The first round of the NFL Draft won’t start until 4 p.m. this Saturday, four hours later than it did just a year ago. The Fantasy Sports Channel on BlogTalkRadio will be getting an early start, though.

The online channel’s coverage kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday and then again at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, with each day’s lineup running right up to midnight.

Most of us who will be near our TVs all weekend will be tuned to ESPN or NFL Network (my choice, to get Mike Mayock and to get away from Chris Berman, Meshawn Johnson and Tom Jackson — even though I’ll probably have to put up with some Warren Sapp).

If you’re looking to get the fantasy spin on the picks fed right to your ears, though, here’s the FSC rundown …

Saturday
10 a.m. — Fantasy Football Facts
11 a.m. — All Access Football
Noon — Johnny Archive
1 p.m. — Inside the Trenches
2 p.m. — Red vs. Blue
3 p.m. — The Thundering Blurb
5 p.m. — The Fantasy Football Guys
6 p.m. — Fantasy Sports Group
7 p.m. — Fantasy Sharks
8 p.m. — Two Feet in Bounds
9 p.m. — Radio Grumblings
11 p.m. — RotoRadio

Sunday
9:30 a.m. — All Access Football
11 a.m. — The Scott Engel Show
Noon — Fantasy Sharks
1 p.m. — 643 Sports
2 p.m. — Inside the Trenches
3 p.m. — Fantasy Football Roundtable
5 p.m. — Johnny Archive
7 p.m. — Phat Guys on Fantasy
8 p.m. — The Fantasy Exchange
10 p.m. — Fantasy Sharks
11 p.m. — Sports from Frankie’s Point of View

The merging of satellite radio providers XM and Sirius made big news around the country for quite a while. What you might not have heard, though, was that the resulting management decided to dump all daytime fantasy sports programming.

That move left RotoWire’s Fantasy Focus baseball show, hosted by two-time FSWA baseball writer of the year Jeff Erickson, homeless after a four-year run on XM. Loyal listeners needn’t worry, however, as the show will appear on The Fantasy Sports Channel on BlogTalkRadio.com beginning Monday.

“We’re excited the show will to continue to run at the same time and format since it built a loyal audience over it’s four-year run on XM and really became the place to hear all the industry’s top experts,” RotoWire.com president Peter Schoenke told FSB.com. “The show will continue to be able to interact live with listeners through call-ins or a chat room via the BlogTalkRadio platform.”

The change will also make the shows available in podcast form via RotoWire’s podcast page, BlogTalkRadio.com and iTunes. Fans who couldn’t catch the show at airtime didn’t have that luxury when it appeared on XM.

“The show was very popular [on XM] and had a strong audience, but the new management team decided to go another direction with the MLB Home Plate channel,” Schoenke said. “During it’s run it was perhaps the most high-profile fantasy show on radio, as it preceded ESPN’s buildup of fantasy content and even later still did the most shows per year of any fantasy sports radio or television program.”

RotoWire’s Fantasy Focus will broadcast live from noon to 1 p.m. every weekday.

Here are all of the finalists for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s 2008 Industry Recognition Awards. Only FSTA members are eligible to win, and the membership selects the winners (in bold below) from the final candidates.

Commissioner Product
CBSSports.com Commissioner
ESPN Fantasy League Manager
Fanball.com Football Commissioner
Fantrax
MyFantasyLeague.com (FB)
RealTime Fantasy Sports (FB)

Draft-Style Tool
CBSSports.com Live Draft Room
Mock Draft Central

Draft-Style Contest
CBSSports.com Free Fantasy Football
FanaticFantasyFootball.com LLC (FB)
Fanball Draft and Play MLB (NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR
Head2Head The Draft 2008
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Salary Cap Contest
Fanball Challenge Games
Head2Head Salary Cap Football
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Sports Buff Salary Cap Style Football

Live Event or Contest
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Fantasy Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (FB)
FLW Fantasy Fishing

Unique Contest
Alma Mater Football League
ESPN Streak for the Cash
FLW Fantasy Fishing
Head2Head Match Play Madness
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Pay The Fan Fantasy Sports (FB,Racing)

Innovation
CBSSports.com User Generated Player Updates
ESPN Streak for the Cash
Accuscore.com GMC Fantasy Scout
LeagueSafe.com
Rosterdilemma.com

Draft Kit
CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Downloadable Draft Kit
The Huddle Fantasy Football Draft Kit
ESPN Fantasy Football/Baseball Draft Kit
RotoExperts
RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
KFFL.com’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide

Draft Assistance Tool
CBSSports.com Mock Drafts
Draft Dynamix Draft Analyzer
Mock Draft Central
RotoLab, DraftLab, HoopLab

Print Ad
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
Fantrax
Fanball - Gatefold (4 Page) Ad in Fantasy Football Index & Fanball Cheat Sheets
LeagueSafe.com
MyFantasyLeague.com
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Football print ad
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Magazine
Athlon/Grogan’s Fantasy Football Analyst
Baseball HQ - Baseball Forecaster
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
ESPN The Magazine Fantasy Football Draft Guide (FB)
Fanball Fantasy Football Draft Issue
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Baseball Guide
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (FB, Baseball)

New Website or Site Update
AOL Sports (FB) Fanhouse
CBSSports.com College Fantasy Football
FantasySportsBusiness.com
FantasySportsGirl.com
LeagueSafe.com
One Season Fantasy sports stock market
RotoExperts
Sports Data Hub

Specialty Products or Services
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
FantasyDispute.com
Fantasy Trophies LLC
LeagueSafe.com
Sports Data Hub
Titlecraft Inc.

Online Content Service
BaseballHQ.com
CBSSports.com Fantasy News Site
ESPN Insider Answer Guys
Fanball - Owner’s Edge NFL
The Huddle Fantasy Football Service
KFFL Hot off the Wire
RotoWire.com
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (All Sports)

Blog
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Stephania Bell’s Injury Blog (FB)
Fanball - Godfather of Fantasy Sports Blog
The Fantasy Baseball Sherpa’s Blog
Fantasy Football Sherpa’s Blog
RotoWire’s blog area, also called RotoSynthesis
Sporting News Fantasy Source Blitz blog (FB)
William Del Pilar’s Locker Room Buzz

Podcast
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY(FB)
ESPN Fantasy Focus Baseball
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football
FantasySportsGirl.com
RotoExperts.com Start em and Sit em Sunday

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– Scott Engel and Paul Bourdett of RotoExperts will join Fantasy Sports Channel managing editor Marc Ronick for nine hours of coverage from the FSTA winter business conference’s first day on Tuesday. The programming will stream live on BlogTalkRadio.

– The sports stock-market site has nailed down $3.5 million in Series A funding. As part of the new deals, OneSeason has also added new members to its board of directors and advisory board, most notably hall of fame safety Ronnie Lott.

– KFFL’s Tim Heaney — a 2008 FSWA finalist for Best Baseball Article in Print — rounds up news on players from the Caribbean leagues who are or will be worth the attention of fantasy owners. KFFL also features similar roundups from the Arizona Fall League (AL and NL) and the Hawaiian Winter Baseball league.

– Professional angler and ESPN Outdoors commentator Kevin Short wonders aloud (in writing) why there’s a bigger purse on the FLW fantasy fishing contest than on the fishing tour itself.