Satellite radio giant, SIRIUS XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI), today announced sports talk personality Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has signed a five-year contract to headline a news ports channel, exclusive to SIRUS and XM. Mad Dog joins SIRUS’ impressive lineup of partnered celebrities and artists including Howard Stern, Oprah, Martha Stewart, Jimmy Buffett, Elvis, Jamie Foxx, Barbara Walters, Frank Sinatra, Opie & Anthony, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tom Petty, and Bob Edwards.
As the former star of the Mike and Mad Dog show, Mad Dog is expected to bring his large loyal fan base, huge popularity and strong name recognition to SIRUS, adding to its more than 18 million subscribers. Mad Dog’s popularity in sports talk radio has prompted widespread curiosity as to his next career move.
“Mad Dog’s fans are passionate about their sports and passionate about where they get their sports news and commentary from — these are the listeners that any audio entertainment company would want,” Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer, SIRIUS XM Radio stated in the press release. “Having Mad Dog on SIRIUS and XM will fuel subscriber growth and create new and exciting opportunities for advertisers. Choose whatever sports analogy you want — this is a big win.”
Airing September 15, SIRIUS channel 123 and XM channel 144 will now be home to “The Mad Dog Sports Show”, a show that will cover the spectrum of sports with engaging talk, listener calls, high-profile interviews, up-to-the-moment news and live remote broadcasts from the biggest sporting events. For Mad Dog, this move is an opportunity to extend his audience and format a show as his own.
“No other sports talk radio comes close to what I will be able to do with SIRIUS XM Radio. I get to create a whole channel of my kind of sports talk and am very excited to join SIRIUS XM which has the largest collection of sports properties in the history of radio, consisting of virtually every major sport including, MLB, NFL, NASCAR and the NHL,” said Russo. “With football season about to kick off and all the pennant races heating up, I can’t wait to get on the air and talk to the 18.5 million SIRIUS XM Radio subscribers around the country.”
“With the huge sports audiences SIRIUS and XM have, it is fitting that our first major talent announcement following the merger would be Mad Dog,” said Greenstein. “Subscribers get the programming they love today and new options in the future. Our stockholders benefit from the subscriber growth and increased advertising revenues that Mad Dog will certainly bring.”
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