Recently in Sirius Category

Rumor has it that Bubba The Love Sponge is leaving Sirius XM Radio Inc. in January, and that an announcement of his status at the company could be coming as early as Monday morning.

Orbitcast has learned that Bubba will be departing the world of Satellite Radio for a terrestrial syndication deal with Cox Broadcasting, according to people familiar with the matter. Bubba The Love Sponge is said to be adding 96.5 WHTQ in Orlando and 93 Rock in Miami to his roster of syndicated stations, these people said.

As to who will be replacing Bubba? Sources told Orbitcast that Neil Rogers and Phil Hendrie have been named as possible replacements on the Howard 101 channel.

Additionally, FMQB is reporting that an announcement about Bubba's status at Sirius XM could be coming as early as Monday morning.

Upon further inquiry, Orbitcast has confirmed with Bubba's representatives that a Monday announcement is indeed true, though details of the exact nature of the announcement remain unknown. "We are not responding to rumors about its subject," a representative for Bubba said.

Stay tuned...

Details are scant about this new Sirius television commercial, but a crafty fan recorded the spot and posted it online for all to see.

It's a departure from prior commercials in that it sets a tone and emotion, rather than simply highlighting content. An approach I personally prefer.

The minute-long spot, which shows flashes of memories and life moments, is set entirely to music with no voiceover. It displays the text:

When was the last time you discovered something new?

Discover music again
Discover again

What's interesting is that there's no mention of the "Best of XM" package or "Everything worth listening to..." which makes me think this is from Sirius Canada (where they tend to have entirely cooler commercials than here in the U.S.). UPDATE: Yep, it's definitely a Sirius Canada commercial, and I've updated the post to show a better quality video.

Thanks Michael!

As expected, another round of layoffs ripped through Sirius XM today, only this time it was the Sirius business unit that was affected the most, reports All Access.

"At least 30" employees were let go, most of whom were New York-based employees (pictured above, South Korean labor protesters outside the Sirius headquarters in NYC).

The combined Sirius XM Radio Inc. channel lineup, scheduled to go live this Wednesday, was officially made public in a full-page spread in Friday's USA Today.

A scan of the USA Today full-page ad was uploaded by maxoct97 to XM Fan. I've color-corrected it and stitched it together into a single image (click on the image above to view the full-size version).

The channels listed still leave some holes to be uncovered - because they don't add up to the 69 commercial-free channels publicized - but this gives us a clear and official look into what channels will remain after the switchover.

Here's the lineup by category:

Pop:
40's on 4, 50's on 5, 60's on 6, 70's on 7, 80's on 8, Elvis Radio, Top 20 on 20;

Rock:
AC/DC Radio, Led Zepplin Radio, Hair Nation, 1st Wave, Alt Nation, Faction, Classic Vinyl, E Street Radio, Grateful Dead Radio, Radio Margaritaville, Underground Garage, The Coffee House,

Dance & Electronic:
BPM, Sirius XM Chill

Hip-Hop & R&B:
Shade 45, Hip Hop Nation, Soul Town

Jazz, Blues & Standards:
Real Jazz, Siriously Sinatra, BB King's Bluesville, Cinemagic, On Broadway

Country:
Outlaw Country, Bluegrass Junction, Willies Place

Latin & World:
The Joint

Christian:
Praise

Classical:
Met Opera

Play-by-Play Sports:
NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, PGA, Mad Dog Radio, Barclay's Premier League, NCAA, Indy Car, F1, NASCAR, Pac 10, Big 10, SEC, Big East, Big 12, ACC

Talk, News and Entertainment:
Fox News, CNN, CNBA, Bloomberg Radio, POTUS, XM Public Radio, NPR, Doctor radio, The Catholic Channel, Cosmo Radio, Sirius XM Book Radio, America Left, America Right, Raw Dog Comedy, Bubba The Love Sponge, Laugh USA, National Lampoon Comedy Radio, Laugh Attack, Radio Disney, Kids Place Line, Howard Stern, Blue Collar Comedy, Martha Stewart Living Radio, The Opie & Anthony Show, The Foxxhole produced by Kamie Foxx, Sirius XM Stars, Oprah & Friends

[via XMFan]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

BMW of North America has re-upped its partnership with Sirius XM Radio Inc., extending the relationship through September 2011.

It's a short renewal period, especially when compared to Toyota, which extended its contract with XM through 2017. But BMW isn't known for its long contracts anyway, having extended its contract with Sirius once before for about the same duration.

Sirius is available as an option on all BMW vehicles with a 1-year bundled subscription included in the price of the vehicle.

Bruce Morrow, aka "Cousin Brucie" - who joined Sirius Satellite Radio back in 2005 - will be making his debut on XM, according to on-air audio.

The Cuz made the announcement on the air after explaining to a listener that he will also be "moving next door" to Sirius 5.

"And we're also going to be on XM," said Morrow.

Listen to the audio below:

[Download MP3]
Thanks Nathan!

Following last week's rumor of the combining of Sirius XM Radio Inc. music channels, comes a new batch of rumors that the launch date of the merged channels will come in less than two-weeks.

Instead of the revised date of November 14th (updated from November 5th), we're now hearing that the combined channels between Sirius and XM is scheduled for November 12th. Does two days make a difference? No, not really, but I'm just relaying the info here folks.

Here's the rundown so far:
50 channels are expected to be simulcast between Sirius and XM. There will also be new channels coming to XM, and both services will retain "special" channels unique to each.

XM Escape is reportedly moving to channel 28, and The Pulse is moving to channel 12. This indicates a complete channel shuffle to me, but - according to various sources - Boneyard, Squizz, The Loft (and even 90s on 9) - are reportedly going to be staying. In total, XM will air 69 commercial-free channels. Details on Sirius' lineup are unknown at this time.

It is possible that a channel guide will be released ahead of this change (this could be the original Nov. 5th date?).

Sirius XM Radio Inc. and the National Basketball Association issued a press release, making the NBA's full available on XM (and subsequently on Sirius with the "Best of XM" package) officially official now.

It's a partnership that has many folks confused, and it's particularly hard to break down into a succinct quote as I tried to do when I was talking to Wired about it. So here's the full details, I'll try to be as brief as possible.

The NBA has had a partnership with Sirius satellite radio since 2003 (it was the first major professional sports league to provide live games on Sirius even). Now with the NBA season tipping off today, the NBA has switched over to XM where listeners get access to over 1,000 regular season games, plus the Playoffs and The Finals.

Now for "most" Sirius listeners (those without older generation chips in their radios), select NBA games will be available through the "Best of XM" package. Remember that if this merger never happened, then the NBA would be lost forever to XM and not available to Sirius subs at all.

Questions remain about the details of the contract negotiations. Did the NBA talk to XM, and then present a counteroffer to Sirius, which ended up being a moot negotiation since the two were merging anyway? Seems like the most likely scenario to me, but we'll never know.

Regardless, starting today, XM (and, yes, many Sirius) subscribers will have access to the Opening Night tripleheader with the Celtics hosting the Cavaliers at 8pm ET (XM channel 231, Sirius channel 215), plus the Bucks @ the Bulls at 8:30pm ET (XM channel 232, Sirius channel 216) and the Trailblazers @ the Lakers at 10:30 pm ET (XM channel 233, Sirius channel 217).

Check the full schedule on XM here.

"There's hardly a day goes by when I don't ask myself [whether Sirius will survive]."

That's what analyst Tuna Amobi of Standard & Poor's Equity Research said to BusinessWeek in a recent article about Sirius XM Radio Inc. and its mounting debt - which will add up to more than $1 billion next year, according to the report.

Amobi, of course, rates SIRI a "buy" because it's such a cheap way to profit from any upside.

But that doesn't dispute the fact that there's a lot weighing on Mel Karmazin's shoulders right now, particularly the  $620 million in debt payments due in February and May.

"We are very confident of taking care of the [$270] million in February, and we are confident the banks will extend the maturity in May," says Sirius XM Radio Inc. CFO David Frear. The company forecasts it will be able to generate $300 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization - effectively easing its cash needs next year.

Analyst James Ratcliffe of Barclays Capital estimates that Sirius XM needs to raise $750 million to $800 million to cover its debt repayments, programming costs, and capital spending for next year.

Which brings us to the company's plan to ask shareholders to allow it to nearly double its total shares.

"I don't think they want to issue more equity," said Ratcliffe. "But given the conditions of the credit market, they may have to."

A lot of people have been asking about the Halloween programming lineup for both Sirius and XM, well here it is...

Sirius XM Radio Inc. will be dedicating two uninterrupted channel, Sirius Scream (ch 113) and XM Gore (ch 134) devoted to all things Halloween for a total of six consecutive days of ghoulish goodness.

Sirius is also putting together the Alfred Hitchcock Radio channel (on Sirius channel 119), which - for three straight days - which will play vintage radio dramas such as The Birds and Shadow of a Doubt, movie versions of which were made famous by Hitchcock.

Sirius Scream and XM Gore will run from October 26th to October 31st, with the 24 hours of blood-curdling Halloween sound effects on the 31st only.

There's also a slew of additional Halloween programming, but we'll get into all that and a ton of other spooky programming after the jump.