All Things Satellite Radio

Sirius XM Radio Inc. is joining with the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Campaign to broadcast its "Just Stand Up" national fundraising event, live tonight starting at 8pm ET.

Sirius Hits 1 (ch 1), XM's 20 on 20 (ch 20) and XM's The Pink Channel (ch 24) will join ABC, CBS and NBC to air the "Just Stand Up" event live from 8pm-9pm ET.

This will be the first simultaneous cross-network commercial-free national simulcast, ever, to raise funds for the fight against a disease.

The hour-long live broadcast will feature a who's who from the worlds of music, film, television and sports, including the premiere performance of "Just Stand Up," the charity single recorded in support of SU2C that features more than a dozen of the world's most accomplished female recording artists - including Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes, and Carrie Underwood.

Aside from the cast of ntwork news anchors (Charles Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams) celebrities confirmed for the broadcast (both for personal appearances or answering telephone calls) include: Casey Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Christina Applegate, Lance Armstrong, Abigail Breslin, Josh Brolin, David Cook, Katie Couric, Dana Delany, Fran Drescher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kirsten Dunst, Elizabeth Edwards, Jon Favreau, America Ferrera, Charles Gibson, Neil Patrick Harris, Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johansson, Masi Oka, Danica Patrick, Christina Ricci, Robin Roberts, Homer Simpson, Marge Simpson, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Goran Visnjic, Forest Whitaker, Brian Williams and Reese Witherspoon.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Tickets for Bubbapalooza, the live comedy event presented and hosted by none other than Bubba the Love Sponge, will go on sale tomorrow. The multimedia production features his radio show's most popular and hilarious routines, bits, parodies and rants.

Stars include the co-hosts of the Bubba the Love Sponge Show - Bubba, Ned, Brent Hatley, Manson and Spiceboy - along with show regulars 25 Cent, Hammil, Miller, B-Fud and others. Since their first performance in late 2007, Bubbapalooza has played to sold-out houses in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicagoland, Atlantic City and Cleveland.

"Our fans in the greater Detroit area demanded that we come there," said Bubba, "so the Motor City will definitely be rocking on October 18, thanks to the Bubba Army!"

Ticket prices for Bubbapalooza are $9.50, $29.50, $49.50 and $149.50 (the latter price is for a limited number of VIP tickets that include premium seating and a pre-show meet-and-greet).  Check out Ticketmaster for ticket info, or BTLS.com for all other Bubba info.

Bubbapalooza is taking place on Saturday, October 18th at the Fillmore Detroit (formerly State Theatre). Doors open at 8pm, show time is at 9pm.

I guess it really is "time to upgrade." HD Radio Digital Alliance president Peter Ferrara has stepped down from the head position to become the new Strategic Advisor.

At the same time, the HD Radio Alliance is celebrated its 3rd year anniversary.

"When we began putting the pieces in place for the Alliance in the fall of 2005, there was little attention being paid to HD Radio and the industry lacked a plan to make it a reality," said Ferrara. "There were only a few HD stations on the air, no automakers offered an HD Radio and no national retailers carried receivers." 

"Today, it is gratifying to know how far we've come in three short years. While there is still much to do, this has been an unprecedented effort with unparalleled success within the radio industry. It's a testament to what broadcasters can achieve when the industry comes together with a clear purpose and mission."

You bet buddy. HD Radio really has come a long way in three "short" years. What's listenership up to now?

[FMQB]

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo will be hosting a special preview show live from the ESPN Zone in NYC tomorrow.

The preview edition of his new daily sports talk show will air ahead of the September 15th launch date, this Thursday, September 4th from 2-7pm ET. The show is the anchor program for Mad Dog Radio, the new sports talk channel that will air nationwide on Sirius channel 123 and XM channel 144.

Thursday's event will be open to the public, so if you're a New Yorker feel free to swing by the ESPN Zone on 1472 Broadway (at 42nd Street).

Scheduled guests on the program will include NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as well as NBC Sports broadcaster John Madden, who will call that night's New York Giants-Washington Redskins game at Giants Stadium.

Tennis superstar Monica Seles will host a live show on Sirius Satellite Radio starting this Thursday. The show, called "The Monica Seles Challenge: 5 Weeks to Jump Start Your Life" is aimed at empowering women.

Seles will host the show from Sirius XM Radio's Rockefeller Center studios.

"I love radio and the unique way it has to reach out to people with a real and personal exchange of ideas and stories," said Monica Seles. "Sirius has provided just such an opportunity for me, my studio guests and the Sirius audience to share our life experiences, learn from them, and hopefully forge ahead into a happier and healthier future."

Seles will welcome expert guests, athletes, celebrities and real women and will take calls from around the country.

Over Seles' extraordinary tennis career, she earned nine Grand Slam titles and won 53 singles and six doubles tournaments. She first became No. 1 in the world in March 1991. Seles was No. 1 for 178 weeks during the next two years (the youngest No. 1 ever at the time) until tragedy struck in April 1993 when she was stabbed in the back by a deranged fan during a match in Germany. She wasn't able to play again for more than two years. When she returned to tennis, she won at the Canadian Open and then reached the US Open Final the following month. Remarkably, she won her ninth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January 1996.

Most recently, Seles joined the cast of "Dancing with the Stars" and is currently writing her memoir. The book, Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self, is scheduled for publication in March 2009.

"The Monica Seles Challenge: 5 Weeks to Jump Start Your Life" will air in five weekly installments airing every Thursday from September 4th through October 2nd from 1-3pm ET on Sirius Stars (ch 102).

Mel Karmazin will be speaking at the 2008 Merrill Lynch Media Fall Preview Conference in Marina del Rey, CA on Tuesday, September 9th.

A live audio webcast of the presentation will be available here. Karmazin is set to speak at around 11am ET/8am PT.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. have a little quiet lately while they sort through the merger muck. Hopefully this presentation will give us some clarity on what lies ahead.

Even with all the initial hype and excitement about podcasts, the growth rate of the medium has slowed significantly according to Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Nearly one in five (19%) adult internet users say they have downloaded a podcast. And that's only up from 12% two years ago. Talk about a slowing growth rate.

It gets worse though. Among those who said they downloaded podcasts, only 17% did so on a typical day. So not only is it slowing, but the usage patterns aren't what most people thought they would be.

Mark Ramsey has some thoughts about why this may be happening, one of them being that the good content is hard to find on iTunes. And I tend to agree.

Sirius Satellite Radio's Grateful Dead channel will be celebrating its first anniversary starting on Sunday, September 7th at 7am ET and running through the full month until Tuesday, September 30th.

The Grateful Dead channel (ch 32) celebration will include an exclusive premiere of The Dead's upcoming release Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978. The album is a release of a never-before heard concert performed at The Great Pyramids of Giza, which includes more than three hours of rare and previously unreleased music. This release, which will be in stores on September 30th, also marks the 30th anniversary of the band's legendary performances in Egypt.

During the month-long celebration, you'll also hear highlights from the past year's programming, with appearances from the members of the band, live in-studio performances, memorable moments from the live talk show "Tales from the Golden Road," and visits from celebrity Deadheads like Jimmy Buffett, Jesse Ventura, Tommy Chong and many others.

The one-hour show highlighting the Egypt1978 release will debut on Sunday, September 7th at 12pm ET with an encore presentation at 12am ET. The show will also rebroadcast at various times throughout "Anniversary Month" on the channel.

The Game, the West Coast chart-topping rapper, will take over Sirius' Hip-Hop Nation channel for Labor Day weekend in a special entitled "Game Time."

"Game Time" will include the rapper personally introducing music from his most recent release, L.A.X., which landed in stores on August 26th. The Game will also share his thoughts about today's artists as well as answer questions from Sirius listeners.

"Game Time" will air on Sirius Hip-Hop Nation (ch 40) starting this Saturday, August 30th through Monday, September 1st.

Ford told Engadget that the next version of its Sync system will debut in November, bringing owners with in-depth online vehicle health reports and 911 assist functionality.

We saw a glimpse of these updates back in January at CES 2008, but were only told that it would be available "later this year." The update also brings a stronger integration with Ford's syncmyride.com portal.

But what we haven't seen is Ford Sync v3.0, which Engadget was told is scheduled to debut "sometime in 2009."

The new version of the Sync infotainment system will bring traffic, news, sports and weather to Ford vehicles. The Sync update will be available without requiring navigation or a monthly subscription, and appears to be going head-to-head with Sirius Travel Link.

Sirius Travel Link was unveiled in retail form last year, and subsequently first made available in the Lincoln MKS but is now currently available in all 2009 Fords equipped with the Next Generation Navigation system (with a complimentary 6-month trial subscription).

Sirius was smart in that they integrated Travel Link with the current version of Sync's voice-activated controls - it's a very slick and impressive combination. Hopefully they'll be able to do something similar in the next version.