Sirius DJ and BackStager “Long Paul” has reported 2 updates to the channel changes coming next Wednesday.  First, he informs us that the 90’s Rock station will be called Frequency 24, but will not debut until March 31st.  You can imagine where it will be on your dial.  He also announced that 29 will be the long-awaited, and much requested punk channel.

This news is obviously developing, expect more updates as Wednesday approaches! 

Update:  Apparently the “90’s Rock” stations debut is being delayed until the end of March, so that The Who Channel has a home through the end of their tour.

The staff here at SiriusBackstage are always trying to bring our members value not only in support and discussion of various Sirius offerings and equipment, but also tools to help you feel like you belong to our community. In that theme we present new tools to help you get the most out of SiriusBackstage.

First, we give you something that was suggested by one of your fellow members: the ability to turn off the scrolling It’s_On display next to the menubar at the top of the forum. You can now turn off the list of channels recently updated from the It’s_ON feature of the site in the User CP > Edit Options page. At the bottom, below the Forum Skin, is an option to Hide the It’s_ON feature from the forum pages.

Next, we have added a new look to SiriusBackstage for those of you using mobile devices. This look will strip our site down the bare minimum so that you can concentrate on getting the most out of the site instead of worrying about your wireless data bill. We can autodetect if you are using a mobile device and serve this new look to you automatically. If you happen to like viewing SiriusBackstage in all it’s graphic glory (called “SIRIUS Backstage”), on your device you should choose this style at the bottom of the User CP > Edit Options page. The setting is called Forum Skin. If you wish to have the forum auto-select the Mobile style when browsing to our site, please choose Forum Default for that setting.

And finally, you may have noticed that we have added the ability for you to Digg stories on our blog. Today, we expand, and extend that feature to our forums. You can now Digg any thread on the forum, as well as keeping up on those ever important Digg counts. In addition, you can also submit our threads to other social networking type sites such as Reddit, Fark and Slashdot to name a few.

We hope that you enjoy these new features and we thank you for being a part of the #1 online community dedicated to Sirius Satellite Radio.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force will be hosting Faction’s hostile takeover tomorrow(Friday 2/9) at Sirius. Note that only Meatwad of the true Aqua Teens will be there, along with Carl, Ignigknokt, and Err. Frylock and Master Shake are conspicuously missing. They will be promoting their new season on Adult Swim, and what not to do on vacation in Boston. Listen at 9p, and a replay at 1a Saturday morning!

The Sirius branded 8″ subwoofer is on Woot.com today only. It is $59.99 plus $5 shipping.

I gots me one of these from tss-radio.com, and after hooking it up 6 months later in a friend’s car(mine didn’t have holes through the firewal for power), it sounded great. A good deal if you are looking for one!

They will have them until they sell out, or until 1:00a ET Thursday morning.

Here’s a list of who will be appearing at Sirius from Febraury 12-18th. Note that it still gives the current channel numbers(e.g. Sirius Disorder is 24, and The Who Channel is 98), so whether there is a lineup change or not yet, we do not know.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS interview (Left of Center / channel 26, Feb. 12 @ 10 am ET)

THE HOLD STEADY World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 12 @ 6 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Verdi’s La Traviata (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 12 @ 7:30 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded June 12, 2004 @ the Isle of Wight (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 12 @ 9 pm ET)

LESLIE SATCHER interview on The Charlie Monk Show (Prime Country / channel 61, Feb. 12 @ 10 pm ET and Feb. 16 @ 12 am ET)

SARA EVANS interview on Branson Coast-to-Coast (Prime Country / channel 61, Feb. 13 @ 12 am ET)

PAUL WELLER World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 13 @ 6 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 13 @ 8 pm ET)

JIMMY BUFFETT in concert, recorded Oct. 21, 2006 in Las Vegas, NV (Radio Margaritaville / channel 31, Feb. 13 @ 8 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded July 24, 2004 in Yokohama, Japan (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 13 @ 9 pm ET)

REGINA SPEKTOR interview (Left of Center / channel 26, Feb. 14 @ 10 am ET) and performance on Left of Sessions (Left of Center / channel 26, Feb. 14 @ 9 pm ET and Feb. 16 @ 12 pm ET)

DANNY BURSTEIN and JENNIFER SMITH (The Drowsy Chaperone), interview on Seth Rudetsky’s Studio A Cabaret (Broadway’s Best / channel 77, Feb. 14 @ 12 pm ET)

WARREN HAYNES guest DJs with his wife, SIRIUS host Stef Scamardo, on Valentine’s Day (Jam On / channel 17, Feb. 14 from 12 pm to 6 pm ET)

ELVIS’ LADIES: CELESTE YARNALL, CYNTHIA PEPPER, SANDY MARTINDALE and DIXIE LOCKE special Valentine’s Day interviews (Elvis Radio / channel 13, Feb. 14 @ 5 pm ET and 10 pm ET, and Feb. 15 @ 2 am ET)

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE QUEEN World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 14 @ 6 pm ET)

JOHNNY MAESTRO interview on Wednesdays with the Cuz Starring Cousin Brucie (‘60s Vibrations / channel 6, Feb. 14 @ 6:15 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded July 25, 2004 in Osaka, Japan (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 14 @ 9 pm ET)

TREY ANASTASIO performance on Coffeehouse Close-Up (The Coffeehouse / channel 30, Feb. 15 @ 12 pm ET)

WILLIAM COHEN, former US Secretary of Defense, and his wife, Janet Langhart Cohen, authors of Love in Black and White: A Memoir of Race, Religion and Romance, interview on The Michelangelo Signorile Show (SIRIUS OutQ / channel 106, Feb. 15 @ 3:30 pm ET)

RICHIE HAVENS World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 15 @ 6 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Bellini’s I Puritani (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 15 @ 7:30 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded July 28, 2004 in Sydney, Australia (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 15 @ 9 pm ET)

+44 interview (BBC Radio 1 / channel 11, Feb. 15 @ 10 pm ET)

WENLAN CHIA (creator of Twinkle fashion line) on Morning Living (Martha Stewart Living Radio / channel 112, Feb. 16 @ 7 am ET)

BECK World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder / channel 24, Feb. 16 @ 2 pm ET)

HENRY ROLLINS guest DJs Hostile Takeover (Faction / channel 28, Feb. 16 @ 7 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded July 29, 2004 in Sydney, Australia (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 16 @ 9 pm ET)

FRITZ REINER 1961 archived interview, The Archives at Symphony Hall (Symphony Hall / channel 80, Feb. 17 @ 9 am, 2 pm & 7 pm ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA live broadcast, Janácek’s Jenufa (Metropolitan Opera Radio / channel 85, Feb. 17 @ 1:30 pm ET)

HILLARY DUFF interview (Cosmo Radio / channel 111, Feb. 17 @ 3 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded July 31, 2004 in Melbourne, Australia (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 17 @ 9 pm ET)

THE WHO in concert, recorded August 3, 2004 in Honolulu, HI (The Who Channel / channel 98, Feb. 18 @ 9 pm ET)

Sirius has officially taken the wrapping off of its new Standards channel, Siriusly Sinatra. They have issued a press release stating that the station will be similar to Standard Time, but play more of Frank Sinatra’s music as well as music from around the standards and big band genre. New specialty shows will include Nancy Sinatra with a weekly show and, I kid you not, “Frank to Host His Own Show, The Chairman’s Hour”, based on archival footage.

The station will likely launch on February 14th based on rumors we posted earlier.

Earlier today, Steve Jobs wrote a long open-letter on apple.com that he titled “Thoughts on Music”. The letter details his thoughts on encrypting music with DRM and why Apple does not want to license out its FairPlay DRM.

One point that he addresses at the end is that it would not only be very beneficial for the record companies to get rid of DRM, but that “Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat”. It would mean that all downloads would be unprotected, could be played on virtually any MP3 player and bought from any music store. As Steve Jobs notes: “2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves”. Doing this would only make online music the same type that you get on a CD: unprotected.

This could easily benefit Sirius, as well as XM. With this happening suddenly people can buy music in iTunes, then load it onto their Stiletto or S50. Suddenly those who don’t want a portable satellite radio player because they want something that can play iTunes will have a choice. It will also make the satellite radio companies and their hardware partners step up even more, as they will want to market their devices to more than just the people who are actively interested in satellite radio. Instead of having an MP3 player be a side benefit to the satellite radio, they can make satellite radio a side benefit to unlocked MP3 players.

It looks like there are plenty of rumors going around that on February 14th there will be a lineup change. There have been several different rumors going around about it, and the latest is a new poster named yoopermi mentioning that CSPAN Radio will be disappearing on that day. Previous rumors include BRTCMFN posting a plethora of changes that will be happening on that day, which include:

-Sirius 90’s Rock launches on ch 24

-Sirius Disorder moves from ch 24 to 32

Reggae Rhythms moves from ch 32 to 97

The Who goes from CH 98—>Somewhere in the 2x channel range TBD (Will probably be the new location for the featured artist channel)(Ed note: Probably channel 29, which has been vacant since Sirius Blues moved to 74.)

Revolution ch 67 is gone

Standard Time ch. 75–> Renamed Siriusly Sinatra(Did Sirius pick up naming rights from XM?)

The Foxxx Hole launches on ch 106

OutQ ch 106—>109

Uplink corroborated a couple of these postings so far, but there has been no official announcement from Sirius yet, other than The FoxxHole and OutQ changes. Also of note, we will likely see what happens with NPR with this lineup change, whether it stays at Sirius or not. Looks like a fun week ahead for us to see whether this all pans out

John McMullen, former OutQ host and program director who left SIRIUS late last year, wrote a long, yet straightforward, post in the Backstage forums Saturday night about some of the things that happen behind the scenes at SIRIUS Headquarters. From homophobia to backstabbing and everything else in between, it leaves a fairly sour taste in our mouths.

One of the most interesting comments John mentioned was about what management thinks about listeners. His comments are in relation to the outcry there was when OutQ decided to fill the entire weekend with music(emphasis mine):

“I only mention this because I think people need an accurate understanding that the full weekend agenda of music was a creation against my extraordinary protests by Gorab and Coleman who insisted (contrary to thousands of listener e-mails I received) that people wanted to hear no talk on the weekends. But, this was to become standard operating practice at Sirius. Management on Talk and Music sides of the business regarded listeners as worthless SPERM (Self Proclaimed Experts of Radio & Music).”

It seems that to SIRIUS, at least the top brass, listeners don’t know what they want to hear. While, yes, it is true that they could never put in all of the suggestions they get due to the sheer number, to simply write all the suggestions off, even when they come in by the thousands as evidenced above, is simply being out of touch with your listener. To most veteran listeners, the concept of SIRIUS not turning much of an ear to the customer is nothing new, but the fact that there is a term for it is disgraceful and appalling. I hope that this destructive culture changes soon, and for the better.

On the flip side, maybe we are taking it the wrong way. Maybe the head honchos are all big Monty Python fans.

Via Satellite magazine has named Space Systems/Loral’s CEO Patrick Dewit as its Satellite Industry Executive of the Year for 2006.

In 2006, under DeWitt’s leadership, SS/L won a total of seven new satellite construction awards, from a wide array of customers, including Fixed Satellite Service (FSS), Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) and Direct-To-Home (DTH) service providers. The company also saw the successful launch of five SS/L-built satellites during the year.

Both SIRIUS (satellite # 1,2,3,4 & 5) and XM (satellite # 5) have had satellites designed and built by SS/L.