It looks like ReachMD has pre-announced their arrival on XM Satellite Radio for the Spring of 2007.
This is highly uncharacteristic of XM as most channel announcements usually come from them and not the content partner. But who am I to judge (can you say Radio Wasabi?).
Either way, ReachMD is supposed to be targeting the medical professional community with a 24/7 channel centered around general medical content as well as specialty content. It will also feature clinical research updates, policy reports, regulatory information, conference coverage, lifestyle segments and best healthcare practices.
Sounds, truly fascinating.
(Psst, can we please get a 24/7 TechTV-style channel? Seriously, there's a lot of geeks out there who would kill for the likes of Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose on satellite radio.)
I absolutely agree with you Ryan! A tech tv style radio channel would be perfect for tech geeks. The people who buy satellite radio are mostly tech geeks anyway. They would allure more subscribers than Oprah ever did. Maybe even a G4 channel about video games?
I'd settle for just a single channel with all Tech content (including gaming) on it.
Gadgets, Industry News, Gaming, etc. 24 hours is alot of time to fill with programming and I think there's space for all of it. Both services have featurettes with Tech content, but neither has a dedicated channel and I think it would be very well received.
(Plus, in a time when companies are vying for mindshare and support from online influentials - it doesn't hurt to appeal to them by providing content they would be interested in.)
No wonder XM hasn't said anything... according to the press release, the station is being added in partnership with Premiere Radio Networks, which is a division of Clear Channel.
Ah ha! Look at the press release from ReachMD - it credits Premiere Radio Networks, which is a division of... drum roll please.. Clear Channel!
That's why XM isn't announcing this - it's part of Clear Channel's bandwidth, and their division Premiere will even be helping to sell advertising on the channel.
Leo's weekend radio show just signed with Premiere. So they should just throw that up on XM. Get Jim Rome up there too...what is the hold up?
XM did have a tech channel, CNET. It wasn't very good though, and at it's demise just repeated David Lawrence 24/7. I agree that I would love a channel that would play content from Laporte, TWIT, DL.TV and other podcasters, though.
I'm actually concerned about Clear Channel adding more talk.
I have relatives that subscribe and listen to XM specifically for the talk stations. It's obvious XM has no interest in promoting the CC stations. So the more talk that CC adds, the more painful it will be when XM yanks them off.