In case you were dying
In case you were dying to know about what public radio is doing with satellite radio technology, here's a brief primer, re-posted from the discourse section of this site.
Both NPR and PRI will have channels on Sirius Satellite Radio.
NPR is going to have two channels: NPR Talk and NPR Now. NPR Talk is going to be talk shows, and it will include Talk of the Nation, Forum (a show done at KQED in San Francisco), and others. Both channels will feature a new, one-hour satellite-only news magazine (which will be repeated a bunch of times), titled The Way In and hosted by TV/radio/print journalist Melinda Wittstock. NPR says its satellite fare will be faster-paced than its other programming, in order to appeal to the younger demographic expected to be "early adapters." Car Talk will also be on at least one channel.
PRI has the BBC World Service on two channels: one in English, one in Spanish. The third channel is going to feature some sort of mysterious "interactive" programming which they're being very close-mouthed about at the time. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting just gave them a big grant to work on that channel.
Many NPR member stations are upset with NPR for being so aggressive about getting on the satellite, since NPR (in their view) is basically going to be able to bypass them and send programming directly to listeners, rather than going through member stations. Imaginably, you could just turn on NPR's sat channels and not listen to your local station, and therefore never pledge to your local station, causing it to die. But that probably won't happen. NPR is promising to cross-promote to local stations on its sat channels. And NPR has vowed not to put Morning Edition and All Things Considered on the channel in competition with stations.
Public radio has shied away from XM Radio, for reasons unclear--though I think it's because XM says it might air commercials. I'm not sure. However, Martin Goldsmith, former host of NPR's Performance Today, has become program director of a classical music channel at XM.
Whew. Well, you asked.