The radio industry plans to promote itself in coming weeks via a string of high-profile print and on-air ads featuring testimonials from music stars such as Nelly, Alicia Keys and Ludacris, as the medium finds itself the latest of a number of aging industries fighting back against new-tech rivals.

In the past three years, the nation's nearly 14,000 AM and FM stations have come face to face with a new threat: satellite radio. Washington's XM Satellite Radio and New York's Sirius Satellite Radio charge a monthly fee to beam more than 100 channels of largely commercial-free radio to customers. Both services started with zero subscribers and have grown to a combined 4.3 million as of the end of 2004…

The promotional ads, sent to thousands of radio stations yesterday, include the tagline: "Radio. You hear it here first." The campaign is designed to show AM and FM radio as the place that exposes listeners to new music.

The radio ads feature pop stars ticking off career accomplishments and allusions to hit songs, laid down over a musical track. Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne, whose 2002 single "Complicated" rocketed her to stardom at 17, chips in:

"Before the cover of Maxim, before stomping the red carpet, before I stole my father's ties, before the star on my wrist, before boy-beaters beat out wife-beaters, before I got nominated again, before the pop-tart drama, before I toured the world at 19 and 'Complicated' made things so complicated, you heard me -- Avril Lavigne -- on the radio."