LAUNCH? I THOUGHT
THEY SAID "LUNCH."

XM Satellite Radio had planned the launch of the first of two satellites to coincide with the King of Rock & Roll's birthday, Jan. 8. They even scribled "Elvis has left the planet" on the side of the satellite—but had to scrub the countdown due to a technical problem. It was rumored to have been related to peanut butter and banana sandwich getting caught between the solar panels.

The Las Vegas launch of the company's first satellite, called "Roll," would have been the first step of XM's new band of radio. Once in space, "Roll" will be joined by a second satellite, "Rock," and both linked to XM's radio service to transmit satellite-to-receiver broadcasting technology of up to 100 channels of commercial-free, CD-quality news, sports, talk and music content to cars, homes and portable radios. Is it just me, or shouldn't they launch "Rock" first and "Roll" second?

"Roll" has been inspected and found to be free of problems, so the launch, coordinated by Sea Launch, has been rescheduled for Wed. Feb. 28. Had this been a Leap Year, the last day of Feb. would be Roy Trakin's birthday. Perhaps XM will inscribe something about him on the satellite.

XM and Sea Launch opted to return the satellite to its Long Beach home port and restart the 50-day launch preparedness cycle. Consequently, the launch of the second satellite is now set for mid-April. The company reports that the fee-based radio service will be available this summer, just in time for Paul McCartney's June 18 birthday, or perhaps July 7, Ringo Starr's birthday.

Recovering from this setback, XM took top honors this week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company was awarded "Best of CES" in the Automotive Products category for its satellite radio service and named a finalist in "Best of Show" for products coming out this year. Viva Las Vegas!