By SETH SUTEL
AP Business Writer
Published April 18, 2005, 10:41 AM CDT


NEW YORK -- Six weeks after being released from federal prison, Martha Stewart has reached a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. to create a 24-hour channel featuring cooking, gardening and entertaining programming for women.

Coming on the heels of separate deals to create a version of "The Apprentice" and a daily cooking show, the four-year agreement announced Monday with Sirius marks Stewart's latest move to rebuild her business after serving time for lying to the government about a stock sale.

"I don't know about you, but I was raised on the radio," Stewart said, smiling broadly during a news conference in New York.

"I'm very excited about this," she said. "Of all the things that I have done in the last few years with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, radio is actually one of the most enjoyable."

http://www.chicagotribune...i-news-hed

Dont men cook, garden and entertain too?

Last year Sirius signed a five-year, $500 million deal to broadcast Howard Stern's show beginning in 2006, and XM reached a $650 million deal last fall with Major League Baseball. Last week Sirius also said it would launch a weekly talk show with former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.

The article doesnt say how much the deal is worth but Id suspect that its in the hundreds of millions.

Sirius' shares rose 12 cents or 2.3 percent to $5.27 in brisk trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Monday morning, while XM's were off 30 cents or 1.1 percent at $27.20, also on the Nasdaq. Marth Stewart Living Omnimedia's shares rose 84 cents or 4.3 percent to $20.41 on the New York Stock Exchange.