XM and Public Radio International (PRI) are expanding on their partnership, now to provide the popular interview/call-in show "RadioWest," starting next Monday, June 4th.

Produced by KUER-FM in Salt Lake City, "RadioWest" is an hour-long show hosted by Doug Fabrizio (pictured) - who you might have also heard as a guest host on NPR's "Talk of the Nation."

The show packs impressive roster of guest hosts itself, including authors E. L. Doctorow and the late Spalding Gray, not to mention global luminaries like the Dali Lama and Desmond Tutu.

Doug Fabrizio has been the host and executive producer of "RadioWest" since 2001, and has won numerous awards for the show from organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Utah Broadcasters Association.

"RadioWest" will air on XM Public Radio (ch 133) weekdays at 1pm ET.

XM is launching a new 24-hour, commercial-free channel dedicated to the 2008 presidential election called "POTUS ‘08."

The channel's name (pronounced POH-tus... say it with me, POH-tus) comes from the Secret Service code name acronym for the President of the United States.

POTUS '08, created in association with C-SPAN and other media outlets, is the first national radio channel ever that is completely devoted to a presidential campaign. The channel will also be broadcast for free to all XM radio receivers. So even if you're not a subscriber, but have an XM radio installed, you can still listen to the presidential election channel.

You can expect to hear news updates, candidate interviews, complete speeches, debate coverage, latest polling results, fundraising status, and live call-in shows. The channel will provide free airtime for presidential candidates to speak to voters. Non-traditional media outlets, such as bloggers and podcasters, will provide content for the channel (very cool!). It will also air archival audio of historic moments from past campaigns, tapping C-SPAN’s political archive. (And there's more to come.)

XM will preview the channel in June 2007 with live XM original coverage and a re-broadcast of candidate debates hosted by CNN. The channel will formally launch in September 2007 and air through November 2008, when voters go to the polls to elect the 44th president.

"POTUS 08" will be located at XM Channel 130. Similar to previous "microchannels" dedicated to specific content (like Red Cross Radio), "POTUS ‘08" is the first microchannel dedicated to a major news event.

In regards to the Quinn and Rose drama, an XM Spokesman had the following to say:

"The Quinn and Rose show is not produced by XM.  Mr. Quinn and Ms. Rose are not employees of XM.  The Quinn and Rose show is produced by Clear Channel. XM merely retransmits this show, as it retransmits dozens of other shows from third-party outlets. Any concerns about the show should be addressed to the show or Clear Channel."

It must be a real fun time over at the PR Dept Situation Room. At least this is one issue that's easily squished.

There's a bit of a controversy brewing - separate from Opie & Anthony - over the comments made by the Quinn & Rose show on XM Talk Radio (ch 165) .

Apparently remarks made on the Quinn & Rose show alleged that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to blame the war in Iraq for the slow response to the Greensburg, Kansas tornado disaster.

The remarks made their way to FreeRepublic.com, which cited the XM show, "Dean called Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius early, around 5 am, one morning after the tornado had destroyed the town of Greensburg, Kansas and discussed with her what to say about the tornado and how to blame the war in Iraq and the Bush administration on a slow response to the aftermath."

The Quinn & Rose Show website also alleges the Dean-Sebelius conversation took place.

According to Democrats, the conversation never occurred, and as a result a cease and desist letter was sent to James Robinson of FreeRepublic and Dara Altman, the Executive Vice President of XM Satellite Radio. The c&d was of course posted on FreeRepublic, creating a comment frenzy.

[The Raw Story] 

View the cease and desist after the jump...