HispanicBusiness

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- XM Satellite Radio, the nation's leading satellite radio company with more than 4.4 million subscribers, today announced that its Latin music hits channel Alegria (XM channel 90) will focus on Reggaeton, the hugely popular Latin Hip Hop music genre.

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Reggaeton music will now make up the majority of the tracks played on the Alegria channel. Like all XM music channels, Alegria is commercial-free. The channel is produced by XM's award-winning programming staff. New programs on Alegria include an exclusive audio version of IMF: The International Music Feed's Reggaeton program "IMF Bodega Beats," which is hosted by Hip Hop star B-Real of Cypress Hill.

"XM has a very strong commitment to Latin music, so it makes sense for us to focus one of our channels on Reggaeton," said Eric Logan, Executive Vice President of Programming, XM Satellite Radio. "Reggaeton is incredibly popular, yet it doesn't get as much exposure in the U.S. as it deserves. Part of our mission at XM is to deliver the greatest variety of music to people from coast to coast, and we saw a real need to expand the Reggaeton music on XM to become the primary format of our Alegria channel."

"We are very excited to work with XM to bring the fast-growing Reggaeton music genre to millions of people across the United States," said Andy Schuon, President & CEO of the 24-hour music television channel IMF. "The popularity of Reggaeton has exploded, but there are many fans across the country who can't hear Reggaeton on the radio. XM is the first to focus an entire national radio channel on this exciting genre."

The rising popularity of Reggaeton has been the subject of recent articles in USA Today, Washington Post, Miami Herald, and other leading media.

In addition to Alegria, XM offers three other commercial-free channels devoted to Latin music: Aguila (XM Channel 92), which plays regional Mexican music, Caliente (XM Channel 94), which offers tropical music, and Luna (XM channel 95), which plays Latin jazz.

Today also marks the launch of XM Deportivo (XM Channel 147), the Spanish- language sports channel created by XM and legendary sports broadcaster Andres Cantor.

XM also offers the Spanish-language news channel CNN EN Espanol (XM Channel 134) and MLB En Espanol (XM Channel 190), which delivers Spanish play- by-play of Major League Baseball games and baseball talk programming. Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000724/XMSATLOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.comXM Satellite Radio

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