NASCAR driver Kyle Petty will join Doug Rice as the host of "Fast Talk Live," starting on Monday. The show airs on the Performance Racing Network (PRN), and is heard on XM Satellite Radio.

"Fast Talk Live" - which has been broadcasting for 15 years - airs Monday nights at 7-8pm ET on XM Sports Nation (ch 144) and is part of XM's Engine Block racing-centric programming.

Petty, along with several other NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers, will be a part of a rotating panel of hosts for the 2007 "Fast Talk Live" season.

"We’re hoping to make an informative and entertaining show," said Petty. "Whether it is the competition side, which includes the Car of Tomorrow, to the sponsorship and business side that is crucial to Petty Enterprises, we will leave no stone unturned."

Fun fact: Kyle Petty recently broadcast live from the Sirius booth at NYIAS 2007 for Sirius NASCAR Radio.

Every National Hockey League play-off game will air on XM Satellite Radio across the continental U.S. and Canada starting with the first-round games on Wednesday (hey wait, that's tomorrow), April 11th.

You hockey fans can tune into every game from the opening round to the Stanley Cup final live on XM channels 204 to 209. On top of XM's NHL game coverage, XM also airs their 24-hour hockey talk radio channel Home Ice (ch 204).

Hockey legend Phil Esposito hosts the Home Ice show "In the Slot" with Jim Tatti every weekday from 4pm to 7pm ET. Esposito's annual Espo Awards are being announced on Tuesday (hey wait, that's today), April 10th, from 4pm to 7pm ET (hey wait, that's right now, crap!). Espo Awards Categories include Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, Goal of the Year, Toughest Player, and even Most Difficult Name to Pronounce.

I've always felt that XM never did enough when it came to promoting MLB, but recently it seems that things are turning around. They did some great on-site promotions at last year's World Series (and around the same time featured a baseball themed commercial). Then recently they've launched another sports-themed TV spot with some versions highlighting their baseball coverage.

And now they've launched a great viral campaign entitled "Call Stars."

Essentially you pick one of three Major League Baseball players and go through some steps for personalization, and you can have a custom message sent to a friend (or enemy) from your selected player. So Derek Jeter, David Ortiz or Cal Ripkin Jr can each call your friend (Ortiz can call in either English or Spanish). My personal favorite is Ortiz, but they're pretty hilarious - especially to baseball fans. You might have seen a similar campaign for the "Snakes on a Plane" movie. I had the opportunity to preview Call Stars last week, and it's only gotten better since.

One neat thing to point out: the custom voice message can be sent either by phone, by AOL Instant Messenger, or via Email. If you elect the phone message, it'll only call during daytime hours so your buddy doesn't get a call from Derek Jeter at 3am in the morning.

Definitely worth checking out. Go play with Call Stars here. 

Check out this new TV spot by XM. One thing I like about it is while it's generally sports-themed, XM gives special attention to baseball specifically (as they should). So they're appealing to all sports fans, but targeting the MLB fan. Nice.

This TV commercial is currently running during MLB games on Fox, ESPN, and DirecTV, as well as ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" and other sports programs.

I dig it.