XM today announced that they've signed on the Grand Ole Opry. XM will feature the live Friday and Saturday night performances as well as the Tuesday Night Opry, all starting off with Opry's 82nd Birthday Bash on Saturday, October 20th.

The Grand Ole Opry features will be spread out across several channels. First, country hits channel Nashville (ch 11) will feature live Tuesday (8pm ET), Friday (9pm ET), and Saturday night (7:30pm and 10:30pm ET) performances.

Encore broadcasts of new Opry episodes will air on XM's classic country music channel America (ch 10) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am ET, along with archival Opry broadcasts.

Many individual performances recorded live on the Opry stage will also be featured on XM's other country music channels, including Willie's Place (ch 13), Bluegrass Junction (ch 14), Highway 16 (ch 16), and U.S. Country (ch 17).

XM will also add "The Eddie Stubbs Show" to their lineup. The popular WSM program is hosted by Eddie Stubbs, a regular announcer for the Grand Ole Opry, award-winning country music DJ, and respected country music historian. "The Eddie Stubbs Show" will premiere later this fall on America (ch 10).

The Grand Ole Opry debuted on the radio airwaves in 1925 on Nashville's 650 AM WSM and can still be heard on its flagship station. Sirius dropped WSM/Grand Ole Opry from its lineup just over a year ago.

XM Canada announced today that XM will be a factory-installed option on Nissan's entire 2008 vehicle line-up. Previously it was planned to have XM equipped "in thousands of Nissan vehicles" for the Canadian market.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, Nissan's Armada SUV and 350Z sports coupe will feature XM Satellite Radio as standard equipment. XM is also a standard factory-installed feature on all 2008 Infiniti models.

Ian Forsyth, Director, Corporate & Product Planning at Nissan Canada called the expansion to the Nissan platform "a natural progression" thanks to the service's growing popularity among Infiniti owners.

I call it a "necessary progression" - and a welcome one at that.

[Press Release]