.

And this hidden theater on the second floor of the cone will help that happen.

"We'll be able to have live performances in here that will broadcast live, simultaneously on XM, but also be a cool little live, local live music venue for Nashville," Anthony said.

All from inside a glass cone on Broadway.

When all is said and done this facility will have seven broadcast studios, office space and a performance hall and every inch of it will have a view of Nashville like no other.

XM Radio partnered with the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau to renovate and improve the visitor's center on the ground floor of the Sommet Center.