Did you know that SIRIUS is a satellite radio (SDARS) service that operates in both the United States and Canada?

Headquartered in New York City, SIRIUS has smaller studios in Los Angeles, Memphis,  Nashville, New Orleans, Houston & Daytona.  SIRIUS provides over 130 channels of music, exclusive sports channels, news, talk, entertainment, traffic, weather and data to listeners. 

Additionally, Sirius has a subset of channels as part of the Dish Network satellite television service. 

(Keep your eye out for more ‘Sirius Tidbits’ from Bruce in the weeks to come.)

GUEST INTERVIEWS / PERFORMANCES for April 16th to the 22nd:

WAVY GRAVY, hosts the very first Gravy in Your Ear (Jam_ON, channel 17, April 15 @ 6pm ET and rebroadcast April 25 @ 9 pm ET)

ARCTIC MONKEYS, performance and interview in the Live Lounge (BBC Radio 1, channel 11, April 16 @ 10 am ET)

NAOMI WOLF, visits Living Today with Kerry Nolan (Martha Stewart Living Radio, channel 112, April 16 @ 2:15 pm ET)

ROCCO DELUCCA, performs acoustic versions of songs from his debut album, I Trust You To Kill Me and to face ten questions from Caroline (The Spectrum, channel 18, April 16 @ 6 pm ET)

LOREENA MCKENNITT, World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, April 16 @ 6 pm ET)

MILES HAMPTON, Spring Break with Miles Hampton includes interviews with UB40 (Monday), Eddy Grant (Tuesday), Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, and Al Jardine from the Beach Boys (Wednesday), Ziggy Marley (Thursday), and Kenny Chesney (Friday) (Radio Margaritaville, channel 31, Apr 16-20 @ 8 pm-12 am ET)

METROPOLITAN OPERA RADIO, live broadcast, Puccini’s Turandot (Metropolitan Opera Radio, channel 85, April 16 @ 8 pm ET)

WILLIE NELSON, interview on Branson Coast to Coast (Prime Country, channel 61, April 17 @ 12 midnight ET)

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Sirius Satellite Radio and the E! Entertainment Television network announced today that a new live entertainment call-in show called “Yo on E!” launched Monday, April 9 exclusively on E! Entertainment Radio, SIRIUS channel 107. The show is hosted by Miami DJ Michael Yo and broadcasts live from E!’s Los Angeles studios Monday - Friday from 4:00 – 7:00 pm ET and rebroadcasts Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 am ET.

Michael Yo, formerly of local Miami FM station, Y100, is an avid entertainment junkie and hosts the three-hour live show featuring designated topics with Yo interacting heavily with listeners through calls, e-mails and text messages. Every day, Yo keeps the entertainment fan up to speed on recent entertainment breaking news. Celebrity guests also join in the festivities, both in-studio and on the phone, while E! and E! Online personalities will be special guests throughout the week to add their signature “E! take” to the mix.

“We’ve been looking for new and innovative ways to bring the E! experience to life on SIRIUS Satellite Radio, and YO on E! is the perfect solution,” said Brent Zacky, Vice President, Development, E! Networks. “Chock full of information and attitude, the show will be a great way for listeners to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Hollywood, and with SIRIUS’ national interactive listener audience, it’s a great way for our fans to join in on all the debates over the latest water cooler stories of the day.”

Edward Zarcoff, Vice President, Programming, E! Networks, will supervise the series for E! Networks.

Sirius and Audi of America have announced that Audi will have Sirius standard on the 2008 S4, RS 4, A6, A8, R8 models, as well as the 3.6 Premium, and all 4.2 trims of the Q7. This marks the sixth OEM announcement from Sirius in 9 days. Looks like there will be plenty of cars with standard Sirius in 2008.

Mitsubishi is offering Sirius as a factory option in all 2008 Model Year vehicles, and additionally it will be standard equipment on the 2008 Eclipse Spyder(available this month), and packaged with the premium audio system on the 2008 Galant, Raider, Endeavor, Outlander, Lancer, Eclipse and Lancer Evolution. It will come with a six month subscription at no charge.

The latest in the auto announcements, this marks 5 automotive announcements in 9 days that talk up Sirius and new partnerships. The odd thing is that they have not released their subscriber numbers for the first quarter, perhaps signalling that they are not as stellar as they should be. It looks more and more like they will wait for earnings to release them, or they are trying to release as many positive announcements as they can before the subscriber numbers are published. Hopefully the merger announcement in February did not turn too many people away for the first quarter.
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NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and co-host Jack Arute will be broadcasting live from the New York Auto Show on Saturday, the 7th of April, 2007.

The show will broadcast exclusively on Ch 128, the SIRIUS NASCAR Radio channel from 1:00 to 3:00 pm Eastern Time.

For those of you who may be there, there will be an autograph session from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.

The 2007 New York International Auto Show will be at the
Jacob Javits Convention Center
11th Ave, between 34th and 39th Streets in New York.

While you’re there, feel free to visit the SIRIUS Crystal Palace Booth and check out the newest radios for Sirius Satellite.

Sirius Satellite is the Official Satellite radio partner of NASCAR and broadcasts NEXTEL Cup, NASCAR Busch & Craftsman Truck series race. Channel 128, when not broadcasting one of the many races, gives listeners everything in between, with live race calls, pre- and post-race coverage, and a lineup of exclusive daily talk shows providing up-to-the-minute news, expert analysis and exclusive interviews with NASCAR insiders.

It’s a “must hear” experience for the true NASCAR fan.

Here are some of the special guests who will be at Sirius next week. Note, as always, that all times are subject to change.

GENE SIMMONS AND SHANNON TWEED, they dish and talk about groupies, make-up sex, KISS band members and much more on their exclusive special, Kiss and Tell with Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed (Hair Nation, channel 23, clips broadcast throughout the day all week through April 13)

RY COODER, World Café performance and interview (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, April 9 @ 6pm ET)

NANCI GRIFFITH, World Café performance and interview with Michaela Majoun (SIRIUS Disorder, channel 32, April 9 @ 6pm ET)

GARY BURTON & CHICK COREA, concert (Pure Jazz, channel 72, April 9 @ 6 pm ET and rebroadcast April 10 @ 11 pm ET)

PETER PAP, discuses Oriental rugs (Martha Stewart Living Radio, channel 112, April 10 @ 7 am ET)

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Lincoln has announced that Sirius will be available in all 2008 Model Year Vehicles with the notable exception of the Town Car. This comes on the heels of news from both Mini and Land Rover that Sirius will be standard(LR), or as a factory option with lifetime sub(Mini) last week.

This could mean one of two things. Either (1), Sirius has lined up this news and/or it’s a coindidence that they are all coming out at the same time, or (2), Sirius has seen soft retail sales for the first quarter of 2007. Hopefully we will find out the subscriber numbers later today or this week. The timing matches up with the subscriber number announcement, and it could indicate soft retail sales with the merger news drawing some people from buying due to fears of obsolete radios.

Stay tuned to Backstage for the latest updates once the subscriber numbers are announced.