America's favorite felon is headed to Sirius satellite radio in a four-year deal, joining a wildly diverse group including Howard Stern (2006), former senator Bill Bradley, Eminem, and Major League Baseball.
Martha Stewart Living Radio, scheduled to start some time after her house arrest ends in August, will be a "24-hour channel dedicated to cooking, entertaining, gardening, home-keeping, decorating, holidays, collecting, health and whole living, crafts, and weddings, as well as how-to projects for parents and children, and information and tips for owners and their pets." Programs will be hosted by the "Martha Stewart Living team of experts in the domestic arts, along with Martha herself, who'll be a regular presence on the channel," a statement said.
"It has been our dream to bring our expertise in the lifestyle arena, and our vast library of how-to ideas, to radio programming," Ms. Stewart said. "Just as we pioneered in the creation of the how-to lifestyle magazine and how-to television media categories, our new partnership with Sirius is breaking new ground in satellite radio."
Mel Karmazin, a former top executive at Viacom Inc. and Sirius chief executive, said, "Martha Stewart Living is the premier brand in lifestyle and how-to programming for women and their families. Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius will have tremendous appeal to women, who are completely underserved by traditional radio programming."
The deal with Stewart, just six weeks removed from the federal slammer, is the most recent effort by Sirius to compete with its much larger rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Earlier this month XM reported that it had 3.8 million subscribers, while Sirius' most recent count was 1.2 million. Sirius and XM offer dozens of commercial-free music channels and multiple talk channels, many of which carry advertising, as will Stewart's.
Stewart has been busy since her release, having signed separate TV deals to create a version of The Apprentice and a daily cooking show. Her house arrest deal allows her to spend 48 hours a week working outside her Westchester County, NY estate.
The woman sure knows how to make lemonade.
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