Each week, Salon.com Radio will take the wry, opinionated personality of Salon.com to the airwaves. Hosted by Stephan Cox, the one-hour program will feature stories, interviews and commentary on current events, technology, arts and culture, with reporting and interviews by Salon.com's writers and editors.

Says Michael O'Donnell, CEO and president of Salon.com, "With the launch of our first radio show, Salon is further becoming a cross-platform media company. In addition to our award-winning site and the three books we've published to date, our new radio show extends Salon's brand into the broadcast radio arena and opens up a valuable new revenue stream."

Initial corporate sponsors of the show include Safeweb (www.safeweb.com) and Mercury (www.mercuryvehicles.com), which will use the show to help launch its new 2002 Mercury Mountaineer.

Salon.com Radio will air in major markets, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, and in more than 100 other cities. Additionally, Salon.com Radio will be streamed each week in its entirety on Salon's popular Web site, Salon.com (www.salon.com/radio), and on partner sites across the Web. Downloadable MP3 files of individual stories and interviews will also be available.

Gary Hustwit, Salon's vice president of audio and broadband, will serve as executive producer of Salon.com Radio. The show will be produced in Salon's new recording studio, located in its New York office. Consulting producers include Susan Burton, formerly with the radio show "This American Life," and Ahri Birnbaum, formerly with "Beyond Computers."

Says Hustwit, "Each day, Salon.com brings an intelligent, thought-provoking and entertaining experience to the Internet, and we look forward to bringing Salon's attitude to an even bigger audience offline in radio. Public radio listeners will be excited by our fresh voices and innovative format."

PRI Vice President of Programming and Acquisition Dale Spear adds, "We are pleased to be in partnership with Salon.com, making this exciting new radio program available nationwide. It's a perfect fit for public radio. Visitors to Salon.com's Web site have the same interests, attitudes and tastes as public radio listeners. We're confident that our listeners who aren't familiar with Salon.com will discover a whole new world of great content, and Salon.com devotees who haven't yet discovered public radio will enjoy listening to us."