After months of delays, Sirius Satellite Radio has started offering its service to the public in four cities: Denver, Houston, Phoenix and Jackson, Mississippi.

Wednesday the company marked the kickoff with a gala event at Jackson retailer Cowboy Maloney's, featuring a live musical performance. Randy Travis headlined the event, which also featured special musical performances by bluegrass singers and country artists including Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Tracy Lawrence and Rhonda Vincent & the Rage.
Thursday morning, Sirius President and CEO Joseph P. Clayton kicked off the start of Sirius' service and commemorated the first sale of a Sirius-ready satellite radio system.
Sirius and competitor XM Satellite Radio are the nation’s two satellite radio service providers. Although Sirius was initially slated to start offering its service first, XM beat them to the punch, rolling out their service on a limited basis in September and nationally in November.
Sirius plans to roll out their service to other cities in the coming months and is expected to start offering its service nationwide in the third quarter of the year.
"This is a great day for Sirius, our employees, partners and, most importantly, consumers," said Clayton, noting the history of Jackson, where satellite television was first introduced in 1994. "Jackson is a special city for me and I'm pleased to be here for the launch of Sirius Satellite Radio. We know consumers were anxiously awaiting Sirius' availability and we are thrilled today to bring our commercial-free music and outstanding entertainment programming to our listeners in Jackson."
At Wednesday night's special launch event held at Cowboy Maloney's, attendees were treated to a special audio presentation from ABC news anchor Sam Donaldson, who introduced Clayton. Then, Clayton offered a sneak preview of the some of the first sounds to be heard on Sirius' 100 channels of digital entertainment. Thursday morning, during the first official Sirius broadcast for consumers, listeners heard Al Jarreau introduce a special musical overture performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. This was followed by a montage of artists and celebrities including Shaggy, Sting, Nelly Furtado, Pink, Nickelback, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Bennett, Travis Tritt, Emmylou Harris, Ray Manzarek Jason Alexander, Nathan Lane, Bill Cosby, Dan Aykroyd, Grandmaster Flash, MC Lyte and others.
The broadcast led into special "first songs" that were heard across Sirius' 60 commercial-free music channels, with many of these being exclusive live performances recorded at Sirius' studios. Special Valentine's Day shows with celebrity guest DJs, including Darius Rucker, Stereophonics, Sevendust, Brian McKnight, Freddy Jackson, Ann Hampton Callaway, Michael Feinstein, Richard Marx, Dave Koz, Al Jarreau, The Oak Ridge Boys, Leslie West, and rapper Dana Dane, are also planned throughout the day.
Excerpts from the first day of Sirius programming will be donated to the Museum of Television and Radio's permanent collection and will be available as part of the museum's historic archives.
To commemorate the Sirius service launch, the first Jackson subscriber to purchase a Sirius-ready system at Cowboy Maloney's and activate the service will receive an all-expenses-paid weekend in New York City, including a VIP tour of the Sirius national broadcast studio. The first 25 Jackson subscribers will also receive free Sirius service for one year.
The four launch cities will also be home to the Sirius "Rhythm of the Road Tour," encompassing listening kiosks for consumers, Sirius-equipped vehicles including a BMW X5, Mercedes C32, Ford Mustang and Dodge Ram Quad Cab and the No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T driven by Casey Atwood on the NASCAR circuit, specially outfitted with the Sirius service. The tour will then be in other cities in the coming months.

You can read more about what satellite radio service has to offer, including pricing and equipment, in the February issue of RoadStar magazine.