Rumors of this were running around recently, but it's now a confirmed deal. Loveable, pot-head bio-diesel salesman Willie Nelson is coming to XM Radio with a whole channel to himself.

The new channel will replace "Hank's Place" (channel 13) and will be, quite predictably, called  "Willie's Place" effective July 10.

Namesake, Willie Nelson, will play cretive director for the new offering. Possibly the coolest part of all this, XM is building new studios for "Willie's Place" at Nelson's BioDiesel Truck Stop in Carl's Corner, Texas. The channel will begin broadcasting live from Carl's Corner in 2007.

Willie is a hep cat, and this shoud bring a depth of alterna-county programing to XM that SIRIUS can't currently match. With Country being a popular segment amongst a large portion of the US population, bringing a heavyweight name like Nelson on board can only be good for XM.

Read the press release here.

When John McHugh and Maggie Lee contacted SIRIUS' "Standard Time" channel to ask if they could play a few special requests during the couple's wedding reception, neither expected the 'reception' they've received.

"They e-mailed us back and asked us to send them a playlist, so we sent them our top 10 list," Lee said. "Tuesday they called and said, 'Hey, do you mind if we make this bigger?'"

Friday's wedding reception was attended by 50 people locally, and an unspecified number via satellite radio. DJ Lee Arnold of SIRIUS produced an entire broadcast focused on just this couple's wedding reception

"To my knowledge, that's the first time this has happened in the satellite radio industry," Brown said. "We just thought theirs was a neat little story."

To our knowledge, it's the largest nano-scale publicity stunt ever.

[via CBS News]

Bloggers turn DJ at SIRIUS, as Left Of Center launches a new show. Blog Radio will be hosted by a blogger who will showcase his or her favorite music and provide views and insight into the indie rock music scene. A few of the music blogs which will contribute to Blog Radio include Gorilla Vs Bear, Brooklyn Vegan and Product Shop NYC.

Blog Radio, will debut May on Monday, May 29 on Left of Center SIRIUS channel 26, which typically plays college, indie and alternative rock music.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio Senior VP of Music Programming Steve Blatter said, "Blog Radio further solidifies SIRIUS' position as the leader in the discovery of new music and demonstrates our commitment to providing a vehicle for independent musicians and opinion makers to be heard."

Once you boil down all the hype of this new offering, it's really about actual people who really like music playing what they like for other actual people that really like music. It's an easy no-brainer crossover, and the kind of thing SIRIUS is known for.

Break out the shark fins and bring the Coronas parrot-heads, SIRIUS announced every single concert of this year's Jimmy Buffett tour will be broadcast live on Margarittaville, SIRIUS channel 31.

I've not been to a Buffett concert in years, I'm told I've seen him 6 times (several of those are very hazy memories). For sure, Jimmy Buffett is a live experience you won't forget. Listening to Jimmy Buffett live on SIRIUS couldn't compare, but if your travel budget and your Buffett fan-club status are at odds with one another, take heed.

The "Party At the End of the World Tour" is on hiatus for the next few weeks, but will resume in grand style with 5 dates in 10 days starting with Atlanta on June 2nd.

Bob Dylan, who has become the very definition of terms such as "reclusive," "enigmatic" and 'incomprehensible" for many today, is debuting a new show on XM Satellite Radio. The show, which debuts this Wednesday, will highlight Dylan's favorite music, organized each week by topic. For instance, since Mother's Day is fast approaching (time to buy a card, guys) his first week will focus on music with a maternal theme. The New York Times has a look at the structure and substance of his first show, including transcripts of some of Dylan's commentary. As the story states, Dylan continues to be just as inscrutable in discussing music as he often is when creating it. The show is being recorded from basically wherever he is, at home or on the road and will feature some pre-recorded cameos from others.

SIRIUS will be giving away the keys to "The Vault" channel 16, to Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, well for a week at least. Starting March 6 at 7 am ET channel 16, will be all David Gilmour and Pink Floyd 24 hrs a day.

On Tuesday March 7 at 12 pm and 6 pm ET The Vault channel will be broadcasting an exclusive interview with David Gilmour. The interview will include  track-by-track discussion of his first solo album in 20 years, On A Island, which is also his first studio album since Pink Floyd's 1994 Division Bell. Tuesday March 7 is not just the day of this interview, but also David Gilmour's 60th birthday and the day his album is coming out.

The popular AOL Sessions feature of AOL Music has been revamped to give a more interactive experience. Featuring neato things like original in-studio performances and interviews with big music stars, the thing that I really like now is the fact that AOL Sessions is now in a "video magazine" format with on-demand interactive videos, Q&As, articles, photo galleries, and all that other good stuff. So while watching the video pieces, you can read up on the artist or check out photos at the same time. Very slick.
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[via FMQB]

XM will be launching five continuous holiday music channels as part of their "Holiday Music Neighborhood" starting at midnight on Thanksgiving and running through Christmas Day.

The five channels include:

• "Holly" which will play holiday hits from the 40s to today.
• "Holiday Traditions" which has timeless classics limiting from the 40s to the 60s era.
• "A Nashville Christmas" which will play holiday tunes from country music artists.
• "A Classical Christmas" offering classical performances with a holiday theme.
• and "Special X-Mas" servicing up a fruitcake full of parodies, novelty songs and holiday rock covers.

Sirius has developed a new music channel for its subscribers called "Super Shuffle" - a channel that will showcase a wide variety of music offered on Sirius' 65 commercial free music channels. With obvious ties to the iPod's "Shuffle" mode, the varied selection will be a continuous mix of genres and artists from the most popular songs Sirius plays.

If a listener wants to hear more of a certain style, they'll be directed to other Sirius channels through the receivers display and through audio cues. Pretty cool.
 

The hitmaking country music duo Brooks & Dunn will "play something country" all day long when they take over SIRIUS New Country with "Brooks & Dunn Radio" on August 30th. Starting from 6am and running to midnight (ET), Brooks & Dunn will play DJ for a day and spin selection their personal music collections, as well as talk about and play music from their new album, Hillbilly Deluxe.

Brooks & Dunn will also be hosting the 39th annual Country Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on November 15th, which will be broadcast live on CBS television.

EMI/Virgin TV is launching a newly redesigned site for the UK's biggest selling music brand of all time, NOW That’s What I Call Music!, offering an extensive selection of digital downloads including an EMI-exclusive podcast. Created in-house by EMI Music's Digital Content Division, the 11 minute podcast features audio clips from Coldplay, an interview with KT Tunstall and a competition to win a recording session at Abbey Road Studios.

NOW 61 was just released for sale and in its first day "NOW 61" sold 68,000 copies, a new record for the brand.

Sirius has launched an all-Rolling Stones channel dedicated to the legendary band. Featuring five decades of music from the Rolling Stones, plus rare track, live cuts and previews from their first studio album since 1997: A Bigger Band.

The 100% Rolling Stones channel will be available until September 29th, 2005. "Rolling Stones Weekends" will be featured during Labor Day weekend across eight different Sirius channels as well.

The day is November 29th, 1957. The Thelonious Monk quartet and John Coltrane performed together at a historic concert in New York's Carnegie Hall. The concert was recorded by Voice of America for an overseas broadcast, but unfortunately the tapes were poorly labeled and put into storage to never be found again.

Fastforward to January 2005 when the tapes are uncovered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. With little recorded documentation of Monk and Coltrane performing together, these tapes are first and only full-length high-quality recording of one of the most legendary collaborations in jazz history.

The newly-discovered 51 minute recording of these jazz legends will be released by Blue Note Records and Thelonious Records on September 27th, 2005. Sirius will be broadcasting this incredible recording on their jazz channel, Pure Jazz 72, on Friday, September 9th at 6pm.

The acclaimed BBC music channel, Radio 1, will start it's American debut today at 9am ET during the popular Chris Moyles Breakfast Show. BBC Radio 1 is internationally recognized for it's support of British artists as well as a cutting edge combination of pop, rock, and hiphop.

You can listen to BBC Radio 1 24 hours a day on Sirius Channel 97. The broadcasts will be time-shifted by 5 hours so we can listen to morning content in the morning, and evening content in the... evening. Very cool.

DJ Kay Slay will host a new weekly mix show on Sirius Satellite Radio called "Streetsweeper Radio."

He will be hosting a four-hour mix show on the Shade 45 Channel (Eminem's channel on Sirius) every Wednesday from 8pm to 12 midnight.

DJ Kay Slay has won a bunch of Mixtape Awards and has also released three albums. He also is an A&R for Shaquille O'Neal's record label, Deja34.