Rover’s Rolling Glory

For more than a year, syndicated personality Rover has teased something “BIG” was in the works. And at 53,000 pounds, 45 feet long and 13 feet tall, “big” is certainly an apt description of “Rolling Glory One,” a custom-built tour bus that now serves as a mobile radio and TV studio for the syndicated Rover’s Morning Glory. “As we expand our syndication footprint, I wanted a way to be able to visit and interact with fans around the country,” Rover remarked. “We don’t want to be a show that people think of as coming from another city… we want to broadcast from every city!”

Rolling Glory One is completely self-contained — with both satellite uplink and bonded cell connections, the show can broadcast video and audio from any location in the U.S. The advanced technology onboard ensures programs produced on the road are of equal quality to those produced from the show’s home base at iHeartRadio’s WMMS/Cleveland. “If we were just producing audio, it would have been a much easier project,” Rover said. “But with RMG-TV, it adds an insane level of complexity.” In addition to having seven onboard cameras, Rolling Glory One also integrates all the cameras from the show’s home studio, allowing any staff member remaining in Cleveland during a road trip to seamlessly appear on screen. The bus has four bunks, a master bedroom, two bathrooms and a shower, so the cast can be on the road for weeks at a time.

Amazingly, the entire project was engineered by Rover himself — the bus was delivered pre-wired to Rover’s specifications, and then he configured and installed all of the broadcast equipment over the course of four months. Rover said, “We don’t travel with an engineer, so it was important that I have a complete understanding of every system onboard Rolling Glory One in case we need to troubleshoot on the road.” Look for Rolling Glory One when it rolls into Las Vegas on September 22-23 for the iHeartRadio Music Festival.