Free Sirius XM for a month, amigos! That is to say, free Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez for 30 days. It’s the company’s latest promotional tactic to get you to pony up the $15 or whatever a month for the service. A test drive, if you will.

Once you sign up for the free trial, Sirius XM sends you a radio and car kit, so you can listen to East Side Dave talk about the Smoke Zone, Opie tell Ashley Dupree to take a hike, and Fez have heat attacks every day.

It’s top-notch radio, and I listen all day long. I’d have joined the circus long ago if it weren’t for those guys.

But if you’re only interested in the free month, be sure to cancel before the 30 days are up, lest you find a nice little bill on your credit card statement.

Whatcha gonna do, brother, when you sign a one-year contract with TNA Wrestling, but still want to keep your name in the news? You get a radio show on Sirius XM, of course, dude. That’s right: starting this Monday, you, me, and anyone else with Sirius XM will be able to hear Hulk Hogan—wait, wait, Terry (I forgot, I’m shooting just like they do in TNA)—at 7pm ET on Howard 101. It’s called “Hulk Hogan: Uncensored,” and I’m looking forward to hearing him explain how he wrestled more than 400 days per year back in the 1980s. Yes, he actually claimed that in his latest book. Ridiculous.

It’s a well-known fact that Hogan is good friends with Sirius XM’s Bubba The Love Sponge, someone fans of Opie and Anthony should be familiar with (because he stinks on ice). In fact, Mr. Love Sponge is a recurring character on TNA Wrestling, the wrestling promotion that Hogan hitched his wagon to a few months ago. They’re not doing too great in the ratings, being regularly trounced by WWE on Monday nights on Spike TV. It got so bad that Spike had to move the show, TNA Impact, from the 9-11pm time slot to the 8-10pm time slot, thinking that the one unopposed hour will even out the damage done to the lone opposed (to WWE Monday Night Raw) hour. It’s a good idea, but a better idea would be to go back to Thursday nights. At least that’s cheaper than running live shows ever other week on Mondays.

Hogan isn’t exactly a radio newcomer. He’s a frequent guest on the aforementioned Bubba The Love Sponge Show, and has proven over the past 90 years that, if nothing else, he’s a good talker. A great talker, even. Well, he’s no Ric Flair, but that’s an unfair comparison—nobody is better than Flair on the mic.

Then again, people thought David Lee Roth was a good talker, too, but look how his show on CBS Radio wound up—it wound up dead, that’s what.

The Howard 101 Web site says the show will consist of Hogan “[talking] about his life in and out of the ring.” (It may end up being a permanent deal if it does well, however Sirius XM chooses to measure success here.) The name alone implies that the show has the potential to be interesting—Lord knows he was on the road long enough to have a couple of stories to share with the Howard 101 audience.

I’ll give it a shot. I mean, it’s not like I’m doing anything else Mondays at 7pm.

UPDATE Ron & Fez, 11-3

There’s one week per year that there’s reason to listen to Sirius XM beyond XM Channel 202 The Virus. That’s right, it’s Winter Music Conference time, a time when the world’s top DJs and producers descend upon Miami and have themselves a good ol’ Dionysian time. House music, trance, progressive, Dutch tourists trying to find food that won’t kill them, etc. It’s a good example of what satellite radio could have been.

It’s probably not too crazy to call Sirius XM a niche product, and I’m fine with that. Again, so long as I get to hear the occasional healthcare rant by Anthony, or hear Fez flip out on interns, I’m more than happy with Sirius XM. Every single other channel could disappear and I wouldn’t mind one bit.

Aside from this week! On Channel 80, Area, today begins Sirius XM’s annual broadcast of the Winter Music Conference. It’s basically a five-day electronic music party. Now, electronic music isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but I can think of no better music to accompany a late night World of Warcraft grinding session.

Surprisingly, Sirius XM usually does a good job in broadcasting the festival. It’s non-stop: coverage from various parties, live DJ sets, interviews with producers, etc. “Oh, so that’s what Chris Lake sounds like!”

So yeah, the one week of the year that my Sirius XM dial leaves Channel 202 The Virus for any amount of time. As soon as I hear “Satellite of Love” at the end of Ron and Fez, it’s WMC time.

I haven’t really paid attention to that whole scene in the past year—who’s the big name producer these days?

Flickr

Ron and Fez, the fantastic Sirius XM radio show that makes my day every day, will host the world’s first second Twitter party on Sunday! It’s a follow-up to last month’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Twitter Party, which was pretty much a gigantic success. What’s being celebrated this time around? The Oscars (gi gi gi)! It gets even better: a live radio show will actually accompany the Twitter party. I’m excited.

You know the drill: be sure to keep your eye on @202Friends once Sunday rolls around for a chance to win some sweet swag. Among the prizes: a copy of the movie Titanic signed by James Cameron, Ordinary People signed by Timothy Hutton, and—and this should be a treat for all you sci-fi fans—a copy of Lord of the Rings signed by Peter Jackson!

Considering that all you’d have to do is follow @202Friends to win this stuff, you’d be a fool not to play along!

All that, and a live, special edition of Ron and Fez at 8pm on Sirius 197/XM 202? Count me in, dogsy! I don’t know a damn thing about movies, but hearing the guys discuss ‘em is one of the highlights of the show.

Last night’s Super Bowl was pretty amazing. That seems to be the general reaction, at least. But you know what was just as amazing, if not more amazing? The Ron & Fez Twitter party, which I’m pretty sure was the very first organized Twitter party in history. Is there a FourSquare for that?

There were many winners, chief among them @coolhandluke, who won a pair of knissors signed by the inventor himself, East Side Dave. Other prizes included a pair of shoes signed by Bruce Jenner, won by @DannyMoony.

This appears on CrunchGear because we’ve finally reached a point where people are genuinely having parties over Twitter. That’s insane, 140 characters a pop uniting people from all over the planet in celebration of sport. And that was just the first party! Surely more will be coming now.

Twitter parties for the win~!

Look at all these prizes~!

This may be a first: a Twitter Super Bowl party! Sirius XM’s Ron and Fez is having some sort of Twitter party celebrating The Big Game. Trivia, prizes, virtual booze, Chris Stanley passed out at a speakeasy in Long Island City—what more could you want? Oh, that’s not enough for you? Then how about a pair of knissors signed by East Side Dave McDonald, whom I interviewed last summer?

It’s pretty easy to join the fun. All you have to do is follow @202Friends, the radio show’s Twitter feed. Once Sunday rolls around, be sure to check the feed for trivia questions. The first to answer, wins. Done and done.

There’s other prizes besides the knissors, not that you’d need anything other than knissors, or course. You can be in the running for sports goodies signed by true legends like Jerome Bettis, Michael Strahan, and Bruce Jenner. There’s also items signed by Bill Cosby and Aubrey Plaza, who plays April on Parks and Recreation. She’s a fellow NYU alum, so that’s neat.

So yeah, a Twitter Super Bowl party. This is truly the future.