SiriusXM to Introduce Alternative Morning Program

In a quest to lure subscribers from free terrestrial radio, the pay satellite service SiriusXM is betting that some morning drive listeners want something other than straight news, partisan talk or local fluff, and it is backing a homegrown talent to develop the format.

Starting Feb. 11, the stand-up comedian Pete Dominick will end his afternoon call-in and interview program on SiriusXM’s Potus politics channel and move to a renamed male-oriented Indie channel (formerly Stars Too) in a prime three-hour block, 6 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time, with a repeat for the West Coast.

His show will keep its name, “Stand Up! With Pete Dominick,” but will not be “stuck in the paradigm of politics,” said Mr. Dominick, 37, in an interview at SiriusXM’s Manhattan offices. He said he planned to explore religion, race, energy, education policy, veterans’ issues and even parenting.

(Mr. Dominick, the father of young daughters, is also a contributor to the cable network HLN’s “Raising America With Kyra Phillips.”)

He called the new radio show “similar to NPR content, but — without taking a shot at them — with more of a heartbeat, with more of a personality.”

Any celebrity guests will be asked about causes, but not their personal lives. “Death to voyeurism and gossip,” said Mr. Dominick, who made headlines in 2010 when a CNN host, Rick Sanchez, was fired after making what some viewed as anti-Semitic comments on Mr. Dominick’s show. Mr. Dominick declined interviews at the time, not wanting to exploit the incident, he said.

To accommodate his new early morning hours as well as time with his family, Mr. Dominick is giving up his other job, warming up the studio audience for Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

Mr. Dominick started in satellite radio in 2006, as a host on Raw Dog Comedy, and has steadily branched out. His personal politics lean liberal, but he would rather ask questions than offer opinions. “The problem with political talk radio is that it’s mainly a farce, it’s mainly just theater,” he said. “I longed for a discussion that I thought was real.”

SiriusXM, which has 24 million subscribers, declined to disclose the size of Mr. Dominick’s current audience, but Jeremy Coleman, senior vice president for talk and entertainment programming, said, “We track very carefully the enthusiasm, loyalty and passion of our audience and do everything we can to maximize it.”