Lots of stuff going on this weekend, and I’m sure there is even more that was not covered on this list. Personally, I cannot wait for the SoulTown and Derek & Romaine specials.

“2006 WIMBLEDON TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS” - Live point-by-point action, courtside reports and highlights, pre and post-match commentary, and up to the minute Wimbledon news (Channel 125, 6 am to 4 pm ET)

“ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION” - We’re celebrating our one-year anniversary of broadcasting live from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, featuring your favorite Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and more (Classic Vinyl/channel 14, June 30 through July

“2006 TONY AWARDS FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND” - 2006 Tony Award winners and the best of Broadway today, including Sweeney Todd, Pajama Game, Monty Python’s Spamalot and The Jersey Boys (Broadway’s Best/channel 77, July 1-4)

“AMERICAN ICONS” - Highlights from exclusive SIRIUS interviews and music from American musical icons including Sheryl Crow, John Fogerty, Dave Matthews, Michael Stipe and more (The Spectrum/channel 18, from June 30 @ 5 pm ET until July 4 @12 midnight ET)

“JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH DEPECHE MODE” - 96 hours of Depeche Mode! Including live tracks, b-sides, and songs from their latest album, with guest DJs Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher of Depeche Mode (First Wave/channel 22, July 1-4)

“INDIE-PENDENCE DAY WEEKEND” - Celebrate the best in indie rock all weekend (Left of Center/channel 26, July 1 @ 10 am ET through July 4)

“NAT KING COLE 4th OF JULY WEEKEND” - Enjoy the music of the ‘”King”, including his greatest hits and unforgettable popular standards (Standard Time/channel 75, July 1-4)

“ALL-STAR RANDOM ACCESS” - Your favorite Big ‘80s artists take over the controls to play DJ: INXS, Toto, Journey, Duran Duran Duran, The Fixx and more (Big ‘80s/channel 8, July 3 and 4 from 12-1 pm ET)

“BACK IN THE DAY MIX HOLIDAY” - Mini-mixes of your favorite “back in the day” hip-hop, with plenty of old-school beats from some of the nation’s best mixers (BackSpin/channel 43, starting at 9 am ET on July 4)

“BEST OF THE JAY THOMAS SHOW” - July 4 “best of” special featuring guests Paul Shaffer, Judith Regan, Victoria Gotti and more (SIRIUS Stars/channel 102, July 4 @ 2 pm)

“ONE NATION UNDER A CLASSIC SOUL GROOVE” - Great classic soul tracks by our blue-eyed and Latino brothers and sisters are celebrated all day long on Independence Day (Soul Town/channel 53, all day July 4)

“DEREK & ROMAINE SHOW ALL-STARS” - July 4th “best of” The Derek & Romaine Show, featuring guests RuPaul, Charo, Dennis Rodman, Donald Trump, Joy Behar, Sandra Bernhard, Janice Dickinson, Mario Cantone & more (SIRIUS OutQ/channel 106, July 4 @ 6 pm ET)

“PULLIN’ THE PLUG” - Special SIRIUS-exclusive acoustic versions of your favorite New Country songs, drawn from the New Country Soundstage series (New Country/channel 60, all day July 4)

“FUNKY 4TH OF JULY” - Funk jamz from George Clinton, Rick James, Cameo, Parliament, Bootsy and more (Heart & Soul/channel 51, July 4 starting at 12 pm ET)

“RED, WHITE AND BLUE COLLAR OUTLAWS: DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS & BOTTLE ROCKETS”-
Highlights from recent SIRIUS performances by two of America’s finest blue collar country rock bands (Outlaw Country/channel 63, July 4 @ 11 pm ET)

“STRUTTIN’ WITH SOME BARBEQUE: JULY 4 WITH LOUIS ARMSTRONG” - Enjoy his unofficial birthday, with Louis Armstrong music every hour (Pure Jazz/channel 72, all day July 4)

“WORLD CAFE 4th OF JULY SPECIAL” - 25 of the best songs ever written (or performed) about America, from artists ranging from Cole Porter to Woody Guthrie to Los Lobos (SIRIUS Disorder/ channel 24, July 4 @ 6 pm ET)

“MARKY RAMONE’S PUNK ROCK BARBEQUE” - SIRIUS host and drummer for legendary band The Ramones, Marky Ramone, fires up the grill to the sounds of classic punk tunes (Faction/channel 28, July 4 @ 8 pm ET)

“HANK JR. & HIS ROWDY FRIENDS: THAT’S HOW WE DO IT IN DIXIE” - Hank Williams, Jr. is your host, playing tracks by his rowdy friends, telling stories and playing his own new record, That’s How We Do It In Dixie-The Essential Collection (Outlaw Country/channel 63, July 4 @ 10 am and 6 pm ET)

“FUTURE STARS AND (WHITE) STRIPES WEEKEND”- Young, up-and-coming bands destined for greatness, starting July 1 and culminating in re-broadcast of the White Stripes concert in Detroit from October 2005 (Left of Center/channel 26, July 4 @ 10 pm ET)

Discuss here.

Orbitcast.com has the story…

The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) posted an advertisement in a Capitol Hill publication urging legislators to oppose restrictions on satellite radio. The ad pulls no punches, highlighting some of the self-benefitting dreck that the RIAA, MPAA and ASCAP have spouting over the past. century.

View the ad here

To help stop legislation against satellite radio contact your congressmen.

Comment Here.

The SL100-TK1 Satellite Radio/MP3 Player will be coming out shortly, according to retailers. The radio was recently listed in the one store’s company database, along with new car/home kits, and antenna headphones. It does not appear to be on their consumer site currently, but after they released the Sportster4 photos and pricing too early back in April, they are probably going to wait for Sirius to officially announce it before it appears on their site.

Looking at the name, it seems that it might use the Stiletto name based on the ‘SL’ designator. The radio itself will likely have 100 hours of Sirius recordings on a 2GB drive, hence the ‘100’.

Image courtesy of Orbitcast

Comment here.

Ryan over at Orbitcast.com gives us a heads up about a new article discussing the potential of Howard Online.

Mark Ramsey at hear2.0 claims that a barrier to entry for Stern fans who haven’t migrated over, the radio, has been removed.

SIRIUS finally reduced the “pain” of listening to Stern, where that pain included going to a store and getting a radio and installing a radio and positioning an antennae, etc. Now, suddenly, it’s as easy as buying a book on Amazon.

It would be nice if it were as easy as shopping at Amazon.

Ramsey fails to realize that SIRIUS does not offer an online-only subscription. You still have to march down to the store, buy a radio, install it, activate it, and then set up your online streaming account.

There is no way to get Howard Stern or SIRIUS Music via the Internet without the radio. While XM Satellite does offer an online-only sub, for SIRIUS there is still no 1-Click way to instant gratification.

Comment here.

SIRIUS and XM have long used FM-modulators to make the installation process ‘foolproof’ and easy for the average Joe.

While it’s not an issue for satellite-enabled OEM cars, or people with SIRIUS-Connect headunits, the FM-modulator has long been the achilles heel of satellite radio. Sure it’s easy to use and satisfactory for most users, yet there are countless others who experience static, bleed-thru and poor audio quality.

Orbitcast points out that XM plans to do something about it, by piggy-backing on HD Radio to transmit a digital signal from the satellite radio receiver to the car’s radio.

While this will be a great improvement, there’s practically no cars with HD Radios on the market to begin with. In the mean time, factory installations continue to grow each day.

Regardless, any engineering feat that will improve the integrity of the signal and audio quality is noteworthy.

Comment here.

With today’s channel update, Sirius has changed the names of some of the stations. PRI is now Talk, BBC News is now News, and BBC Mundo is now Spanish News. With these being the three channels that are controlled by Public Radio International(BBC News/Mundo are distributed in the United States by PRI), could this signal an end to a Sirius/PRI agreement? NPR has an exclusive agreement that runs until February 2007, so no fears about if they are leaving for another 6 months, but will PRI be disappearing off the airwaves soon? We are currently working on finding out when the agreement with PRI ends.

The other issue is if this will include World Cafe, currently on Sirius Disorder // 24. The program is broadcasted from WXPN/Philadelphia and is a strong music program.

EDIT: This should not affect Radio 1, because that is distributed to Sirius directly through the BBC, and not through PRI as BBC News and BBC Mundo are.

Update: I just realized that PRI ends its fiscal year on June 30th(I helped set up a PRI station). While Sirius may not necessarily be on the same schedule, it is a fairly large coincidence that the station names ‘go generic’ with less than 2 weeks to go until the end of PRI’s fiscal year. Stay tuned.

Thanks to the members of SiriusBackstage.com for pointing this out today!

Comment here.

The new SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Branson Coast to Coast, launching on Sunday, July 2, will bring all the excitement of the “Live Music Show Capital of the World” to listeners nationwide.Bob Mitchell, host of Branson Coast to Coast, will welcome special guests each week, including such major country music artists as Pam Tillis, Ronnie Milsap, Oak Ridge Boys and many more who perform in Branson, Missouri regularly.

The live music mecca of Branson hosts up to 65,000 visitors per day and boasts 45 theatres. A successful Midwestern family vacation destination for many years, the music industry’s rapid expansion in the past decade has launched the Branson community into world-class tourism.

Mitchell is a popular Branson-area radio DJ, having worked on KHOZ-FM from 1993 to 2005, and prior to that was with KCKC/San Bernardino, CA for 25 years. He was named to the Country Radio Broadcasters’ Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 2005.

Mitchell will host the program from Branson every Sunday on the commercial-free SIRIUS country hits channel 61 Prime Country from 12 pm to 3 pm ET, with repeat broadcasts airing Sundays from 9 pm to 12 midnight ET, and Tuesdays from 12 to 3 am ET. “This show is going to give people who have never been to Branson a chance to hear what all the talk is about, and if you are a Branson visitor, you’ll get to take it home with you,” said Mitchell.

SiriusBackstage.com has learned that Stern will start broadcasting this afternoon, reportedly at around 1pm EDT. Nevertheless, we have heard from several good sources that Stern will be online by this afternoon. This will meet Sirius’ goal of being on by Father’s day, as stated in the 1st quarter conference call back in April. We apologize for not reporting this to you sooner, but this is the first date we have confirmed to the extent that we believe it could happen, and we did not want to post false rumors.

Comment here.

UPDATE: 12:10ET Howard 100/101 have launched on the online stream!

UPDATE: There may be interuptions of service over the weekend as Sirius continue to tune and update Howard Online.

World famous Del McCoury will have his own show exclusively on Sirius starting this month. Hand Picked with Del McCoury launches on Saturday, June 24, and will air every Saturday at 3 pm ET on SIRIUS Bluegrass, channel 65. The show will feature his own choices for bluegrass music, from the early recordings to today’s newest artists. The grammy award winning McCoury has been in bluegrass for over 40 years, released over 20 albums, and he/his band has won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainer of the year award nine times, and he has performed on the Grand Ole Opry, back in 1963 as part of the group the Bluegrass Boys, and became a member of the Opry in 2003.

Comment here.

Former NFL star Jerry Rice will be co-hosting The Afternoon Blitz with Adam Schein starting tomorrow, June 13th. He will then join Sirius NFL Radio//124 3 days per week, year round to help co-host the show, give expert opinions, and to take your calls!

Also, Billboard’s Wade Jessen will be hosting a new show based on his deep knowledge of country music. Rear View with Wade Jessen: The History of Country Music launches June 24 from 9a-noon on The Roadhouse//62. The show will feature his own playlist and deep cuts of country music, with commentary about the artists and the performances in between.

Looks like Sirius picked up two strong assets to further strengthen their brand and keep subscribers happy!