This is pretty cool, Get Sirius Info has a great feature on how the display changes between songs on Sirius’ new Super Shuffle channel. Damain has a couple pics of before/after shots to boot. Very neat!

This is interesting. It seems that Sirius and MTV are going to be providing a video stream together on Sirius according to a little slip within this article.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

Chicago disco band, 000000000001, tops the charts at download.com / cnet for 5 consecutive months. With a projected download forecast of 1,000,000 mp3’s and Podcasts with exclusive DJ mixes on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. Always on the cutting edge of technology, the band expects to launch its video show with MTV tributes on Sirius’ video service, using the Windows Media Video 9 player in 2006

…interesting.

Thanks sr!

There's a controversial article on Billboard Radio Monitor about Sirius running 2.5 minute long commercials (on their non-music channels - music channels remain commercial-free as they should be).

This all comes from a comment made by Sirius' Senior VP of Advertising Sales Sam Benrubi at Wednesday?s Gundersen Partners Power Breakfast. Sirius recently closed an ad campaign with a "spirits manufacturer" that will feature a two and ?-minute spot.

Before you get your panties in a bunch, keep in mind that this doesn't mean that there will be MORE commercials on Sirius as opposed to Terrestrial - in fact, the number of commercial minutes per hour will still be far less. It just means there's the potential for longer spots (and quite possibly - more entertaining commercials because they have more time to deliver the message). Mel has made it a point in the past that he intends on maximizing the profits from advertisers - and what better way than giving them longer ad spots?

(I'm downplaying this a bit because I've gotten some heated emails from people. XM runs ads on their non-music channels as well, and in my opinion, it's not that big of a deal. Longer ad spots might be more entertaining anyway as long as the actual commercial breaks don't get longer. Just my $0.02.)

Sirius has put up a neat lilttle page showing the channel lineup changes (that’s going into effect tomorrow). I love the “related channels” section when you click on something. Very slick!

These landing pages seem to be part of a new trend for Sirius - very nice to see.

Sirius has updated their website with a specific page about the S50 including some product details and most notably, a video clip.

(drool)

Yep, the Word Network is suing Sirius. They were putting up a stink over being dropped from Sirius’ line-up, and now they’ve just escalated it to a lawsuit.

UPDATE: An anonymous reader sent us a copy of the suit against Sirius (Download PDF). Very interesting stuff, especially considering the equipment and marketing ‘fees’ TWN had to pay.

Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast the hurricane relief concert Country Reaches Out: An Opry Benefit for the American Red Cross on two of its channels tomorrow, Tuesday, September 27th. SIRIUS will broadcast the event from 8pm to 11pm (ET) on WSM Entertainment (Channel 137), and from 9pm to 11pm (ET of course) on New Country (Channel 31). The special event is a project of the Grand Ole Opry and television network Great American Country (GAC), and will take place at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee.

The commercial-free event will include appearances and performances by country music artists to raise awareness for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, and urging contributions from listeners. Country music artists scheduled to perform include Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss, LeAnn Rimes, Terri Clark, Keith Urban, Marty Stuart, Porter Wagoner, Craig Morgan, Julie Roberts, Riders in the Sky, Billy Currington, Jimmy Dickens and Jimmy C. Newman.

Profits from the show?s ticket sales will also benefit the American Red Cross.

So last month, New York radio personality Cousin Brucie launched two weekly music programs as part of joining Sirius Satellite Radio. Well, starting this Thursday (Sept 29th) Cousin Brucie will also become a SIRIUS talk show host, with the debut of his new weekly program, Talkin’ With the Cuz.

Morrow plans to feature special guests from the world of music, media, politics and film on his new talk show. The debut of Talkin’ With the Cuz will feature scheduled special in-studio guest New York Senator Charles Schumer.

I know these have been going on for sometime now, but it’s worth mentioning for those who don’t know - Sirius Satellite Radio has an ongoing auction with some of the coolest stuff I’ve seen yet (Super Bowl XL VIP tickets, signed helmet by Donovan McNabb, BMW driving school, etc) and XM Satellite Radio’s pest-inciting duo Opie and Anthony have been running an ongoing auction on eBay as well with some cool MLB and O&A related items.

I love to see that both companies are using their connections to do something good. And the winners get some awesome items, all the while knowing that the money spent is going to a good cause. Can’t beat that.

Thanks Josh!

As part of its new programming lineup starting on September 29, Sirius Satellite Radio is introducing a new music channel called Revolution (channel 67) that will be devoted to Christian rock music and is geared to complement Sirius’ current Christian music offerings. Revolution will feature today’s most popular, faith-based rock music, by artists such as Switchfoot, Relient K, Thousand Foot Krutch and many more.

Although its popularity has been growing steadily for the past decade, sales of albums in the Christian Rock genre grew an astounding 125% in 2004 (according to the Gospel Music Association) and Christian music is currently the sixth most popular in the US, behind rock, hip-hop, R&B/urban, country and pop music - but ahead of jazz and classical.