Sirius Satellite Radio and DaimlerChrysler have extended their relationship through September 1, 2012. For the 2006 model year, over 750,000 subscribers are expected to be generated from the Chrysler Group alone, with volumes estimated to increase significantly in the future.

The Garmin StreetPilot 7200 and 7500 each have huge 7-inch touch-screen displays so you'll always see where you're going — from anywhere in the vehicle. Designed for larger vehicles such as RVs, semi-trucks, and buses, the Garmin 7000-series are premium automotive units that come preloaded with City Navigator NT detailed maps and display navigation, entertainment, traffic and weather on a grand sunlight-readable display.

Like the StreetPilot 2730, the 7200 and 7500 offer real-time XM NavTraffic, XMWX Weather and XM Satellite Radio capabilities in a single package. One thing to note though, the GXM 30 "Smart Antenna" - the XM receiver and antenna combination that make these units XM-Ready - is an optional accessory for the StreetPilot 7200 and 7500.

The GXM 30 antenna option retails for an estimated retail price of $249.99.

Both are expected to be available in December, with the StreetPilot 7200 running an estimated retail price of $1499 and the 7500 at $1800.

Find out more here. 

The Garmin StreetPilot 2730 is truly an amazing device. It's a compact portable GPS unit with a 3.8" touch screen that can easily be placed on the dashboard of any vehicle for quick and simple installation. Garmin is also the first to offer portable navigation devices with real-time XM NavTraffic, XM WX Weather and XM Satellite Radio capabilities in a single portable product.

The XM capabilities are delivered through the new GXM 30 "Smart Antenna" from Garmin included with the StreetPilot 2730. The GXM 30, designed and developed by Garmin, is the most advanced XM receiver and antenna combination to date. For maximum portability, the magnetic, waterproof, puck-sized GXM 30 can be placed on the dashboard or the roof of the vehicle.

Wow, talk about amazing.

The Garmin StreetPilot 2730 includes:

• StreetPilot 2730 receiver with built-in GPS antenna,
• City Navigator North America NT preloaded
• GXM 30™ antenna
• Integrated FM wireless transmitter
• Alphanumeric remote control
• External speaker with 12-volt adapter cable
• USB interface cable
• A/C power adapter
• Dash mount
• Portable non-skid mount (friction mount)
• Protective cover

With an MSRP of $1292.29 - it's not necessarily the cheapest thing in town, but considering all the incredible things this device has to offer, it's well worth every penny. It's expected to be available in December.

Learn more here. 

For the past year we’ve known about Howard Stern’s move to Sirius, and so has his current employer Infinity. Yet now watching them fumble around trying to find a replacement for him, with merely two months left, is like watching a car crash in slow motion. You know what’s going to happen, but you just can’t look away. Adam Carolla, David Lee Roth, oh and the Junkies. Great job guys.

Stern Measures: Infinity Settles on A Post-Howard Lineup [Washington Post]

Forbes featured the Sirius S50 in their latest Gadgets We Love survey admist the iPod nano and Sony PSP to name a few. Pretty cool to see the Holiday shopping buzz starting to ramp up.

The Motley Fool has poignant article on XM’s Q305 report, focusing especially on the Q305 loss versus the Q304 loss ($131.9 million vs $118 million respectively). Spin it anyway you want, a loss is a loss and it stinks no matter what.

Fool.com has it’s ups and downs in my book though, especially when it comes to the satellite radio industry. Sometimes they seem to come out with decent articles… this one isn’t necessarily one of them. If you’re hell bent on reading an anti-XM (and anti-SIRIUS for that matter) article, then go ahead and read this and wallow in the filth. The tone of the article is overall negative — I wonder if they wrote it just after listening to the XM Conference Call? Listening to that didn’t necessarily make me all that excited about XM either.

We’ve got word that the Sirius S50 will be in stores for the 2nd week of November now. Earlier reports on the release date were for dealers and not customers.

Supposedly Best Buy has agreed to 450,000 units over an unknown period of time, so apparently they’re anticipating this to be a big seller as well.

Get Sirius Info has some additional information on the Fox News / SIrius contract “dispute” — apparently there was an “admin error” with the programming that sparked it all. I still think we need to keep an eye on this one…

UPDATE: Reuters has a whole write up on this as well with more details on the “administrative error.” Kevin Magee, Senior VP Fox News Radio said that the deal with Sirius involving both the Fox News television and radio programing ends at the end of the year, unless successfully renegotiated.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio announced that they will release the 3Q05 financial and operating results before the market opens on Tuesday, November 1, 2005.

SIRIUS has scheduled a conference call at 8:00am ET on November 1st to discuss these results. You can listen to the conference call online, or on Sirius’ satellite radio service by tuning to SIRIUS Channel 127.

A special edition of Armstrong Radio, Lance Armstrong?s weekly radio show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio, will be broadcast this Sunday, October 30th @ 9pm ET on FACTION (channel 28) featuring an exclusive interview with former President Bill Clinton.

Armstrong and Clinton will discuss a variety of subjects including cancer awareness, retirement and the ?Alliance for a Healthier Generation,? the collaborative effort by the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association to prevent childhood obesity. Back in February there was a rumor floating around that Bill and/or Hilary were possibly joining up with Sirius, but this looks to be the furthest that will go.

Ok, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (maybe some more than others) the winners of the Orbitcast Caption Contest. First off, I do sincerely apologize for the delay in getting to this point, despite my promises otherwise, it seems that life simply got in the way. Please understand that Orbitcast is not my fulltime job, and stupid me decided to hold this contest right in the middle of a career change, so my personal resources were extremely limited. I also didn’t anticipate the massive response for the contest. In total, 459 captions were submitted! Wow. Finally, due to the limited time available, I had to make the decision to put off working through all the captions in favor of continuing writing entries. Triage that needed to be done. So again, I apologize for the delay in this and a big hearty thank you to everyone who has sent me emails of support the past few days.

Oh right, the winners. Well, we have two winners of course since this is all about SIRIUS and XM, so without any further yacking… here they are:

Cranky Media Guy gets himself a brand spankin’ new Delphi Roady XT (courtesy of MyRadioStore.com) and MikeyG gets a shiny new Sirius Starmate Replay (courtesy of The Sirius Store). Congrats guys!

The rumor mill was churning at full tilt today when The Drudge Report reported this morning that Fox News is pulling their programming from Sirius over a contract dispute.

I have a funny feeling that this could be just the tip of the iceberg. The timing behind Fox possibly pulling from Sirius and signing with XM are just too close to ignore. Keep an eye on this one as something tells me that this could be big. Very big.

XM Satellite Radio ended 3Q05 with 5,034,642 subscribers, doubling the 2,516,023 subscribers for last year’s third quarter. The growth was driven by third quarter net subscriber additions of 617,152, a 48% increase over the same period last year (415,671 new net subscribers). Given its performance for this year, XM reaffirmed its guidance of exceeding 6 million subscribers by the end of 2005.

NASCAR superstar Jimmie Johnson has joined up with XM Satellite Radio to create a weekly show to debut on February 2006 on XM’s NASCAR Radio (XM Channel 144). Johnson will discuss the latest happenings on the NASCAR circuit and talk about music and other personal interests on the show.

Johnson will also play a key role in various XM promotions as part of a multi-year agreement with XM.

GM announced today that they are planning on building 1.55 million vehicles with factory-installed XM Satellite Radio in 2006. This will be the largest number of GM vehicles with XM Satellite Radios to be built in a single calendar year.

To put it in perspective, GM built 1.4 million vehicles with XM in 2005 and 1.17 million in 2004.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio will be launching E Street Radio, an exclusive new commercial-free channel devoted to the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, on Tuesday, November 1st and will end on January 31st.

E Street Radio on SIRIUS coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of Springsteen’s album Born To Run, which is being remastered and reissued for release on Columbia Records on November 15.

(Doing a little catch up here from missing a day yesterday)

Austriamicrosystems is shipping its AS3654 power management chip for XM Satellite Radio’s personal satellite radio devices.

The AS3654 handles power monitoring and battery management as well as charging. It integrates specific functions such as clock, reset and interrupt generation, voltage and temperature monitoring. The AS3654 power management chip is an ultra-flexible, highly integrated smart power management unit that includes voltage regulators, a lighting unit, step down battery charger, a stereo audio DAC, housekeeping functions and an audio amplifier featuring sophisticated ground noise cancellation required for car radio applications.

Sounds like more goodies for CES 2006..

Circuit City conducted a survey recently for the upcoming holiday season to see what product categories consumers are interested in. According to the results, over 40% of U.S. families plan to go out less and entertain more at home citing recent increases in fuel and energy costs. That’s good news for Satellite Radio.

The survey indicates that the appeal of digital music is spreading beyond young enthusiasts. 74% said the ability to carry and manage a large music collection in a portable device attracts them to MP3 players; other respondents cited the availability of easy and legal downloads.

The popularity of Satellite Radio is also growing more and more as well as consumers are exposed to the new medium. Circuit City is running promotions as a result, including a SIRIUS Sportster Replay, for $99.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate offer good through November and December)

Sirius Satellite Radio announced that they will air the Oxygen Network show “Talk Sex With Sue Johanson” - staring none other than Sue Johanson - on SIRIUS Stars (Channel 103) from 9pm - 1am ET beginning this Sunday (October 23rd). This is pure blogging gold folks.

The idea is that “Talk Sex With Sue Johanson” will help bolster SIRIUS’ growing female-targeted programming, but this sort of stuff is more comedy than female-targeted programming. If you’re not familiar with Sue Johanson, watch this video (oh, and this one) and be prepared to laugh your ass off.

In 1984 Johanson began hosting the popular radio program Sunday Night Sex Show in her native Canada, which was brought to Canadian television in 1996 and to Oxygen Network in 2002. Johanson has authored three books herself: Talk Sex, Sex is Perfectly Natural but not Naturally Perfect, and Sex, Sex, and More Sex. Oh right, and she has her own line of sex toys. You can’t make this stuff up people.

XM Satellite Radio has scheduled a conference call on Thursday, October 27, 2005, at 10:00 AM ET for the announcement and discussions of their 3Q05 financial results.

To listen to the conference call via telephone, call 877-265-5808 (or 706-679-7931 if you’re local) approximately 10 minutes prior to the planned start of the call. You’ll also be able to listen to the webcast here.

Sources are saying that the reports of a delay for the Dell and neXus are true, with an estimated release date as late as February 2006. What with XM’s 4G chipset on the way, I have to wonder about the timing of all this. Are they waiting for live reception capabilities in a smaller package? or do the “software issues” have to do with the XM + Napster integration?

Regardless, it seems like the Sirius S50 will be first to market, sources say it’ll be hitting the shelves this Tuesday.

We’re getting reports from all over the place that XM Satellite Radio’s upcoming Dell DJ Satellite and Samsung neXus devices will be delayed and are not expected unil the first quarter of 2006. Both Legg Mason and Bank of America have reported this.

The reasons behind this are still sketchy, but according to the chatter the Dell DJ Satellite and the Samsung neXus are delayed due to “software integration issues.”

There’s a couple personal accounts I have that can back this up: No photo or specs have been produced for the “Dell DJ Satellite” and review units for the neXus, while expected in late September, are still not available at this time.

Again, these are still speculative, but with multiple sources coming up with this information, it very well could be true.

Whoa. Talk about a promotion. To celebrate the first game of the 2005 World Series, and of course to leverage their relationship with the MLB, XM Satellite Radio will offer a free satellite radio to every fan who enters U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago for Game One this Saturday. That’s 40,615 ticketholders! Each RoadyXT coupon distributed at the ballpark will have a unique code number. The coupon holder can use the code number to order the RoadyXT online and will pay a $12.95 monthly subscription to listen to the XM service (the first three months of service must be prepayed when ordering).

The giveaway will be the largest in the 102-year history of the World Series.

When fans arrive at the ballpark for the first game of the Fall Classic, every ticket holder will receive a coupon good for the brand-new Delphi XM RoadyXT satellite radio (MSRP: $79.99), plus a World Series commemorative pin attached to the coupon.

And if the 2005 World Series goes to a fifth game, XM will extend this offer to fans at the Minute Maid Park in Houston for Game Five.

UPDATE: USA Today has a piece on this as well. Thanks Uncle Bob!

SIRIUS Satellite Radio yesterday announced that it captured 56% of satellite radio sales at retail in September, the highest monthly share to date for the satellite radio broadcaster, according to figures released by The NPD Group.

82,000+ SIRIUS Satelite Radio receivers were sold in Sept 2005, that’s a 93% increase over the same month last year and a 52% increase over August 2005 SIRIUS receiver sales.

I’m tallying up the billion captions submitted still (I know I know) but I’ll make the official announcement on Friday afternoon.

Yep, this year Holiday shopping for satellite radio is going to be open season on bargins for receivers. Take the Sirius ONE unit (pics) that has was announced today hitting the streets for only $49.99. Sure it looks like a radar detector, and will get people pulled over in Virginia and Washington DC, but hey it’s cheap as hell! Expect to see more heavy discounts like this to drive the holiday season sales bonkers this year.

Thanks Gary!

PC Magazine has a glowing review for the Delphi Roady XT. They got a chance to play with the thing at the Digital Life show this past weekend, and I guess the really loved it.

Personally the two-line display is a disappointment, but the size of this device is pretty amazing so I guess that makes up for it…. sorta.

MP3 Newswire has a great article on the ongoing negotiations between XM and SIRIUS with the RIAA. If you remember, the RIAA recently has objected to the upcoming MP3/Satellite Radio devices like the Sirius S50, Samsung neXus and now the Dell DJ Satellite. Not only that, but the RIAA has also mentioned raising the licensing fees (as much as a $1 billion?) for both XM and SIRIUS when their contract expires next year.

What negotiation chips do SIRIUS and XM have in this case? The article covers some interesting thoughts: Satellite Radio can simply play the radio-card, claiming they need to be treated like AM/FM (who get music for notoriously cheap rates). Still, both XM and SIRIUS can’t really survive without the RIAA - 80s channels are nothing without 80s music - so the RIAA has the upper-hand in this case.

Should negotiations go into arbitration, and they probably will, the result will have an effect on both listeners, and Wall Street. Advice to the RIAA: tread lightly - you need us just as much as we need you.

Yep, I talked about it a fews weeks ago, but now the official announcement is out - Sirius Satellite Radio and Tony Hawk have been integrated together in Tony’s Hawk’s American Wasteland video game, which is shipping to retail stores nationwide October 18.

XM Satellite Radio will be launching the FOX News Talk Channel offering news, analysis and commentary from FOX News personalities Bill O’Reilly, Tony Snow, John Gibson, and Alan Colmes, among many others starting in January 2006.

FOX News Talk is the latest addition to XM’s line-up of talk radio programming, and will let listeners listen to primetime FOX News Channel programs, including The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes and On The Record with Greta Van Susteren.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio will be exclusively broadcasting two Halloween treats by rock bands the White Stripes and O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) on Sunday, October 30th and Monday, October 31st.

On Sunday @ 11pm ET, you’ll get to hear Devil?s Night with The White Stripes on Left Of Center channel 26. The White Stripes concert was recorded during their three-night stint Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Masonic Temple in the duo?s hometown of Detroit, Michigan. They’re currently performing in Europe on a world tour.

O.A.R. will be broadcast live from the H.U.B. Ballroom in Seattle, Washington, exclusively on SIRIUS’ Jam On channel 17, beginning at 11pm ET on Halloween. ?We make it a point for our Halloween shows to be special, so having SIRIUS broadcast our concert in Seattle this year will certainly be a Halloween treat to remember,? said O.A.R. bassist Benj Gershman.

Inside Radio: Liz Janik, a well-known U.S. and Canadian consultant / programmer, has hooked up with Standard Radio as the program manager for their commercial-free all-Canadian channel on Sirius Canada. Standard Radio is part of the partnership that forms Sirius Canada, including the CBC and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Radio Ink reports that Kagan Research is predicting the satellite radio industry as a whole will reach cash-flow postive in 2008. Brilliant! This incredible insight is brought to us in full detail in Kagan’s Datebook Satellite Radio Outlook 2005: Analysis and Projections for the Industry.

It truly amazes me the level of repetition these analysts can regurgitate over and over, yet using different words they can charge for it all over again! Earlier this year, Kagan gave us an eye-opening discovery that XM will reach positive cash flow by 2007 and Sirius will likely do so in 2008. Brilliant!

And final photo of the day, after the jump…

The NDA from the Secret Room at the XMas In August event has been lifted as of October 15th. I can finally talk about this thing! Legg Mason took almost no time to leak out info on it after the event, and PC Magazine followed up in early September with their own bits of leakage - but for those of us who were contractually bound, we couldn’t say a word about it.

Unfortunately, the NDA also had to be lifted on a weekend, so no pictures of this fabled device are available yet either, nor do I have a product sheet that specifically gives the final production details on this new device. I saw it, I touched it, and I talked to the PR peeps all about it - but damnit, I couldn’t take any photos of it. So, please be aware that all the information you’re about to read is based on my memory, and is based on the pre-production version I saw over 2 months ago. Things may have changed since then.

Tentatively, we’ll call this device the Dell DJ Satellite. I have a feeling it may take on another name but that’s just speculation. Like XM’s upcoming Samsung neXus device, the “Dell DJ Satellite” is a combo MP3/XM Satellite Radio player with live functionality when the unit is docked.

But unlike the neXus - which will come in 25-hour (512Mb) and 50-hour (1Gb) flavors - the Dell/XM unit will have 6Gb of capacity which is a whole lot more hours of listening (though I’ve never been a big fan of describing “hours” of listening — too many factors involved). When docked, the unit will receive XM Satellite Radio and will allow for saving of XM content to the unit for later listening. You can of course mix in your own MP3s with the satrad content. Like the neXus, the Dell unit uses XM’s Connect-and-Play technology. There were several other plugs on the back of the cradle, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what they were for — obviously much more than just plugging into your computer. Take a guess on that.

The unit I saw was small - very small. A nice sleek device that was black in color, and from what I was told, features a titanium backing - this thing was hot. There was the possibility that the DJ will come in different colors, though at the time I couldn’t get any specific answers. Pink was a definite possibility. I really can’t describe how sleek this thing looked, and I really wish I had pics for all to see, but honestly it’s gorgeous. From what I remember (validated by the various leaked reports) the display is a color display — though I can’t recall how many colors exactly.

The XM/Dell unit will also be equipped with an FM tuner, not that anyone should be using that feature, but it’s nice to have it available just in case you want to listen to some commercials for a while. The PC Mag article mentions two separate Dell units, but I can’t confirm that - all I saw was one unit, and 30Gb of capacity was never mentioned. But again, things could have changed (and I’m sure we’ll find out for sure soon enough). Like the neXus as well, the Dell DJ Satellite unit will have the XM + Napster functionality allowing for tagging of songs for future purchase.

Price? Don’t know the exact price of course, but I was told it would be comparable to current models. Dell prices it’s Pocket DJ at $169 and it’s big-boy DJ ranging from $199 to $239 — so that can provide an educated guess for the price positioning. Stay tuned as we’ll all find out all the full details as soon as the product sheet is released.

Anyway, so that’s that. You can rest easy now, because yes, it’s all true.

Nearing the end of this contest. Instead of going over the same ol’ blah-blah-blah, just check out the photo after the jump…

Holy slow week. Not much went on in the world of satellite radio this week, so it’s a damn good thing we have this contest to keep the blood flowing.

By this time you should know that the Orbitcast photo contest is sponsored by The Sirius Store and MyRadioStore — but I know you slackers haven’t visited them yet. So c’mon and just go there, poke around, you might find something you like.

Check out the 5th photo after the jump. (didja notice that I’m alternating each day between XM and SIRIUS? Trying to keep it fair people!)

Day 4 of the caption contest! Keep em coming, these things are hilarious! (Some are a bit annoying too though - could we chill with the “xmelot” and “siriot” crap? Random rants and psychotic babble about “ch-ch-chuuurnnn” will be deleted.)

Aside from all that, we’re very impressed with some of the stuff you’re all coming up with — this isn’t going to be easy! So without further adieu… check out the 4th photo after the jump. Something tells me everyone is going to have fun with this one…

Sirius Satellite Radio has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program. For certification status, a call center must perform within the top 20 percent of customer service, based on J.D. Power and Associates’ cross-industry customer satisfaction research.

Sirius’ call centers handled more than three million telephone, e-mail and fax interactions in 2004, and expects to handle approximately six million in 2005. The call center operation successfully passed a detailed audit of its recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities.

J.D. Power and Associates also conducted a random survey of Sirius customers who recently contacted its call centers. The evaluation criteria used during the survey include: courtesy of the customer service representative; knowledge of the rep; the rep’s concern for the customer questions or problem; usefulness of the information provided; convenience of customer service operating hours; ease of getting through to a human; and timely resolution of the customer’s problem, question or request.

Certification is valid for one year.

[via Sirius Backstage]

Ziba is the creative firm that had a hands on involvement with the product design of the upcoming Sirius S50 unit. The S50 was a departure from Sirius' previous device approach in that an extreme amount of focus was placed on form-factor, from the ergonomics of the unit to the out of box experience (OBE), every aspect of the S50 was considered. Many feel that this eye for design was what was responsible for the success of the iPod, and this seems to be the same approach Sirius is shooting for. Design is everything.

Form follows function though. So it was not enough to ensure that the S50 not only looks good, but it must function intuitively in the hands of the listener.

Orbitcast got the chance to interview the Creative Director from Ziba, Steve McCallion, who worked on the Sirius S50 project. Ziba has a reputation as being an extremely high-end firm, with clients such as Starbucks, KitchenAid and Motorola - so when Sirius approached them for work on the S50, they were up to the challenge.

Read the full interview after the jump...

XM just announced that Honda will factory-install over 550,000 of its 2006 vehicles with XM Satellite Radio. As a result, a record number of Honda and Acura cars and trucks will be arriving at dealer showrooms very shortly.

For the first time ever, XM is now factory-installed on the all-new 2006 Honda Civic, one of the best-selling model lines in the U.S., and the award-winning 2006 Honda Pilot sport-utility vehicle. The following Honda models also include XM Satellite Radio as a factory-installed feature for the 2006 model year: Honda Accord, Honda Accord Hybrid, Honda Pilot, Honda Odyssey, Honda Element, and Honda Ridgeline.

XM Satellite Radio is a standard factory-installed feature on all Acura RL, Acura TL, Acura TSX and Acura MDX models.

Okie dokie, we're now on Day 3 of the Caption Contest. Remember, FUNNY (not necessarily abusive) is the goal here - though I have to say that the past two caption contests have been hilarious, so let's keep it going! Also, please please please visit The Sirius Store) or MyRadioStore who are so graciously sponsoring this event. If this continues to be a success we can do more of these things (which mean bigger and better prizes).

Check out the photo after the jump...

Canadian Satellite Radio has decided to launch a new brand: XM Canada. A far better name than “Canadian Satellite Radio” (which not only made it difficult to write about, but is pretty generic sounding… think “American Satellite Radio”) Canadians can now visit the XM Canada website to pre-register and become a member of the XM Canada Founder’s Club.

XM Canada will offer an 80-channel line-up that will include the CRTC required four English-language and four French-language Canadian-produced channels. And of course, XM Canada’s listeners get the 1,000+ season games of the NHL. NHL games will be available at launch and beginning with the 2007-2008 season, XM will be the exclusive satellite radio network of the NHL.XM Canada receivers will be available to Canadians through GM dealers, leading retailers and online in time for the 2005 Christmas season.

Thanks MIchael!

You know the drill, write the funniest caption you can come up with. All captions are tallied up at the end of the week and the winner gets a free Starmate Replay (courtesy of The Sirius Store) or a free Delphi Roady XT (courtesy of MyRadioStore),

Check out the 2nd photo after the jump…

A funny article in the Daily News today talks about the mounting space battle between the two satcasters. I love how they call it “Star Wars” and the nasty exchange between the two.

XM fires the first shot in this article: “Well-run satellite radio can’t be Sirius”

Return fire from SIRIUS: “It must be difficult for them not being cool.”

Drama! I love it.

In a related note, I didn’t know until today that XM Radio had hired Howard Rubenstein.

BusinessWeek has a great feature on the design process behind the upcoming Sirius S50 created by the design gurus Ziba. A great read and shows the level of creative detail put behind the S50. Nice.

We’re going to do a little something different here. Today we’re going to kick off the week with a photo caption contest that will run through Sunday, October 16th (bonus points to whoever figures out who’s birthday that is). Anyway, so here’s how it works:

Everyday there will be a new photo posted here, each photo will be somehow related to satellite radio of course. Anyone who wants to participate can simply write in a funny caption for that photo in the comments area. At the end of the week, I’ll tally up the captions and he/she who has the most funniest captions combined - wins.

No, you don’t need to participate EVERY day to win, but the more funny captions you can come up with, the better off you are. There’s no limit to how many captions you can post, but funny is the key here people - not vulgarity - so make ‘em count. Yes, real email addys will be required, but they won’t be displayed or ever spammed - but otherwise there will be no way to tell who you are and who to ship the prize to.

Prize? Did I just mention prize? Yep, you can’t have a contest without a prize! Courtesy of our two favorite satellite radio resellers, MyRadioStore and The Sirius Store, we have a brand new Roady XT and a brand new Starmate Replay for the winner of you caption-writing-freaks. And since we’re all about being an unbiased satellite radio place, you get your choice of either. :)

So enough with this palaver, let’s get on with the show! Check out the first photo after the jump…

Brandweek magazine has named Sirius Satellite Radio as one of the top marketers of the year in Brandweek’s 14th annual Marketers of the Year Awards. The awards recognize marketers who have best used creativity and instinct to break through with national brands.

Occupying the technology and consumer electronics category awarded last year to Apple’s iPod, SIRIUS received the award at Brandweek’s Marketer of the Year Awards dinner and presentation last week.

This week’s Brandweek magazine also features a story reporting that in only one year Sirius has tripled its brand awareness among consumers. The magazine profiles the work of Scott Greenstein, SIRIUS President, Entertainment and Sports, and his team, as they worked to shape the SIRIUS brand as the most compelling place in all of radio.

Click to see the special Brandweek magazine Marketr of the Year Special Report. (PDF - Page 34)

Radio programming veteran, Tim Sabean, has been named programming director of Howard Stern’s two SIRIUS channels 100 and 101. Sabean will report to Scott Greenstein, SIRIUS President of Entertainment and Sports. For more than a dozen years, Sabean programmed many of the stations that carried The Howard Stern Show on terrestrial.

Sabean will begin with SIRIUS on October 17, 2005

I guess the rumors were true? Though until an announcement is made, we can’t rule anything out. Apparently Fox News has the “official” word that Diamond Dave will be replacing Howard. The real announcement will made officially next month by Infinity Broadcasting, so we’ll see.

UPDATE: Happy 50th Birthday Dave! Just realized that David Lee Roth is born in Bloomington, Indiana on this day in 1955.

In what appears to be a final attempt to get this unit to market, Xact will exclusively supply retailer powerhouse Wal-Mart with a “large amount” of ReGo units, according to information acquired by Get Sirius Info. The ReGo will be listed as a “value unit” and there’s even still pages up on Wal-Mart’s site for the ReGo and the Wearable Outdoor Kit indicating the price points - $248.86 and $67.88 respectively - though I’m sure those will drop if this will truly be a “value unit” (especially when compared with the smaller and sleeker S50).

This all hinges on Xact being able to provide Wal-Mart with the ReGo unit by a specific date. We’ve heard this before, so I wouldn’t hold my breath, but I’m sure Xact is in a spot where they need to clear out ReGo inventory as quickly as possible.

MSNBC: As expected, Delphi Corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today (Saturday, Oct 8th) and resulting in probable plant closures and layoffs. According to the press release, operations and shipments to customers are expected to continue without interruption, so theoretically this shouldn’t affect XM’s supply of radios.

Thanks Michael!

Sirius Satellite Radio got some real nice product placement in Tony Hawk’s upcoming game, American Wasteland, and the boys over at the Faction Blog have released some exclusive screenshots that I’ve so generously put below for your viewing pleasure.

It’s great to see this level of alternative marketing, and Sirius leveraging it’s relationship with the Faction crew to get some brand exposure. It’s the perfect target audience of people playing these games who will see the Sirius brand and get more impressions, and in turn be more likely to subscribe. Very smart.

Jason Ellis getting all crazy…

Here’s a screenshot in front of the Faction studios in Hollywood…

[via Sirius Backstage]

The Delphi RoadyXT is now for sale with free shipping. Check out the in-person photos I took of this unit taken at the XMas In August event if you haven’t seen them already. It’s a tiny plug-and-play unit and not a bad value at under $100 in my opinion.

Slashdot: The RIAA could be seeking $1 Billion from XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio for the new music licensing contracts covering 2007 - 2012. The current $80 Million contract expires in 2006.

I personally don’t think anything will come about from the RIAA’s “possible” objections against the S50 and the neXus, but with the RIAA - you never know.

FMQB has a feature about the breaking of silence, with some gas (oh man, I’m a literary genius!) on Howard Stern 100 and 101. It’s pretty funny that this even makes the news, but then I started thinking about this for a bit, and it’s an incredible PR move by Howard. Here’s the thought…

As time goes on, more and more ridiculous programming will show up on 100 and 101 - like the aural/anal experience created by Junior The Farter - and the press is going to get ‘wind’ of it and start ‘ripping’ it to pieces (I’m on a roll here). This is a PR stunt. Silence, then farting, then silence. It’s watercooler talk. The guys are the shop will snicker over it. The utter stupidity of it will keep the buzz going, until finally Howard makes his move in January and the real programming comes out.

See, Howard contractually can’t be heard on Sirius, so he can’t actually do much until January. But current subscribers will tune into the channel every once in a while, simply because it’s there, and hear pretty much nothing. It’ll piss of subscribers - and that’s exactly what Howard does best - because they want to hear something, anything, but are getting nothing. It’s a tease. A method to grow the anticipation for what is to come.

Howard fans who have already subscribed are still listening to him on terrestrial. They don’t want to anymore, who does? Terrestrial sucks. So “Douche” 100/101 might possibly supplement their desire to hear his stuff on Sirius, but they get NOTHING, forcing them to stick with terrestrial until the move. The silence only grows the desire to hear more.

It’s a stunt, a risky one, but a genius one too. I don’t care if you’re a Howard fan or not, his ability to intuitively market something is his best talent above all.

This NY Times article has some interesting details on the possible Chapter 11 filing of Delphi. Will it affect XM? Maybe not so much directly, but it will definitely affect General Motors, Delphi’s former parent, and caretaker of medical and pension benefits to Delphi retirees if bankruptcy occurs before mid-2007.

Remember, Chapter 11 simply means that there’s a reorg of the financials. Creditors get paid according to court orders rather than through the regularly agreed schedules. There are many companies that walk away from bankruptcy without problems, so don’t declare their demise just yet.

Word has it that the Sirius S50 will be arriving next week, even as early as October 10th to dealers. UPDATE: We’re hearing that the ship date will be early next week, so Oct 10th may be a bit over optimistic. Doesn’t matter, she’s coming real soon!

If you haven’t already, go and order yours before suppliers are completely tapped out.

XM Satellite Radio will add two more studios to the one currently at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

When speaking about the freedoms satellite radio provides Country Music creators, Eric Logan Executive Vice President of Programming, was quoted about their music as saying, “we will play it.”

…thanks E-Lo. :)

Brightpoint has entered into a distribution agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio to distribute Sirius Receivers and related products to their independent dealers and agent channel. Through Brightpoint’s “Accesspoint Dealer Network” current and future dealers have the opportunity to become Authorized Sirius Agents. Dealers will be able to offer Sirius service plans, approved devices and activate new customer accounts.

Learn more about Access Point here.

I know I touched upon this a couple days ago, but reading this article really pisses me off. It has a whole lot more quotes from our hero Mark Mays (Clear Channel CEO), such as bits like this:

“Satellite radio — which has no obligation to the public interest — is a national, not a local, programming service,” Mays said.

%@&#$@%!!

A few days ago I brought up XM’s possible 4G chipset arrival. STMicroelectronics is “shipping” their new System-in Package chips. Well, it seems that at least one analyst estimates the MyFi2, based on the 4G chip, will be here for the Holiday Season - ahead of my guestimate for CES. Interesting…

Stern’s pages are now up on the Sirius.com website, but there isn’t much to look at other than a couple purty picture of Howard and a microphone. Still, a sign of “things to come” (as if we didn’t know already!)

Check them out here (it’ll take you a whole 2 minutes): Howard 1 | Howard 2

[via Get Sirius Info]

SIRIUS Satellite Radio just announced they added more than 359,000 new net subscribers during the third quarter of 2005. The latest estimates that I was seeing was putting the number around 325,000 subscribers - this definitely exceeds that! Congrats guys!

The third quarter net subscriber gain represents a 97% increase in net subscribers over year-ago quarter net additions of approximately 182,000.

SIRIUS ended the quarter with over 2.17 million subscribers.

MediaWeek: Clear Channel president and CEO Mark Mays said at a luncheon sponsored by the Progress and Freedom Foundation that terrestrial radio is “struggling” against emerging media such as podcasting, Internet radio, and - “perhaps the most alarming” - XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

Why? Because Satellite has over 120 channels, each available in every market, while terrestrial “only” is regulated to 8 stations per market. “If XM is allowed to have 150 channels in each market, it is a competitive disadvantage for us to have only eight,” Mays said.

But… while Mays whines and complains about losing marketshare (to competition? gasp!) the hidden agenda is pretty transparent. Instead of 8 stations, he suggested the ability to buy up to 12 stations in the largest markets. Wow. Such an honest and nobel suggestion…

Agere Systems, the chip supplier to Sirius, has recently filed for a patent to create a repeater device that broadcasts over a wireless local area network (WLAN). The idea would be to receive the satellite signal, and reformat the bitstream received to deliver over WiFi to any number of receivers.

The patent reads like Agere is working on a simple way to allow for dependable interior listening of satellite radio. The big deal about this is that Agere will not be simply repeating one channel, the repeater would include "a plurality of channels" and then leave it up to the individual receiver to choose the channel.

This could be great for Sirius if WiFi receivers were built into their new devices. Businesses definitely would find this very useful. You could theoretically listen to satellite on your laptop, or setup "Sirius HotSpots" - gyms could rebroadcast Sirius to receivers built into treadmills.

Thanks Junior!

With XM’s recent announcement of surpassing 5 Million Subscribers - we were a little put off by the lack of detail in the press release. Today we get the full info with XM Satellite Radio adding more than 617,000 new net subscribers during Q3 2005 reaching a total of over 5.03 million subscribers.

XM’s subscriber gain represents a 48% increase in new net subscribers compared to Q3 2004, when XM added more than 415,000 new net subscribers.