Who Will Live On Sirius XM?

Way back in March, the Department of Justice approved Sirius Satellite Radio’s plan to buyout its rival, XM, for $5 billion. The marriage officially took place in July with the formation of Sirius XM Radio Inc. And now finally the line-up of the new satellite radio provider is beginning to take shape. According to Orbitcast (via rollingstone.com), select stations on both Sirius and XM will switch to their new homes beginning Wednesday, November 12. Though both XM’s Escape and Sirius’ the Pulse have revealed their new locations, Sirius XM’s official line-up has yet to be announced and may not be before channels begin switching over on Wednesday. The rumored date of November 5 came and went without a new channel guide from the mega-provider.

Since both XM and Sirius have stations with similar formats, the big question is which programs will survive the merger and which won’t. Already, signals are pointing to Sirius DJ Cousin Brucie staying on board while one of XM’s oldies station, like “The ’50s,” goes kaput. Obviously, Howard Stern—Sirius’ entire reason-for-being—isn't going anywhere. In fact, Stern began programming on XM soon after the merge took place and is now part of XM’s new “Best of Sirius” package. (Sirius has a parallel “Best of…” package with XM programming.) Indications are also that Bob Dylan’s beloved Theme Time Radio Hour on XM will live again. But what about Sirius’ Martha Stewart program “How-To For Living” vs. XM’s “Oprah & Friends”? We’re guessing both media queens will manage to land comfortably.