XM Satellite Radio's comedy channel XM Comedy (ch 150) is now airing the popular Brian Scolaro's "A Complete Waste of Time," podcast.

Launched only four months ago, "A Complete Waste of Time," is a short-form program that trys to take on serious issues of the day... but never gets it done. "Brian Scolaro and his sidekicks are breaking new ground with 'A Complete Waste of Time.' It's 'The Kids in the Hall' meets 'The Aristocrats' on radio," said Sonny Fox, program director of XM Comedy.

"A Complete Waste of Time" will air throughout the day on XM Comedy.

As far as I'm aware of, this is the first podcast that has made the transition to XM (am I wrong? correct me if I am). Sirius on the otherhand partnered with Adam Curry to broadcast select podcasts back in 2005. I like the idea of podcasts getting air time on satellite radio... as long as their hand-selected.

[Press Release]

 
XM Satellite Radio and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. have extended their partnership together through 2017. Toyota's expects their annual factory production of XM-equipped vehicles to exceed one million vehicles by 2010.

Funny, because following the Honda announcement yesterday, my first thought was "great, but what's up with Toyota?" Well, here's our answer. The main thing that this does is lift some concerns that Toyota wasn't really dedicated to the XM partnership. In fact, this debunks that completely. One million units by 2010? Nice.

In 2006, Lexus introduced XM as a factory-installed standard feature on the new 2007 Lexus LS 460 L. XM Radio is also available in the 2007 LS 460, which includes the service in its navigation packages. Later this year, Lexus will provide factory-installed XM as standard equipment on the upcoming luxury hybrid, LS 600h L. 

XM Satellite Radio's Washington DC headquarters is under attack by pests (not O&A kind).

"We're talking rodents," writes XM senior vp Dan Turner in an internal memo. "Those of you familiar with DC rodents know that we're looking at the size of small house cats."

Apparently the second floor of The Eck, which is on a raised floor to allow the running of fiber cable underfoot, is where the invasion appears to be centralized. That same raised floor "represents an eight-lane superhighway to anywhere the rats want to go," according to the memo.

Turner continues: "Currently we have lost the functionality of Production Room 8 as the rodents have discovered that the cover on our fiber optics cables makes good nesting material. A couple of weeks ago it was one of the multi-function studios that was taken out of commission. Tomorrow it could be a cable to a satellite uplink. It is that serious."

The Orkin Man was called in to provide some firepower. "They put out the appropriate 'boxes' in the right places to address the problem," says Chance Patterson, vice president of corporate affairs at XM. "And hopefully the memo will encourage people to do their part to mitigate the issue."

[Washington City Paper and Washington Post]
Thanks Matt & Karl!

XM Satellite Radio will be airing special programming dedicated to Black History Month this February.

A few highlights include special Soul Edition episodes of XM's "Artist Confidential;" speeches and interviews with prominent African American authors, historians and leaders; the Negro League Baseball Museum's 7th Annual Legacy Awards; and more.

Infiniti will be the presenting sponsor for XM’s Black History Month programming. Check out more programming highlights after the jump...

XM Satellite Radio and American Honda Company have just announced that they've extended their relationship through 2016.

Honda introduced their first factory-installed vehicle back in 2003, and is expecting to install XM in 650,000 vehicles for the 2007 model year. XM is available as a factory-installed feature on 2007 Honda models including the Civic, Civic Hybrid, CR-V, Ridgeline, Accord, Accord Hybrid, Pilot, Odyssey and Element.

XM is also a standard factory-installed feature on every 2007 Acura model, and XM NavTraffic is standard on all 2007 Acura vehicles equipped with the AcuraLink satellite communication system.

Honda and XM also recently announced a user car program to provide a complimentary 3-month subscription in XM-enabled Certified Pre-Owned Honda (and Acura) vehicles.

The XM Satellite Radio and Microsoft partnership will continue with the inclusion of XM Radio Online in the new Windows Vista (being made available to us lil' people tomorrow).

XM Radio Online (XMRO) will be part of Windows Vista's digital music hub delivering +80 channels (including O&A, Bob Edwards, and Oprah) to Vista users.

As usual, users can either register for a free 3-day trial, or get an XMRO stand-alone subscription for $7.99/month. If you're a regular XM Satellite Radio subscriber, guess what, it's available at no additional charge (and hopefully you knew that already).

"Microsoft is pleased to be working closely with XM," said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president, Windows at Microsoft Corp. "We are thrilled with XM's support and excitement for the launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system."

Bobby Knight returns to XM Satellite Radio this week for part two of the interview conducted by fellow Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski on his show “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K” on XM Sports Nation (ch 144).

The always-quotable Bobby Knight had this to say during one of their exchanges:

Coach K: You’ve put over forty years into our game. How do you view the game right now? What things would you change on the court, for the game?

Bobby Knight: Officials should not be allowed in college to work more than three games a week.  Your kids are tired, and mine are too, if they play three games in a week, and officials work six nights a week, and I think that’s really an abortion to the game of basketball. It hurts the officials, and when the officials are tired, they hurt the game. I think it could be changed easily. You’re either going to work three games a week, or you can go to the NBA, or the NJCAA, or the NAAIA, or you can work Kroger’s against the A&P in the city league.

"Basketball and Beyond with Coach K” airs on XM Sports Nation - Wednesdays at 2pm ET, with replays airing that evening, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

XM Satellite Radio's XM WX weather service has been out for a while now, but has traditionally been targeted to the marine or aviation professional. But with the upcoming Bushnell ONIX400, weather data services will soon be available for the common man in handheld form (and in your car as well).

So the question on everyone's mind is: how much?

According to sources, the new consumer version of XM WX, entitled XM WX SkyWatch, will be available for only $3.99/month when combined with an XM Satellite Radio subscription. So that's a total cost of $16.94 a month.

If you want the SkyWatch package alone without XM radio, SkyWatch will run you $9.95 a month (personally, the audio + weather services sounds like a no-brainer).

The XM WX SkyWatch package includes graphical NEXRAD radar summary (aka Doppler Radar), National Weather Service warnings, your current weather conditions, and 3-day or 7-day city forecasts. Bye bye weather guy.

Also, according to these sources, XM WX is starting an "End of Season" package that allows you to suspend your account with no monthly fee until the start of the next season - with no re-activation fee. Genius.

Availability is supposed to be sometime in Summer 2007. Sign me up.

Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away, and aside from a ridiculous excuse to mark up the price of roses, it probably is also the one day when the most love songs are played.

So rather than letting your V-Day suck, take control and let XM know what are your top 5 favorite love songs. Look through XM's hand-picked selection of love songs and then place your vote so XM knows what really turns you on.

Here's my picks: “Because You Loved Me,” by Celine Dion; “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” by Bryan Adams; “Have I Told You Lately,” by Rod Stewart; “I Want You to Want Me,” by Cheap Trick;  and my personal fav... “nothing compares 2 u,” by Sinead O'Connor.

[Vote here]