Sears Sings Praises Of Satellite Radio

WASHINGTON--XM Satellite Radio Inc. has rocketed its retail reach to more than 2,200 stores via Sears & Roebuck Co., one of the nation’s top sellers of car stereo equipment. Sears will be marketing XM’s satellite radio products throughout the country.

The first of two satellites needed to get the signals up and orbiting is scheduled to blast-off this Monday, Jan. 8.

“Retail car stereo sales are the keystone to building a mass-market subscription base as XM begins satellite radio service this summer,” said Steve Cook, XM’s senior vice president for sales and marketing. “We’re thrilled that Sears, one of the country’s retail giants, will offer XM’s aftermarket products.”

Beginning with XM’s service launch this summer, Sears will offer XM-ready radios in its full-line stores that carry auto sound electronics. The sales effort will initially focus on the nation’s more than 200 million car owners.

XM signed earlier agreements with a host of retailers, including Circuit City Stores Inc., a leading national retailer of brand-name consumer electronics with more locations in more markets than any other consumer electronics specialty retailer; and Best Buy Co. Inc., the nation’s largest volume specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances.

XM is creating and packaging up to 100 channels of digital-quality programming from country to classical music, which it will broadcast through two satellites directly to vehicle, home and office from coast-to-coast. The XM sound will combine leading brand-name channels with distinctive formats produced in XM Radio’s digital studios by some of the country’s leading artists, producers and radio format designers. To complement its original programming, XM has signed programming agreements with a number of content providers, including USA Today, NASCAR, Sesame Workshop, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the BBC World Service, Black Entertainment Television, Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, Bloomberg, C-SPAN Radio, CNNfn, and CNN/Sports Illustrated.

For more information, contact www.xmradio.com and www.sears.com.