April 2005 Archives

When I first wrote about Color Matched Antenna and their great idea for a product (you give them your VIN number and they match your satellite radio antenna exactly to your car's color), I couldn't resist but to ask for some product review samples.

Afterall, looking at something on your monitor, versus looking at it in person - especially when it comes to paint - really cannot be compared. I just had to see the quality of these products myself, to hold, and touch, and play with in my grubby hands.

But unfortunately, as my wife can attest to, most things that I touch... I destroy. I simply couldn't just ask for some review antennas and leave it at that. Afterall, Blogging isn't like Traditional Media, and so the first ever Orbitcast Product Test can't be traditional either. Right?

So three days later, I had three antennas in my grubby, accident prone hands. Interestingly enough, I'm pretty much rebuilding a house I just bought... and I have all these tools laying around, so conditions weren't really "optimal" for taking photos... or were they?

((( Speculation Alert! )))
So Ted Koppel is finally leaving "Nightline" and sat down for an interview with the New York Times to be published on Sunday. We get a preview of the interview in which he talks about traditional media's challenges, interviews with big shots and, of course, his bad hair.

When asked what's next for Koppel, he refers to Howard Stern's contract with Sirius and specifically says, "it does open all kinds of new possibilities."

It could be a harmless referral to the changing face of the media, but it's also a pretty strong reference to Ted Koppel's plans for his own future without outright saying it. Either way, it's definitely an eyebrow raising comment.

Once again the NYPost's ability to infer something through their headlines completely amazes me.

OUCH! In a harsh article, stock market guru Jim Cramer slams SIRIUS by not just comparing them to XM (which he actually has some positive words). But by saying that because of the "finite nature to satellite radio" the subscribers of Sirius aren't worth as much as say, Comcast.

In a round about sort of way, Cramer pretty much places doubt in the success of satellite radio, and puts his bet on XM.

Part two of Motley Fool's interview with XM CEO Hugh Panero, we cover the MLB and Howard Stern. Part one was yesterday, and tomorrow we'll get part three. I'm biting my nails in anticipation.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio today reported the results for Q1 2005.

SIRIUS now has 1,448,695 subscribers, recording net additions of 305,437 subscribers for the first quarter of 2005, this compared to 90,602 net additions in Q1 of 2004 shows an increase of 237% from last year's Q1 results.

Still this is 235,703 less subscribers when compared to XM's 541,140 net subscriber additions for Q105, but definitely shows sustained growth.

SIRIUS sees this as a positive trend, and now expects to have over 2.7 million subscribers at year-end, up from the previous guidance of over 2.5 million.

A very well written article on The Future of Radio asks that exact question. Check it out.

Billboard Radio Monitor has a curious point about the looming "Content War" between XM and SIRIUS. Sure, deals like Martha are great PR, but create an "uneasiness among investors that the nascent industry is still in the midst of an expensive programming content investment battle."

The rest is pretty much Analyst babble-speak by Banc of America Securities analyst Jonathan Jacoby, but other interesting points are the "hardware wars" that inevitably will be coming down the pipe (woohoo!).

Here's how I see it. There's 3 main factors that make people choose XM vs SIRIUS - price, hardware, and content. The price question got solved when XM upped their rates. Hardware? Well, Sirius is catching up with the Starmate and the upcoming ReGo, but XM is definitely still in the lead in that department, especially with the Tao XM2go and the Pioneer AirWare arriving in stores in the upcoming weeks. But most customers are so damn confused between what's good and what's not, that it takes someone who's already accustomed with Satellite Radio to even know the different between a Roady and a Sportster. Personally I think the "Hardware Wars" will have more to do with price than they will with technology - others probably disagree.

But Content. That's where it's at, and that's where it'll always be at. Big names bring big recognition, but with big pricetags. And when we have the Sports and Politics categories flip-flopping between each provider (and more flip-flopping to come I'm sure), then that makes it all that more fun to watch. :)

Well, the gautlet has been thrown down. Infinity has announced it will convert it's San Francisco KYCY AM station to a Podcasting station called KYOURadio.

I hope this sparks some interest for the Satellite Radio providers to setup a dedicated Satellite Podcasting station.

Submitted content will be screen to ensure it meets quality standards and does not violate FCC broadcast guidelines - this is where Satellite Radio can kick Infinity's ass. Part of the beauty of Podcasting is the unregulated nature of it all.

With Infinity's new KYOURadio, approved podcasts will be simultaneously broadcast over the AM airwaves and streamed online at KYOURadio.com.

Blech. Satellite could do this so much better.

UPDATE: Radio Marketing Nexus has some funny thought on this. It's a great PR stunt for Infinity who has a failing AM station collecting dust, and afterall - it's cheap to pull off, and the content is free!

The Motley Fool has a great two part interview with Hugh Panero. Today is the first part, part deux comes tomorrow.

Very interesting read! Highly recommended.

Apparently the Wall Street Journal has an article on Satellite Radio, Tuning In Beyond Cars, which details the satellite radio industry (and happens to mention Orbitcast). I don't have a WSJ account, but I'm gonna run out and grab a copy of the journal right now.

UPDATE: A reader sent me the spinnet from the article where we're mentioned. It's also in the print April 27, 2005 WSJ edition on page D4. Very cool. Thanks.

There are few resources for comparing the quality of shows on the two systems, although a few Web sites are starting to tackle the issue. The site radio.about.com3 offers a guide to each service, although some information is out of date. Orbitcast.com 4 has an "XM versus Sirius" link where readers post comments.

:)

Eton has updated their website to include more information on the upcoming P?7131 and P?7132 units.

Now we can see Specifications on the P'7131, though unfortunately specs on the P'7132 are still not available right now.

More damnit. I want more!

A reader has pointed out to me something verrrry interesting - the XM SkyPod trademark application has been abandoned by XM Satellite Radio (see link to USPTO) as of 2 days ago.

It's way to early to speculate whether this means that any discussions with Apple, Creative, Sony or whoever have been squashed - but it's a definite indicator that something is up. Perhaps the lawyers felt it was just too close to the iPod brand? Maybe. I hope we'll find out more at the conference call in a few minutes.

Either way, it does mean that the NAME is killed. Buh-bye SkyPod.

XM Satellite Radio today reported the results for Q1 2005.

XM recorded 541,140 net subscriber additions, representing a 68% increase over the 321,675 subscribers added in the first quarter last year. They finished the quarter with 3,770,264 subscribers.

Conference call is happening in a few - will let everyone know if anything interesting pops up.

Read the whole press release.

Sorry about that today. Orbitcast had a bit of technical difficulties today and so I wasn't able to get any posts live. Comments didn't work either.

But we're all good now. Thanks for understanding.

In a one-two punch today, XM has announced an exclusive agreement to be the satellite radio broadcaster for The FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 Soccer. This, coupled with their new partnership with Andres Cantor, allows XM to have play-by-play coverage of all 64 the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 Soccer tournament matches, including team selection and qualifying matches, in both English and Spanish.

The World Cup tournament will be on the new 24-hour Spanish-language channel just announced, though at this time I have no clue which channel that will be.

XM Satellite Radio, in partnership with the sports announcer Andres Cantor, is launching a Spanish-language sports network. While both XM and SIRIUS already have Spanish-language channels, this move shows more of an initiative to appeal to the hispanic audience.

The channel is expected to air in July and will feature coverage of soccer as well as other Latino sports including baseball and boxing.

Andres Cantor, known by his trademark "Go-o-o-al!" when a soccer team scores, is also the head honcho of Futbol de Primera, the biggest syndicator of soccer programming for Spanish-language radio.

Combine the iPod with Satellite Radio, and you get "the killer ap" - that's the premise of this ground-breaking article on CNN Money. In a feature that can only be called - "super" - CNN Money delves into the wacky crazy thought of Satellite Radio being combined with the iPod (who'da thunk it?!).

First, we throw around Sirius being in talks with Steve Jobs, then we name-drop Sony and Motorola. Oh, but wait, let's just add Creative and Dell into the mix (just so we get picked up by all the newswires) and then let's come with the fantasic insight that XM has been chit-chatting with these folks as well. Oh my!

No wait, hold on, let's have the true dose of wisdom we all need. Ready for it? Ready? Hold on to your seats kids, cause here it is. And I quote...

"Everyone's talking to everyone,"

WOOHOO! Shit. There goes the doubts I had. Here I thought that no one was talking to anyone. Could XM or SIRIUS have come up with partnering with an MP3 player on their own??? naaahhh.. that's just too stinkin' smart.

Oh right, anyway.
We continue to babble on about how Satellite Radio + MP3 is inevitable. But then we flip-flop and say that satrad technology is too big (oh yeah, it's friggin huge). Then we flippidy-flop again and say that a wireless iPod is the natural evolution, and XM/SIRIUS provide the best infrastructure. But then we flip-flop yet again and profess about how Apple definitely has something up their sleave such as a subscription product.

In the end, we learn nothing. Gotta love the media. (sigh)

Q: Is Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) a buy, sell or hold?

USA Today answers the question.

Starting this Thursday through Sunday, XM Satellite Radio's Bluegrass Junction (XM 14) will be covering MerleFest 2005 - The Americana Music Celebration, live from North Carolina.

Check here for the full schedule of the weekend's events covered on XM.

CBS Sportsline wrote a great feature about how the author's iPod has been abandoned because of Satellite Radio.

Poor iPod sits on a shelf, her battery uncharged, her playlists unsampled, as I've surfed my way through hundreds of channels on XM and Sirius. In truth, iPod prepared me for satellite radio...

Registration is required (14 days are free), but there's 5 more pages of good reading comparing XM vs SIRIUS in a nicely detailed and in-depth read.

CEO Mel Karmazin says he expects Sirius' advertising revenue to hit $100 Million by 2007 in an interview with AdAge (registration req'd). Also says "In 2007, we generate positive cash flow."

The plan? To sell ads on Sirius' 55 news, talk, entertainment and sports channels, with more flexible ad units such as 2-minute commercials and program sponsorships. Premium ad pricing (based on less clutter), and satellite radio's national footprint will be factors.

It's an interesting interview, especially with mentions of Sirius' 3G chipset being available for the 2005 holiday season, included with a "sort of PVR device in the satellite radio."

We're seeing double over an interesting rumor a reader pointed me to. Looks like XM Satellite Radio may be ramping up a buy one, get one free sales promotion.

Here's the deal:
Buy any receiver and get a Roady2 free.

The first receiver gets the regular subscription, and the Roady2 will get activated under the Family Plan ($6.99/month).

This promotion has some interesting timing as well. Expected to go from the beginning of May and will end the beginning of July. Just in time for the Pioneer XM2go AirWare release.

A recent article in Photo District News examines XM's latest "earphones" ad campaign that simply features the MyFi XM2go unit and the earphones that are shaped to create different drawings on the page.

Like most people, when I saw these XM2go ads (artfully done by ad agency Mullen) I thought they were computer rendered images... nope, I was wrong. They are actually carefully staged tabletop photographs by Bruce Peterson. The earphones are really a long metal wire meticulously shaped with a set of pliers. Very cool.

Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin (aka, "The Karm") received restricted stock awards valued at $14.2 million for 2004, according to a proxy filed with the SEC. In November, Sirus will pay The Karm a whoppin' $1.25 million annual base salary.

Joe Clayton on the otherhand, received restricted stock awards valued at a measly $2.36 million, with a $600,000 salary, a $600,000 bonus, $89,998 in other benefits and a grant of 2.75 million stock options for 2004.

sheeeeit!

[Linkage]

It's 420. I forgot. ;)

Sirius will air coverage of the 2005 NFL Draft beginning this weekend on Saturday, April 24 at 11am ET - continuing throughout all of the day?s selections. Coverage continues on Sunday, April 25, from 10am until the draft ends, totally more than 20 hours of NFL Draft coverage if you've got nothing better to do.

Expect live announcements of all 32 teams? selections, analysis by an all-star lineup of Adam Schein, Cris Carter, John Riggins, Gil Brandt, Tim Ryan, Pat Kirwan and Bryan McGovern, yadda yadda yadda.

All this good stuff will be available on SIRIUS? NFL Channel, (Channel 124).

The XM-3 Satellite was successfully handed over on-orbit to XM Satellite Radio from Boeing today. Not necessarily something that makes blood rush into spongy tissue, but news nonetheless in a rather no-news-day.

I do like the ballsy statement said by Dave Ryan, president of Boeing Satellite Systems:
"XM-3 is one of the most powerful satellites ever built."

Ohhh snap!

There's some speculation that Real Networks will announce Rhapsody To Go to compete with the Napster To Go digital music subscription service. Something smells like this being too little, too late.

Who knows, I guess we'll find out for sure on April 26th. A day before XM's Conference call and two days before Sirius' Conf call - it's gonna be a fun week.

Yep, another "i" product, from Polk Audio the new Polk I-Sonic entertainment system has just been unveiled. A pretty cool concept, the I-Sonic is a compact stereo audio system that combines AM/FM, Digital HD Radio, and XM Satellite Radio capability with a DVD/CD player.

Meant to be an all-in-one system, Polk's new 4-speaker "I-Sonic" and "Power Port" technologies produce sound quality supposedly so big and lifelike that the I-Sonic is capable of being the primary home entertainment system for many.

Measuring only 14.5" x 9.75" x 4.75", the XM-Ready Polk unit fits nicely on a kitchen countertop, nightstand, in a TV stand or on the coffee table in a living room. This I-Sonic is satellite radio enabled with XM's Connect-and-Play technology - get a $50 XM antenna and you're good to go.

But there's more goodies than just audio. Because the Polk Audio I-Sonic entertainment system is also the first product of its type to incorporate a DVD player. When connected to a TV or monitor, it is a complete, high performance audio/video entertainment system. The single disc DVD player plays DVD video discs, CDs, Picture CD, Video CD, MP3 CD and many other formats. S-Video and composite video outputs to are provided to hookup to video displays.

The I-Sonic will be available in September 2005 for $599.
Click for a hi-res shot.

Fool.com goes into detail about the XM / Akamai deal. Some nice thoughts in there about the relationship between XM, Akamai, Time Warner, and Apple.

Sirius Satellite Radio will release their Q1 2005 financial and operating results and will hold a conference call at on April 28 at 8:00am EST. You can listen to the conference call online, or on SIRIUS Channel 131.

'Tis the season for conference calls.

I love how so many media outlets are exclaming Martha Stewart Joins Howard Stern or Martha Stewart to join shock jock Stern to entice their audience to read further. The despirate for attention media just loves to create and feed on the hype they create themselves.

Sure, most of it comes from cheesy gossip rags, or somewhat questionable news outlets, but almost every article is naming dropping Stern like crazy. TV is particularly guilty of this, I can't count how many times I heard "Stern and Stewart" mentioned.

Martha Stewart teaming up with Howard Stern!
Stewart Joins Stern!
Stern and Stewart are Sirius!
What do SHOCK JOCK Howard Stern and Domestic Diva have to do with each other? News at 11.

Ach. At least some articles name drop in a relavent way.

Akamai has been selected as the lead provider of Internet streaming services for XM Radio Online.

XM definitely has some stuff brewing for XMRO.

Hugh Panero, President and CEO of XM Satellite Radio, got a bonus award totaling $575,850 for 2004, compared with $412,000 for 2003. He also received a salary totaling $476,854 in 2004, compared with $412,000 in 2003. (They seemed to have liked that number on 2003)

Interestingly enough, Panero's employment agreement, effective as of August 2004, dictates a base salary of $550,000 for the first year of the agreement, with increases to $600,000 in the second year and $650,000 in the third year.

So, in essence, he's underpaid!

[Link]

Satellite Radio:
"It is the greatest thing ever."

Need to send out an alert nationwide within a certain demographic instantly no matter the location? Well, police in upstate New York are, and they're looking to satellite radio to help in their search for a trucker in a hit-and-run case.

It's believed that 19-year-old Matthew Wakefield was run down by a tractor-trailer early this week while walking on a NY state highway. So word of the search for the hit-and-run driver, believed to be a 2003-2006 Volvo truck, is being spread by XM on Open Road. The channel, popular with truckers, have generated more than a dozen calls with tips in the case.

Pretty cool. I definitely see satellite radio being used in this way a lot.

In tribute to SIRIUS Canada laying the smackdown on grey market offenders, the boys over at Color Match Antenna showed me this Canadian Antenna as part of their growing Antenna Tattoo collection.

Pretty cool, eh? Tell the local Mounty, cause now you hosers have your own antennas!

XM Satellite Radio announced that Eddy Hartenstein and John Mendel have been nominated for election to its Board of Directors.

Eddy Hartenstein served as the vice chairman and member of the board of directors of The DIRECTV Group Inc. John Mendel is senior vice president, automobile operations of American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Elections will be held at the upcoming annual shareholders' meeting. Good stuff.

XM Satellite Radio has scheduled a conference call on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 at 10:30 AM (ET) to chit-chat about its Q1 2005 financial results.

The toll-free call-in number is 800-374-0551 (locals call 706-643-3460) or you can listen to the conference call via a live webcast. Replays of the conference call will be available after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 through 1 p.m. on May 4, 2005.

Look for XM Radio's quarterly results on Orbitcast prior to the conference call.

Sirius Satellite Radio has been selected as having the best programming in satellite radio by three top-tier publications: Men's Fitness, New York and Cargo.

The May issue of Men's Fitness had SIRIUS selected as the overall winner in a head-to-head competition and proclaimed "the shining star" in satellite radio.

In an article in the New York April 11 issue entitled, "The Well-Wired Home," the magazine advised, "Most of you will want to choose SIRIUS...the programming is superior."

Cargo Magazine compared the satellite radio providers in its May issue and gave SIRIUS an "A" for content in its report card of satellite services - the only "A" given in the "Final Grades."

I went a whole weekday without posting?! Damnit. This whole day-job thing is really getting in the way.

SIRIUS Canada, the Canadian spin-off of Sirius Satellite Radio, has issued a series of "strong letters" to certain resellers asking them to stop the selling of illegal "grey market" subscriptions to Sirius Satellite Radio.

This "grey market" is established by people (and dealers) getting or providing US addresses that allow Canadian residents to "illegally" obtain satellite radio service from SIRIUS.

SIRIUS Canada was created by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and Standard Radio Inc. in partnership with SIRIUS Satellite Radio, in an effort to enter the Canadian market legally. SIRIUS Canada has applied for a Canadian license, and is awaiting the decision of the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission).

A faithful reader pointed out to me that XM Satellite Radio just recently had a patent approved that gives us the opportunity to take a deeper look into the upcoming time-shifting technologies to come.

Here's a snippet from the Abstract. I bolded some phrases that are of interest:

A receiver in a digital broadcast system is provided for storing broadcast content files for on-demand playback purposes. The content files are transmitted in a partitioned format. Users can select which content files are to be captured in a memory device following reception. The receiver is operable to monitor the reception of content file segments and, when a selected on-demand content file has been completely received, to generate an alert message to notify a user that the content is available for retrieval from the memory device and playback via an output device.

Very, very, very cool.

[See the whole patent here]

The Satellite Radio industry isn't all just XM and SIRIUS, WorldSpace is a huge player in the international market. Well, word has just come in that WorldSpace is seeking to raise about $100 million in an initial public offering of common stock under the NASDAQ listing symbol WINR.

WorldSpace Satellite Radio, which provides 5% of XM Satellite Radio's programming, has not yet said how many shares it plans to offer or a price for the IPO shares. Apparently, UBS will be the underwriter of the IPO.

In the war between XM vs SIRIUS, the boys at the Boston Herald duke it out.

Interesting that the doom and gloom prediction of "they will either merge, or one will go out of business entirely, or one or both will end up in bankruptcy and a restructuring will occur," was made.

Time's Gadget of the Week, the Pioneer AirWare XM2go portable receiver got just south of favorable review. Apparently they're not too impressed with the XM2go platform, but nonetheless they almost stretch to call it a neato product.

At least we get a solid price (we've heard anywhere from $300 - $350) of $330 dollars.

Since the MyFi XM2go goes for $299 MSRP, the extra thirty bucks is for the extra two antennas and a cassette adapter.

Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley will be the host and creator of American Voices which launches in May on SIRIUS Talk Central, channel 148.

American Voices is a weekly talk show that will feature varied stories, personalities and opinions from a broad cross section of America and the world.

Bradley played ten years with the New York Knicks, during which the Knicks won two NBA championships in 1970 and 1973. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. Bradley served in the U.S Senate for New Jersey from 1979 to 1997. He opted not to run for a fourth term in 1996 but returned to the political arena in 2000 when he ran for the Democratic nomination for President.

Bradley currently serves as a Managing Director at Allen & Company. He is also an accomplished author and has written five books including the New York Times best-sellers Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir and Values of the Game.

We got our grubby little hands on some photos of a Zipcar Mini Cooper equipped with XM Satellite Radio. Cool stuff!

(Photo Credit: John Harrington)

Motley Fool reflects on the implications of Sirius winning the Stock Madness 2005 challenge.

Key point to take home: Popularity is fine; blind loyalty is not.

Oh who cares. We won, and Netflix lost. nyah nyah!

Awesome article. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Factual, inspiring and extremely well written by Karla Peterson and Mark Sauer. Learn about how terrestrial is starting to get it's ass whooped by the digital radio revolution. And Satellite is leading the way: "Cable television took 13 years to capture 4 percent of its market; satellite radio has done it in four. It is among the fastest-growing technologies ever."

A must read.

A new study by Forrester Research is causing quite a ruckus by estimating that Satellite Radio will have penetrated 20 million US households, and Podcasting will be listened to in 12.3 million US households, by 2010.

This new report titled "The Future Of Digital Audio" apparently has some nice tidbits (I have been able to get the report yet):

- Forrester suggests that the satellite radio industry consider offering multitier subscriptions to reach the more than 85 percent of US households that fall outside this wealthier, early-adopter segment.

- Online radio will reach 50 percent of broadband enabled households by 2010.

- Podcasting will see 12.3 million households as MP3 adoption climbs and broadband reaches 62 percent of households. (Please, oh please, why can't Satellite Radio have a Podcasting channel?)

- HD radio growth will lag satellite but will eventually reach 9.7 million US households by 2010.

They also mentioned how the Terrestrial radio industry will have to deal with increased ad skipping as the adoption of timeshifting digital radio recorders (DRRs) increases. Awwww..

Zipcar, a car rental service that lets you use them by the hour or day, said it reached a deal to install and activate XM's equipment throughout its entire fleet of vehicles in 21 cities around metro Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Zipcar will make the satellite radio service available to members at no additional cost.

Tune in the air/fuel computer, crank up the bass, and get ready for the wonderful sound of atmospheric blow-off valves (pfssst!) because the Orlando stop of the XM Satellite Radio sponsored Hot Import Nights (HIN) at the Orange County Convention Center on Saturday, April 16th will feature celebrity car appearances from the Orlando Magic's Grant Hill, DeShawn Stevenson and Shaquille O'Neil, plus Philadelphia Eagles' Brian Dawkins and wrestling legend Hulk Hogan.

You'll get to see Hogan's Dodge Viper and Grant Hill's Bentley GT, as well as DeShawn Stevenson's Dodge Magnum, Dawkins' 645 BMW Convertible and Shaq's Rolls Royce Phantom. Other featured cars include an SSC Aero 8/T and two tricked out Lamborghini Gallardos.

The 2005 HIN season kicked off last month in LA, breaking all previous records for attendance and number of cars displayed. XM Satellite Radio is the Title sponsor for the entire season.

On Thursday, April 14th, SIRIUS OutQ will be celebrating their 2-Year Anniversary of 24-hour broadcasting of GLBT news, talk and entertainment.

Sirius OutQ truly has no counterpart on terrestrial or satellite radio, and it hasn't gone unnoticed in the Gay community. 98% of OutQ listeners claim they have recommended SIRIUS to others because of it. OutQ has also attracted advertisers looking to appeal to this demo such as Subaru of America, Inc.

Although I don't listen to OutQ, I have to respect what they've accomplished. Congrats OutQ for the awesome past 2-years, for championing this, and for most importantly, showing that this is a viable medium for vertical content.

SIRI won Fool.com's Stock Madness 2005 challenge beating out Netflix 969 to 746 Votes.

The guys over at Hacking Netflix are now licking their wounds. :)

Looks like XM's latest little deals are making the boys at S&P smile.

[Link]

XM Satellite Radio has just signed a long-term agreement with Air America Radio, the lefty talk radio network. Starting in May, XM's liberal talk channel, America Left (XM Channel 167) will cease to exist, and will instead be aptly named Air America Radio.

As part of the long-term agreement, XM will be the only satellite radio provider to offer Air America content. (Yes, that means it's exclusive... sorry Sirius)

The channel will include an expanded line-up of Air America Radio programming, including the recently debuted "Springer on the Radio" hosted by none-other-than Jerry Springer himself (Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!). But America Left fans don't need to fear, XM's new Air America Radio channel still will feature shows currently carried on America Left, including "The Ed Shultz Show" and "The Alan Colmes Show."

XM's Washington, D.C. headquarters will offer dedicated studio space for special live broadcasts throughout the year for Air America Radio programs featuring (begin name-throwing) Rachel Maddow, Marc Marron, Mark Riley, Al Franken, Katherine Lanpher, Jerry Springer, Randi Rhodes, Sam Seder, Janeane Garofalo, Chuck D, Mike Malloy, Laura Flanders, Steve Earle, Robert Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio, Kyle Jason, Marty Kaplan, and Betsy Rosenberg.

As a result of this announcement, America Right is now really offended, has begun filibustering, and wants a deal of their own. (anyone want to make a bet for when Rush Limbaugh will announce his move to satellite?)

Sirius did mention today at the SunTrust conf that they'll be unveiling a "Wearable Unit" in late 2005 (a fully portable unit - i.e., not the ReGo which is expected in stores on Father's Day. This wearable unit will utilize their new 3G chipset (in production right now) which should start popping up in stores in the fall.

No other details on this wearable unit are available..... yet.

Nothing new really was said at the SunTrust Investor Conf, but you can listen to the webcasts online.

Here's a link to the Sirius webcast.

Here's a link to the XM webcast.

Hotels.com and XM Satellite Radio are doing a "Spring Celebration" sweekstakes. 50 First Prize winners will receive a MyFi XM2go handheld satellite radio with one year of basic service and free activation. And that One lucky Grand Prize winner will get to choose from a bunch of "Celebrate Spring" vacation packages.

Either book your vacation online through Hotels.com (from April 6th to June 3rd, travel by June 27th) or send in a Postcard with your hand-printed info. More information on how to enter to win here.

XM Satellite Radio and AOL have teamed up to add XM satellite feeds to AOL's Radio@AOL internet radio service. Users will be able to access 20 XM channels on AOL's radio section, in addition to AOL's current lineup of about 130 stations - for free.

A new version of AOL's "premium" radio service will have 70 XM channels and be available for a monthly fee at a rumored $5/month.

AOL will own the task of building the radio service which is probably will the current Radio@AOL infrastructure based on Ultravox and the AACPlus streaming audio format. AOL expects to begin rolling out the new internet radio service with XM streams this summer, in conjunction with the new AOL.com portal.

Yes, there will be commercials on the AOL channels, but the XM channels will remain ad-free.

XM also plans to replace its current XM Radio Online service (which now is free to subscribers as of last week) with this new AOL-powered service when it launches this summer.

Read more here and here and here.

Great article. Blasts terrestrial radio. Love the fact that he highlights NPR's incessant begging as a benefit to switch to satellite. Nice.

Pittsfield Mass' Berkshire Eagle features a neato article on Satellite Radio's benefits (and arguably, the downfalls). But if my math isn't failing me, the satellite radio industry doesn't have 8 million listeners..... yet.

O&A are at their old stomping grounds tomorrow (April 11th) when they broadcast live from 10am to 2pm at Bill's Bar, 5 Lansdowne St in Boston for the Red Sox home opener against the NY Yankee at Fenway.

The next day they'll be at the Paradise Lounge, 969 Commonwealth Ave., from 7am to 11am on Tuesday (April 12th) which is an ages show.

(all ages = -21 girls = more gooder radio)

Motley Fool has been doing this Stock Madness 2005 competition for a while, and every time SIRI has been just squeezing through, to make it to the finals: Netflix vs. Sirius. As Tim Beyers said, "One is an outrageously overvalued satellite radio company. And the other is a movie rental business in decline."

So who's gonna win? Well, cast your vote here and find out (registration req'd).

(On a side note, this is a sorta humorous topic as a blogger-in-crime and myself both run top blogs on these same subjects. He's on the Netflix side, and as we all know, NFLX is gonna looooooose!) :)

A new show on XM Satellite, hosted by hip hop star Trick Daddy has just been added to XM's lineup - it debuts next Friday, April 15 at 9pm EST.

The hour-long show, "Dunk Rider Radio with Trick Daddy", will air on XM's uncut hip hop channel RAW (XM Channel 66) each Friday at 9pm EST (you can catch the reruns on Sundays at 2pm or Wednesdays at 6pm).

Each week from his Miami home studio (that's what I call telecommuting) Trick Daddy will play his favorite tracks, host live performances and interview artists.

But who cares about all that, I know all you wanna see is the girls, so go ahead and click to see a larger image.

Grandmaster Flash will host a new weekly mix show, called Flash Mash on SIRIUS' Boombox channel 61. Flash Mash will air every Saturday from 6 to 9pm ET starting April 16th.

"I'm using the same template for this new show that I used in 1971, before hip-hop started - a combination of pop, rock, jazz, blues and R&B," said Flash. "I'll be talking about the use of samples, what certain songs mean and where they came from, and playing what I feel," he added. "I'm calling out to all the labels throughout the world to send me their stuff, because this is going to be an amazing mix."

Yeah great. Now we have the nation's third-largest cell phone operator Sprint PCS launching a new Internet radio service, titled MSpot Radio, that lets customers listen to music, news and talk radio over their cell phones.

You can get 13 channels for $5.95/month or it's available to Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services subscribers. The whopping whole 13 channels include eight music channels, plus news and talk from AP and NPR. Yay.

Can we work on getting goddamn cell coverage nationwide before we go launching new services? Give me all the Interstates, how about that. Let's compromise. Just cover all the highways with an "i" and I'll be happy. How 'bout it? No? Ach.

First golf, now tennis, in an attempt to cure the world of sleep deprivation the Satellite Radio Industry has collectively gotten together to air some of the least radio-friendly sports possible. Yes folks, that's right, Sirius Satellite Radio just announced that it has signed a 4-year agreement to air play-by-play updates of the Wimbledon Championships for an undisclosed amount. At first, I thought pretty much the same thing that many of you are doing right now. What's the use of listening to Tennis? (grunt!) wack, wack, wack, "SCORE!" (grunt!) wack, wack, wack "LOVE!" Not necessarily anything that gets blood rushing to spongy tissue.

But then look at this deal from the collective standpoint.

Sirius is systematically scooping up as many sports as they can. It's not just about how big of a market will listen to Tennis, but the overall sports experience to the listener. When a possible subscriber looks at Sirius, they'll see NFL, NBA, NHL, College Sports, EPL Soccer, NASCAR (in 2007) and now Tennis.

Radio will never replace Television, so arguing that some sports are better on TV than they are on Radio is a moot point. Radio is supplimental. It's what you do when you're driving, or at work, or out for a jog, or pounding back shots of Jager on your friend's boat. So when you can't be parked on your couch drinking a six-pack with your foam "Anna #1!" finger at hand, you can listen to [insert hot tennis player] grunting and wacking away on Sirius Satellite Radio when they begin broadcasting the Wimbledon Championships from June 20 to July 3.

Frank over at the Car Buyer's Notebook is so psyched about his brand spankin' new XM2go MyFi that he wrote up a "How To" for a Ford 500. Complete with pics and everything.

Very informative for the n00b with all-thumbs.

OK, so here's the deal courtesy of MediaWeek, XM Satellite Radio has launched a series of marketing deals with the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Nationals. Through all three separate agreements XM can now plaster the stadiums with XM promos throughout the baseball season. They're expecting to announce more soon. Good stuff.

Thanks to byronpeta for letting me know.

Ach, you know, I love The Future of Radio - great website, you all need to check it out if you don't already. Huge advocates of alternate options to Terrestrial Radio, and yesterday they highlighted a letter to the Sun-Sentinel Editor about how XM brings back the fun to radio.

And yes, Sirius listeners definitely feel the same way. To me, it's pretty incredible how liberating Satellite Radio is. Who'da thunk that paying for content would be a liberating experience?

So XM now has a page up on their website stating that the XM Connect-and-Play technology will be released on April 8th (very close to my April 11th guestimate).

Not much other information yet, so I guess they'll leave us scratching our heads, but there's a bunch of nice product shots and a coolio logo for all to see, plus general info on the XM Connect-and-Play technology.

Hot stuff, can't wait.

(BTW - yes, I'm doing a whole lot of catch-up right now. The past couple days have been fucking crazy. Can't talk about it right now, but it'll all be revealed sometime in the near future.)

So yeah, we know about the XM deal with the Yankees (and a commenter added that they did the same thing with the Sox), well I guess XM sponsored all the replays on the big screen ?Phanaticvision? at the Phillies home opener Monday. Every replay during the game had a red XM logo in the corner.

Anyone else got some XM sightings associated with MLB Teams? I hear there's a bunch.

And now begins what I feel will be the many MLB Marketing Initiatives between XM Satellite Radio and each separate team.

XM just announced a multi-year marketing deal that will allow XM to advertise its radios and programming at Yankee Stadium, through on-site promotions and signage.

I'll be at the Adobe Ideas Conference all day today. Should be a fun time. If you're going to the conference and want to meet up or something, shoot me an email and we'll see if we can make it happen.

Monica Rivituso wrote one of the best articles on the satellite radio industry I've read in a long time.

Bottom line? It's not the auto deals, the fancy advertisements, or the PR stunts that distinguishes satellite from terrestrial radio. Content is king.

Providing a customized experience through a series of vertical targeted content is the way to go (and supports my little rant about Satellite Podcasting).

Seems that I've destroyed my monthly bandwidth limit in a record 3 days into April, so the photos from the Sirius Photo Tour have been moved offsite to Flickr instead.

The post just was too damn popular I guess. :)

April is Jazz Appreciation Month on XM Satellite Radio with specials featuring the music of Billie Holiday, Wynton Marsalis, contemporary jazz veterans Hiroshima and more.

Check out the Schedule.

Moby, electronica superstar and close personal friend of Eminem, will give a live performance at the W Hotel in LA, which will be broadcast on SIRIUS Satellite Radio on April 4 from 7pm to 9pm.

Moby's performance will be broadcast exclusively on Chill SIRIUS CH 64 (ambient, electronica and downtempo rock).

The W Hotel features Sirius Suites at the W Times Square and W Los Angeles, providing guests access to SIRIUS Satellite Radio. SIRIUS will also air Moby in-concert on April 22nd, which will of course feature selections from his double-CD named, amazingly enough... Hotel.

Oh, and since we're on the Hotel kick, check out Moby Hotel just for shits and giggles.

A loyal reader points out that the XM2go MyFi unit has had a price cut to $299.99 MSRP (down $50). There's obviously other places that will get you the MyFi even cheaper, but this is an interesting development. Wonder if the Pioneer AirWare will follow suit?

Looks like XM wants to maintain the sales momentum driven by the MyFi to continue the explosive growth in customers they're seeing.

(And no, before you ask, this isn't an April Fools joke. I can't wait for this fucking day to end and refuse to participate in all the damn mayhem.)

XM Satellite Radio destroyed all analysts estimates today when they announced adding over 540,000 new net subscribers during the first quarter of 2005 for a total of 3.77 million subscribers.

That's a 68% increase in new subscribers compared to the first quarter of 2004 (which was 321,675 new subscribers).

"This was the best first quarter in the history of XM," said Hugh Panero, President and CEO of XM Satellite Radio.

You can say that again Hugh!

Here we go again! The iPod Satellite rumor continues...