At long last Sirius XM has allocated four percent of its full-time audio channels to various “qualified entity” minority oriented broadcasters. Howard University is among the winners, something I’d hoped would happen. Howard runs WHUR-FM (see YouTube clip to the right).
The four percent allocation was part of the deal that Sirius XM made with the Federal Communications Commission as a condition of its 2008 merger. Below is the FCC’s full list of the winners. More about the long, torturous process by which these recipients were decided here and here.
• Howard University (licensee of WHUR-FM and WHUT-TV)
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Music and talk programming for the African American community
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Music and talk programming for the African American community, with programs from Historically Black Colleges and Universities
• BYU Radio (licensee of KBYU-FM and KBYU-TV)
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Music and talk programming for the Mormon community
• Eventus/National Latino Broadcasting
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Spanish language talk programming
One channel each on Sirius XM – Spanish language music programming
• WorldBand Media
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Spanish language talk programming
• KTV Radio
One channel on XM – Korean language music and talk programming
The FCC seems happy about this new line up. “This marks a valuable step in increasing the diversity of programming available to satellite radio listeners while promoting access for new entrants and independent satellite radio programming,” declared Commission boss Julius Genachowski.
