Chalk this up as the feel-good story of the day. XM's all-politics all-the-time channel, POTUS '08 (ch 130), started the day today with a reminder that there's an entire audience of listeners who might not be of voting age... but are still pretty darn smart.

Producer Joanna Welch came upon a unique letter (not email, mind you) this morning from Sophia McCrimmen, who turns out to be an 8-year-old and an avid politics and POTUS fan. Sure, Sophia might have misspelled a few words (don't we all?), but that doesn't diminish the fact that the 3rd grader noticed something that the POTUS pros did not.

"I love lisning to your shows!" she wrote. "I love politics so much! I just have one problem, you are underestimating the number of days until the election! You are forgeting that 2008 is a leap year!...Plese add one day too your total to acount for leap day. Keep up the good work.

"P.S. Can you mabie read this on the radio? That would be super cool!!!!

"P.P.S. If you have time. I don't want to mess you up."

Sophia was right. The POTUS folks had been counting the days to the '08 election incorrectly (ok, it was Scott Walterman's fault, but I'm not pointing any fingers). So "1600" host Rebecca Roberts (pictured above) got Sophia on the phone.

You can hear her three-minute on-air interview with Sophia below, or by clicking here.

[Los Angeles Times Blogs]

It's the 2nd holiday season since Oprah kicked off her channel on XM, and the satellite radio service has yet to get on her list of "Favorite Things."

But the Queen Of All Media has at least decided to throw XM a bone this year. The XpressRC has been included on Oprah's "The O List" in the December 2007 edition of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Oh well, so XM didn't make it as one of her favorite things. Maybe next year... y'know, before her contract runs out.

[XpressRC on The O List]
Thanks Roland!

XM is adding in a new talk channel onto its lineup and is migrating several shows from another channel to it.

America's Talk (ch 158), which will debut on November 19th, is another talk channel programmed by Clear Channel Communications. Many shows from Extreme Talk (ch 152) and Talk Radio (ch 165), both of which are also Clear Channel channels, are making their way over there as well.

Featured shows on America's Talk include Sally Jessy Raphael, Bruce Williams, Handel on the Law and - one of my personal favorites - Leo Laporte.

[America's Talk]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Eric Byrnes will host his own weekly, three-hour show on XM Satellite Radio during the baseball off-season.

The "Eric Byrnes Show" debuts this Saturday, November 17th, at 12-noon ET on XM's MLB Home Plate (ch 175) and will air on Saturdays all the way until spring training.

Not only is Byrnes devling deep into the world of satellite radio (a weekly 3-hour show is better than most), but he's the first active MLB player to host his own satellite radio show. He's no amateur though, having had been an in-demand sports analyst for FOX Sports and ESPN, as well as having hosted an off-season radio show at KNBR-AM in San Francisco last year.

Byrnes signed a three-year contract extension with the Diamondbacks in August 2007. He made his major league debut with the Oakland A's in 2000. After stints in Colorado and Baltimore, Byrnes joined Arizona in 2006.