XM Satellite Radio is adding two popular American Public Media programs "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Marketplace," (actually, they're adding a bunch of "Marketplace" shows) to XM Public Radio (ch 133), starting in March.
Starting March 3rd, "A Prairie Home Companion" will air live every Saturday from 6pm to 8pm ET, with replays during the week. Now in its 33rd year of production, "A Prairie Home Companion" consists of 32 live shows broadcast from across the country, as well as comedy sketches, music, and the signature monologue, "The News from Lake Wobegon" by best selling author Garrison Keillor.
The XMPR schedule also will include “Marketplace,” an entertaining high-energy program on business and finance. One of the most popular series in the public radio news line-up, "Marketplace" will start airing weekdays, at 7pm ET starting Monday, March 5th.
And then there's "Marketplace Money," an hour-long weekend program focusing on personal finance, and "Marketplace Morning Report" which will also be added to the XMPR schedule. “Marketplace Money” will air Saturdays at 9pm ET starting March 3rd while “Marketplace Morning Report” will air weekdays beginning March 5th.
But wait, there's more! American Public Media is also adding a schmorgusborg of other public radio programs like “The Story,” “Weekend America,” “Sound Opinions” and “Performance Today Weekend” - all joining the XMPR lineup sometime this spring.
I am very happy to see Marketplace programming (all of it) coming to XMPR. It's the only business news on radio or TV that's entertaining enough to consume daily. I also look forward to Weekend America and The Story.
I could care less about A Prairie Home Companion, but obviously this is a big deal for many long-time fans, so for them, I am happy they can now receive this show. I will listen to another XM channel or a recording at that time.
Also, I would like to see how scheduling will work out if they are going to run a half-hour show at 7 PM ET - will they merely repeat Marketplace again, like NPR Now does on Sirius? Or perhaps have a new evening program?
And, how will Marketplace Morning Report affect Bob Edwards' schedule in the AM? Will Bob produce shorter shows? Or perhaps longer ones? I could see either Bob going to 50 minutes to leave room for MMR at the bottom of each hour. That would not really bother me. But I look forward to seeing how XMPR will integrate all the new programming. They are truly becoming a full-fleged public radio station. This will certainly help cut down on repeats.
Marketplace is excellent. Is it exclusive to XM or does Sirius also have access to it?
As for "A Prairie Home Companion"....
Well, I guess you had to be there. I've tried and always found it to be the radio equivalent of paint drying. Still, I guess Keillor is doing something right, as it's one of the most popular Public Radio programs. I'm just not sure why...
The movie was, like the radio show, deadly dull.
Haven't heard PHC in a long time. But when I last did it was a thoroughly enjoyable show.
xm public radio, IMO was weak in terms of programming for a while. Seeing the increase of programming is a good thing.
Prairie Home Companion is a radio show I've gotten used to over the years and since it was on Sirius it was a big bonus for me. Looks like PHC is now spreading to other satellite radio stations.
Two points for this Logan. For a change, programming that will add more than 14 subs.
Good job putz.
Interesting, interesting... After seeing the post about terrestrial NPR stations being irritated ( http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/radio-isnt-happy-about-xm-public-radios-latest-deal.html ) by the APM/XM deal that this post covers, I decided to check and see when PHC was on NPR Now on Sirius (to see whether it was live as it will be on XM). Lo and behold - Marketplace and PHC appear to have been *pulled* from Sirius NPR Now. Replacement programming is now airing in those shows' former slots.
So, apparently APM programming is now XM exclusive. I do think this is a smart move for XM - I wonder if the way they got the exclusive was by agreeing to a package deal for the majority of APM's content.
So XM now has virtually of APM and PRI content - that's quite a bit of public radio with those two distributors alone.
I wonder if Sirius will try to hang onto NPR exclusivity? I wouldn't mind NPR having one channel on XM, but seeing how much repetition they have on their two Sirius channels, I'd say XM need not bother with more than one.
I personally am happy to see more great NPR/PRI/APR, etc., coming to XM as a current subscriber. I had just bought a couple of XTR3 Sirius unit tonight on the basis of switching to them since my gf loves Stern (ugh) and I love the NPR/PRI/APR/C-Span stuff. Glad I checked tonight before activating!! My unit will be going back to the store tomorrow. I'll leave the gf's up to her decision.
Now, my only question is: With the merger, will the powers at XM be sensible enough to keep adding this great programming? Even adding an additional channel?
(upon approval from the FCC of course.)