Curry's PodShow is scheduled to debut on the digital radio network on May 13. The four-hour, weekday show will feature podcasts from new artists in music, comedy and talk. Podcasting is a way of publishing sound files to the Internet for download into MP3 players, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.
Podcasts are unique in that they can be distributed through content aggregators based on RSS, a technology used to distribute and update web content.
Curry, who left MTV in 1994, wrote and distributed an iPodder program on an open source basis in November 2004. The software, which was quickly improved by more experienced programmers, jumpstarted a cottage industry of podcasters.
Last week, Infinity Broadcasting, one of the largest radio station owners in the country, announced plans to convert its San Francisco station KYCY AM into a podcast-only station. The new station, KYOURADIO, is scheduled to launch May 16.
Curry's Sirius debut will coincide with the launch of his podcast website, PodShow.com. Financial details of the Sirius deal were not disclosed.
New York-based Sirius is battling for subscribers in the growing digital radio market with its larger rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., based in Washington, D.C. Both have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on big content deals in order to attract subscribers. XM, for example, signed a $650 million deal to broadcast Major League Baseball games, and Sirius paid shock jock Howard Stern $500 million to move his talk show to its network next year.
Sirius ended 2004 with 1.14 million subscribers, and XM Satellite with 3.2 million.