The University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School, the worlds oldest collegiate business school, will be featured on a new Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI) channel, letting listeners get business lessons directly from professors.

Sirius will train Wharton faculty, such as finance professor Jeremy Siegel and sports-business expert Kenneth Shropshire, to host shows on the channel, the satellite broadcaster said today in a statement. Many of the live programs, which will cover everything from equity markets to retailing, will include call-in segments from listeners.

Sirius is modeling the station on its medical channel Doctor Radio, which uses physicians from NYU Langone Medical Center as hosts, said Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer of the New York-based company. The goal is to connect listeners who lack a formal business education with academics who can explain concepts clearly, he said.

The move will create the first full-time radio station focused on business management and furthers efforts to use digital technologies to expand the role of elite universities. EdX, a nonprofit online learning network, announced plans last week to team up with Google Inc. to create a new Web educational platform. That venture is working with schools such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley.

Underserved Market?

The Wharton channel will be targeted at anyone from a first-time job seeker to a chief executive officer, Sirius said.

We think the market for business knowledge is underserved, Greenstein said in an e-mail. We are launching at a time when there are more entrepreneurs than ever. They are hungry for key advice from seasoned experts.

The station will debut in early 2014 on channel 111, as well as through the Sirius XM Internet radio application. Sirius, which has more than 25 million subscribers, approached Philadelphia-based Wharton with the idea earlier this year. Patrick Reilly, a spokesman for the company, declined to discuss financial compensation for the hosts.

It was the only school we approached, said Greenstein, citing Whartons extensive academic and alumni network, which we feel will be an incredibly valuable resource for expert guest appearances on the channel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net

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Wharton School to Create Call-In Business Channel for Sirius XM