NEW YORK -- International DJ Paul Van Dyk has just announced his first-ever weekly radio show in the U.S. on Sirius Satellite Radio to air on channel 'Area 33.' The weekly show, titled "Paul Van Dyk's Vonyc Sessions," will launch officially on August 31, 2006. Prior to that, on August 25, as part of a special 10-hour broadcast, "Paul Van Dyk Live at Central Park - NYC," Sirius will air Paul's outdoor concerts at Central Park. The concerts will be recorded during Van Dyk's August 18th and 19th shows.

Speaking with DJ Times writer, Emily Tan, Van Dyk says of his new Sirius Radio show, "I'm really happy and excited about it. That's one of the initial thoughts why we even thought about doing something like this [a show on Sirius]: I know a lot of people are listening through the Internet to my German show, so it makes a lot of sense. If there's a huge number of people listening in the U.S., why not do a show for people in English, directly for them?" When asked how he feels about his Central Park shows being recorded, Paul said, "Broadcasting my appearance at Central Park is the perfect way to kick-off this new endeavor, and I'm thrilled to have Sirius listeners enjoy such an exciting event."

The significance of the world's "number one DJ" signing with Sirius Radio is twofold; up until this point, Van Dyk hadn't even had an American radio show on terrestrial radio. We hear that negotiations with XM Satellite Radio were nearly finalized when Sirius stole the Berlin-based jock away at the eleventh hour. What's more, we can only imagine how badly the programming folks at WKTU must feel right about now. For the thousands (millions?) of dance music lovers around the world, it should come as no surprise that Van Dyk would choose the technologically forward-thinking realm of satellite radio when it came time to commit to a weekly U.S. radio show. By now, every tech-savvy kid will tell you that terrestrial radio is "dead," and although local terrestrial radio stations like WKTU, WLIR and Party 105 may be unusually supportive of the "dance" format, there has been virtually no effort on the part of national behemoths like Clear Channel Entertainment to support dance music on a national level. In a way, the short-sightedness of the hip-hop and pop-minded suits at Clear Channel inadvertently helped Sirius by serving as a catalyst and pushing EDM-lovers into satellite's lap. If you only had one TV channel you could watch for an entire year, would you choose HBO or CBS?

Van Dyk continues, "I want to make my Sirius show as good as it gets. It will include professional jingles, trailers, and such. The whole machine is in gear, in terms of how much time it takes to get everything sorted with my schedule. I have a proper structure of when I do the show, when it's being transferred to Sirius, and that is all 100% in-place." Indeed, visit Van Dyk's website for a look at his tour itinerary -- he takes more than 200 flights-per-year, possibly more than any other DJ -- and it's a wonder he finds two hours each week to be in a recording studio producing shows. We simply don't know when the man sleeps.

Paul Van Dyk's latest album, Politics of Dancing 2 (Vandit/Mute), is out now. Expect Paul Van Dyk's next full-length artist album in the spring of 2007.

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