At NADA 2020 in beautiful Las Vegas, host Jim Fitzpatrick was joined by Jose Mangin, SiriusXM Curator as well as Host of Liquid Metal and Octane.
Jim Fitzpatrick: This is such a treat.
Jose Mangin: This is really cool. I love being out here. Thanks for having me Jim and it’s always cool to talk about my favorite company, SiriusXM anywhere I go. I’m a huge cheerleader for the company. They actually call me the SiriusXM spirit animal. So, I’m the official spirit animal at SiriusXM.
Jim Fitzpatrick: How long have you been with them?
Jose Mangin: I’ve been with SiriusXM, it’ll be my 20th anniversary this September. So, I started in 2000-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Oh my God. You were with them when Sirius wasn’t cool, right?
Jose Mangin: Well I always thought Sirius is cool and I always believed in it. And you know what’s so funny? I’m a chemistry major and I’m a big science nerd and I went to school to be a pharmacist, so I love just math and science. When I first found out about the science behind satellite radio and about all the investment and everything they were doing, and then I saw a channel guide and I saw heavy metal 24/7 channel, I was like, I have to work there. And so it was one of these things where I just, it’s a dream and I can’t believe Jim when I get to do 20 years everything’s changed. It’s so cool.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And it really, when you think about it, how many hours you told me you’re on the air?
Jose Mangin: I’m on the radio 12 hours a day.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That is incredible.
Jose Mangin: Yeah. 12, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Sometimes I wake up and I’m literally in my boxers and I just do one of these things and I just wipe my face and yeah, I’m ready to go. And then it’s just like, and then I put my headphones on, and I hear the song I’m coming out of and boom, SiriusXM Liquid Metal, good morning. What’s going on? And I just boom, I get right into it.
Jose Mangin: But it’s really cool too to be so focused on making people happy through music and through being positive. And it’s really cool even when there’s stuff happening in your own life, you don’t have time to think about it so much because you’re worrying about taking care of North America. And I think what we really tried to do on our stations is build a family, a community, and-
Jim Fitzpatrick: I’m a huge fan. Huge listener.
Jose Mangin: Thank you. Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s incredible.
Jose Mangin: I mean, it’s SiriusXM, what we offer and just what we offer rock fans. I’m born and raised a rock fan. So since I was in kindergarten.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And heavy metal at that, right?
Jose Mangin: Heavy metal, I would say rock first under the rock umbrella because I respect music. I mean, rock music started with Robert Johnson. So the blues, I mean it goes back deep. So I mean, if we’re going to go super deep, but rock is the umbrella that I love and worship and I can’t believe, and Howard Stern coming to us in 2006 that was a huge deal. I love you Howard, Baba Booey.
Jose Mangin: I’ve been on his show several times and he’s a huge fan of the stations that I programmed and built over the years and I love him. And I’ve cried on his show before. I totally cried on the Howard Stern show because I was so happy that I was on and I didn’t curse. I didn’t get naked, you know what I mean? I didn’t have to do anything weird.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jose Mangin: I came off the air and I was just like, oh my God. And then I started to cry. I’m a big wuss, I cried seven times in the new Star Wars movie. Jim, have you seen the new Star Wars?
Jim Fitzpatrick: I haven’t. I haven’t yet.
Jose Mangin: You haven’t seen-
Jim Fitzpatrick: But I think I’ll cry when I go though.
Jose Mangin: Are you a Star Wars fan?
Jim Fitzpatrick: A little bit.
Jose Mangin: Oh man, I love Star Wars. Yeah. Seven times I cried. Swears.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Seven times.
Jose Mangin: In Coco, I cried five times. Have you ever seen Coco?
Jim Fitzpatrick: You’re not going to cry right now, are you?
Jose Mangin: No, I’m not. Maybe, if we started going deeper, but no, I’m just-
Jim Fitzpatrick: And you didn’t go to school to do this, right?
Jose Mangin: No, I’m-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Talk to me about your background.
Jose Mangin: Yeah. I’m from the Mexican border, a tiny little town touching the fence of Agua Prieta, Sonora. My family’s from Sonara Mexico, my dad’s a French Irish white dude who were very, very, very poor.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Go French Irish white dudes.
Jose Mangin: Yeah, I’m a Frenchican. So yeah, I like to combine the things like that. So I just decided that I wanted to do something awesome with my life and I knew that I was smart and my dad was super intelligent and I’m like, I’m going to do this. So I had long hair mustache when I was 16 years old. I was buying beer, they’re like, “You’re 21, right?” Yeah. My mustache, you see my mustache. But I just was a science nerd and I got a full ride academic scholarship to the university of Arizona where I started college radio.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow.
Jose Mangin: And I started college radio because I was taking Spanish guitar class and some guy came up to me and he was like, “Hey, are you a metal head?” And I’m like, “What do you think?” And I was just playing Metallica on my acoustic guitar. And then he eventually convinced me to visit these student run radio station in the basement of the student union.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You were hooked.
Jose Mangin: And I walked in and I just immediately saw the whole place covered in posters and I was 18 years old and I was like, wow, I fit in. And so I volunteered right away and I started the university of Arizona’s first heavy metal radio show. And then I went to graduate school in Tennessee for pharmacy, and then I got a job at the big rock station in Tennessee. And then a year into that I won a best metal DJ in the country in a trade magazine. And then I started getting job offers to work in the business.
Jose Mangin: And then I talked to my dad and he was like, you’ve been about what should I do? I’m at the crossroads now, three years left of pharmacy school to be a doctor or rock and roll. I talked to my dad and he was 49 when I was born. So then he was a much older dude, and he told me, dude you’ve been doing this your whole life, that you’re so passionate about this music. I don’t want you to ever regret not pursuing it, or trying, living your dream. And he told me that and I was like dad, all right. And then boom and I’ve been at Sirius now for almost 20 years, man.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow, 12 hours a day.
Jose Mangin: 12 hours a day.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Unbelievable.
Jose Mangin: But it’s such a … Jim, I can’t even tell you.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Those guys in Sirius are a hardcore. I mean they’re 12 hours. They’re making you work 12 hours.
Jose Mangin: Yeah, I know, they do. But, man, I-
Jim Fitzpatrick: But at 15 bucks an hour if that’s a new minimum wage, you’re racking up the bucks right there.
Jose Mangin: Jim, I would pay him SiriusXM to work there.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Don’t say that again, because they’ll hear that.
Jose Mangin: No, they know. They know. They know. They know. The president’s know, I’ve said it on the radio. I’ve already messed myself up, Jim. That’s why I haven’t really gotten any race forever. But it’s okay. Dude, no, seriously it’s a dream and I can’t believe what I get to do.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Talk to us about some of the new things at SiriusXM.
Jose Mangin: Yeah, I mean well, we’re doing so much crazy stuff. I mean we just merged with Pandora last year that was massive making us the largest audio entertainment company in the world. I love saying that too. It’s so cool. And also, we invested heavily in the SoundCloud. Last week we announced 75 million in the SoundCloud. So we’re just doing a lot of great stuff, man. There’s just a lot of cool synergies that we’re working on with Pandora and SiriusXM.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, that’s great.
Jose Mangin: Our content can be on their side and vice versa. And here at the NADA show, I love deejaying these events and it’s cool to say hi and meet fans and-
Jim Fitzpatrick: What new offerings do you guys have for dealers here at the show?
Jose Mangin: Yeah, we’re doing this really cool service lane program, which is when customers go to dealerships, they used to get two months of SiriusXM service. So when they would bring their car in for any sort of work, but now that we expanded it to three months of service and now if your car doesn’t have a SiriusXM equipped radio, we’ll give you the all access SiriusXM streaming package. So now people that just get an oil change can walk out and download the app and then have SiriusXM for three months for free. So, that hooks them up man. And that’s such a cool thing to do. And I love when we do those types of offerings.
Jose Mangin: And also I did some cool training video, Jim last year. I love it when SiriusXM ask me to do stuff, I’m like, I’m here, I’ll do anything for you guys. I’ll sweep, I’ll clean.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I’ll work 12 hours a day if I have to.
Jose Mangin: I’ll work 12 hours a day. Come on man.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I’ll sleep in the studio.
Jose Mangin: Dude, they know that, they know this. But they asked me to do some cool training video for these SiriusXM dealer app, so-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Talk to us about the dealer app, it seems to be the buzz right now.
Jose Mangin: It’s such a cool program for dealerships across the country. I did something in Southern California at an Austin Nissan dealership, and basically what we can do for used cars is, we can activate the SiriusXM service simply by using our app and the VIN like you open the car door and your VINs on there, you scan that VIN and a minute later your SiriusXM is lit up on your car.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You’re kidding?
Jose Mangin: No, it’s so easy. So if people are sitting there and they’re like, oh, this track is cool, oh I like this. Oh, and it’s SiriusXM radio, oh hey, hold on, let me turn it on for you right now just so we can take a cruise.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s awesome. Yeah.
Jose Mangin: And even for the test drives, they can light up the radio and then, oh, I like rock music, oh boom.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Every single consumer turns on the radio when they take a test drive. You probably didn’t know that, but they all do.
Jose Mangin: I believe that.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s almost like they’re taking the radio for a test drive, and that’s a great feature to be able to have that.
Jose Mangin: Well, I’m 20 years almost at SiriusXM, that’s the first thing that I go into a carpet. I’m not the normal person. And I do care about my stereo and that’s the first thing that I did when I hooked up my track was just expand the sound and make it so loud that I would vibrate cars next to me so they know that they’re listening to some cool rock station on SiriusXM.
Jose Mangin: So I try to do a lot of good things. I throw a lot of taco metal parties for subscribers. I like to give back and feed them and give them tequila and free beer and stuff. So yeah, we do these things called taco metal parties and we do them all the time in Seal beach.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Taco metal parties.
Jose Mangin: Taco metal parties. What’s better than taco and metal and tequila. If somebody, Jim doesn’t like tacos, you don’t trust them, don’t talk to them.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And if they don’t like tequila, forget it.
Jose Mangin: It’s different with tequila. That’s a little hard, like, hey, but if they don’t like tacos then you can’t talk to them.
Jim Fitzpatrick: We have no use for them.
Jose Mangin: No, I can’t, I won’t hang out with them. We’re not cool anymore. You know what I’m saying? But, so I do these things to get back to our subscribers because what I love to do is go out and hug them and thank them for listening and buy them a beer or share an herbal refreshment outside with them, because it’s so important, I think when they go back to the table with their family and they’re going through decisions on bills to pay and bills, what can we cut? What can’t we cut?
Jose Mangin: And so a husband and wife are sitting there and they’re like, oh, what about SiriusXM? “Oh I remember Jose was so cool last year at the festival he was drinking with, oh yeah, no, we got to keep SiriusXM. Oh well we’ll get rid of cable then.” You know what mean? So whatever. But that’s, I think of it like that. So if I can meet everybody and thank them personally for subscribing to SiriusXM and for being a rock fan.
Jim Fitzpatrick: SiriusXM has been a phenomenal vendor and partner of the automotive community. Obviously, it goes hand in hand, right? I mean, everybody they’re going to get in their car, they’re going to turn on SiriusXM radio, it’s going to make the commute, the drive so much more enjoyable where they’re going on vacation or they’re just making a commute to the office or their grocery store, right? I mean, it changes the entire experience.
Jose Mangin: Jim, since the beginning, people would stop me and talk to me and I would be at these type of conventions and it’d be like, what’s that Sirius? I ain’t going to pay for that Sirius. And I’m like, sir, it’s actually, and then they’d look at my name tag and they’d be like, “Jose, I ain’t going to pay for that Sirius.” And I’m like, sir, it’s actually Jose. And it’s Sirius.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jose Mangin: But do you pay for, what about that bottled water you’re drinking, do you know what I’m saying? You pay for that water. Oh, we can get it from the tap. What about satellite TV? What about cable television? Do you think people are happy with the over the air whatever they can get?
Jim Fitzpatrick: They got no problem spending five or six bucks on a coffee at Starbucks, but when it comes to …
Jose Mangin: And a good margarita is like $17.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s exactly right.
Jose Mangin: At the airport a mimosa is like 20 bucks. A mimosa it’s like the price of SiriusXM for a month at the airport.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You got to work 12 hours a day just to pay for the mimosa.
Jose Mangin: Just to buy some mimosa, man.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s just not fair.
Jose Mangin: I like mimosas now Jim, I didn’t like mimosa a couple of years ago. But now I like mimosa.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I think we should start a campaign into Sirius radio and let them give you an eight hour work day. Maybe you’re working just too much.
Jose Mangin: No, man I love it. I love it too much, man. It’s such an honor. Again, my favorite music in the world is hard rock and heavy metal, and to preach that and talk about that every single day, come on. And to have my idols be my friends now.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s so cool. What a job. You’re living the dream.
Jose Mangin: I do.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You’re living the dream.
Jose Mangin: I was just hugging Ozzy a couple of days ago. Hugging all over him.
Jim Fitzpatrick: How cool is that?
Jose Mangin: I mean I think he thinks that I’m super weird because all I wanted to do was hug him and just kiss him. I just want to hold him. He’s a Teddy bear and I love Ozzy so much. So yeah, it’s really cool. I can’t believe what I get to do. So.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Jose Mangin, SiriusXM host, you know him. You love him. Here’s the guy right here. Thanks so much for joining us on CBT.
Jose Mangin: No problem Jim, and follow me too. I’m on Instagram, I’m pretty heavily active on there @JoseMangin and I do a lot of stuff on there, so.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I don’t know when you have time off to get all those tats, but they look amazing.
Jose Mangin: I get them when I’m doing the radio show. I swear no, I do.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I bet you do.
Jose Mangin: –getting tattooed I’m sitting there, oh SiriusXM hi, oh yeah, I’m just doing my show here.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Dealers go to SiriusXM right now because you’re going to be able to meet Jose. But if you’re not here at the show, this is something that is 2020 every single one of your customers wants a SiriusXM in their car. I don’t know what you’re doing playing around with this. It’s as easy, they’re giving it away in the service department for three months. I mean, this is where you need to be to serve your customers right. So Jose, thank you again. I really appreciate it.
Jose Mangin: Of course Jim, yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick: This has been awesome.
Jose Mangin: No problem. Thanks guys.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Thanks so much.