Writer and sometime KGSR-FM voice Joe Nick Patoski, a self-confessed radio junkie, is thrilled with his Sirius Satellite Radio subscription.

"To me, I don't care, $12.95 – even if it went to $15 (per month) – to not have to listen to commercials is great," he says. "And I've been turned on to a lot more stuff than in years, and at the same time, have heard things I haven't heard in decades."

Patoski's moderating a panel titled "Satellite Radio: Triumph of the Niche" during the South by Southwest because, he says, "I just want to delve into its possibilities and its limitations."

Basically, he hopes to answer the question, "Is this better than sliced bread or is it going to remind us of quadraphonic?"

So far, satellite's future looks as bright as Alpha Canis Majoris, aka the dog star, from which Sirius takes its name. In less than four years, competitor XM radio has amassed 3.2 million subscribers and expects to claim 5.5 million by the end of 2005. Sirius now has 1.1 million and predicts 2.5 million by year's end – just before Howard Stern joins its ever-growing roster of personalities, all of whom operate free of the Federal Communications Commission censorship hounds that have dogged Stern throughout his career.

While XM says it prefers to be content-motivated instead of personality-driven, Sirius has been going after other famous names, such as Austinite Lance Armstrong, who's now heard on the company's extreme-sports-fan Faction channel. Musician and former classic rock jock and talk radio pundit Mojo Nixon, a regular Austin visitor, hosts Sirius' new "Outlaw Country" channel, which was dreamed up by Little Steven Van Zandt, creator of Sirius fave "Little Steven's Underground Garage."

Nixon will be broadcasting during his annual SXSW throw-down at the Continental Club (Mojo Nixon's Mayhem Jalapeño Pancake Breakfast, 10 a.m. Saturday). David Johansen, here for SXSW with his reunited New York Dolls, is heard on Sirius Disorder. Patoski's hoping Johansen will join his Friday panel, which already features "Outlaw Country" format manager Jeremy Tepper, XM Radio "X Country" program director Jessie Scott (who airs a monthly show featuring Austin musicians) and Tobi P, program and music director for college-radio-like XMU.

SXSW panels coordinator Andy Flynn says the satellite panel made this year's schedule because public awareness is finally high enough.

"If people don't have it," he says, "they know somebody who has it and has been raving about it."