Playboy Unveils Satellite Radio Show

Picking up the argument that indignant readers of the magazine have made for four decades--it’s not just the pictures--Playboy Radio debuts Tuesday as a new channel on XM Satellite Radio.

“ ‘It’s not just about the visuals.’ That’s been the joke about the magazine forever,” said Scott Barton, national public relations director for the Playboy Entertainment Group. “Sex is all in the mind. You don’t need to see it to get the information or intent.”

Weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m., the new channel will air “Night Calls,” the radio version of the live phone-in program that has run on Playboy’s cable TV channel for eight years. According to its program guide, “On this carnal call-in show, you can share your wildest sexperiments on the air with our lusty late-night hosts Juli Ashton and Tiffany Granath.”

“It’s an opportunity for mature adults to talk openly and spontaneously about anything sensual,” Barton said, and will also include demonstrations and adult-film star interviews. The live radio show is separate from the twice-monthly television show, and the rest of Playboy Radio’s schedule during the week will feature repeats of previous “Night Calls” radio programs.

The service, the first premium channel XM has offered since it launched in September 2001, costs $2.99 a month on top of XM’s regular monthly fee of $9.99. XM, like its only competitor in the industry, New York-based Sirius, beams signals from satellites to subscribers’ receivers nationwide, offering 100 channels of music, news, sports and information, with a programming diversity not available on most terrestrial radio--akin to the difference between cable and broadcast television. XM has about 140,000 subscribers.