May 2007 Archives

It's been 70 days since Sirius-XM filed with federal regulators, and yet the merger hasn't even passed the preliminary review process. The FCC has yet to start its 180-day merger-review clock, and that smells like trouble for many.

"This constitutes the longest application-to-clock delay in FCC history," David Trout of M&A Researcher says in a report Wednesday. "There is simply no way to view the delay in a positive light."

And the delay seems to indicate that a decision won't arrive until sometime in 2008. That's cutting it close to election time, when political attention is far more focused elsewhere.

"It seems relatively safe to assume that the intervention -- in the form of face-to-face meetings -- of several politicians and organizations represented by former politicians is slowing the preliminary review process," Trout continued.

This chart illustrates how long this merger review process is taking, when compared to other major mergers:

"Each passing day without the FCC's pleading cycle and review clock being initiated threatens [hopes for] an FCC decision before the end of 2007," Trout writes.

[via TheStreet]

The League of Rural Voters today announced their support for the Sirius-XM merger, joining with several other organizations who have recently publicly supported the merger.

It's an interesting addition to the roster of supporters, because while the prior organizations addressed the FCC's concerns on ethnic diversity in the media - this directly addresses concerns of adequate competition in rural areas.

The League of Rural Voters said the combined entity would offer listeners in rural communities more content options at lower prices than what is currently available from Sirius and XM separately.

"In many rural areas throughout America, commercial radio reception can be extremely limited. Satellite radio has offered listeners in rural areas a robust alternative with hundreds of specialized channels that meet the programing needs of rural America," said Niel Ritchie, the League’s Executive Director. The organization also pointed to rural listeners who depend on satellite radio’s emergency and public safety stations, while terrestrial radio's corporate consolidation has created so-called "local news and weather" service which are actually delivered from offices hundreds of miles away.

One of the key reasons why the DirecTV-EchoStar merger wasn't approved by the FCC was because it was felt that rural communities (areas where an over-the-air TV signal isn't available) would lose out in competitive choices.

It seems that the League of Rural Voters is seeing that the merger would be more of a "standardization" of the satellite radio medium - opening up the exclusive content from both providers under a single subscription.

XM and Public Radio International (PRI) are expanding on their partnership, now to provide the popular interview/call-in show "RadioWest," starting next Monday, June 4th.

Produced by KUER-FM in Salt Lake City, "RadioWest" is an hour-long show hosted by Doug Fabrizio (pictured) - who you might have also heard as a guest host on NPR's "Talk of the Nation."

The show packs impressive roster of guest hosts itself, including authors E. L. Doctorow and the late Spalding Gray, not to mention global luminaries like the Dali Lama and Desmond Tutu.

Doug Fabrizio has been the host and executive producer of "RadioWest" since 2001, and has won numerous awards for the show from organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Utah Broadcasters Association.

"RadioWest" will air on XM Public Radio (ch 133) weekdays at 1pm ET.

Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will participate in a keynote discussion at the 2007 Lehman Brothers Worldwide Wireless and Wireline Conference at the Crowne Plaza Times Square in New York City.

The keynote will be at approximately 4:30pm ET, tomorrow, May 31st. A webcast of the keynote discussion will be available here.

Last.fm, the popular social music network, has been acquired by CBS for $280 million in cash.

The UK-based music site has been around for about 5 years, and has over 15 million active users in more than 200 countries. Last.fm's leadership will remain in place and the website will retain it's separate identity.

"This move will really support us to get every track ever recorded and every music video ever made onto Last.fm," said Last.fm founding member Martin Stiksel. "With a strong partner like CBS, this is now within our reach." 

"Last.fm is one of the fastest growing online communities out there," said CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves. "Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS's goal to attract younger viewers and listeners across our businesses."

This represents the largest Web 2.0 acquisition yet. But beyond that, this is a strong indication as to how fast things are moving lately. The lines of "distribution" are being blurred.

[BBC News via ValleyWag] 

Part two of Slacker's three prong attack on digital radio has just arrived: Slacker Desktop Radio.

Slacker Desktop Radio goes a step further than its Web-based counterpart, with features like a mini-player, visualizations, larger album art and playlists. Eventually, when the Slacker Portable gets released, Slacker Desktop Radio will sync your custom channels to the device.

The Slacker Portable, Slacker Desktop Radio, and Slacker web-app will all work together, updating each other with your custom preferences as you move from one to the other.

There's a couple downsides of course, one being that the application is still in beta and as such is pretty temperamental (I had trouble running it at the time of writing this). Also there's no iTunes integration and no support for the Mac (yet). But it's still very early, so hopefully all of that will change.

Once the Slacker Portable, their Premium Radio service and the Slacker Satellite Car Kit is available, many people may be singing an entirely different tune.

[Slacker Desktop Radio via TechCrunch] 

Next Wednesday, June 6th, XM will air a unique special that re-creates the radio coverage of D-Day, with archival reports from NBC’s original radio news bulletins of the invasion.

This incredible broadcast will air, in real-time, starting at 12:41am ET (which was the time of the first airing) and will end June 7th, at 5:45pm ET on The '40s (ch 4). The special will be based on the original NBC radio news reports of the invasion (currently housed in the National Archives) exactly as it was heard almost 63 years ago.

The marathon will also feature music of the era and archival reports from radio commentators of the day, including H. V. Kaltenborn, Merrill Mueller, and the other members of NBC’s news staff.

"Once we discovered that this material existed, we felt we had an obligation to bring it to XM listeners," said Program Director Marlin Taylor. "No one else would undertake such an endeavor and it is our role to keep the music and history of this era alive and available to those living in the 21st century."

Pretty amazing.

There's a couple o' changes going down over at Sirius Blog Radio on Left of Center (ch 26).

First, Sirius has added It's A Trap and Aquarium Drunkard to their repertoire of bloggers. And second, Sirius has moved the timeslot to air at 12-noon ET, with encore broadcasts at 12-midnight ET. So here's the breakdown by day:

• Monday - Gorilla Vs Bear
• Tuesday - My Old Kentucky Blog
• Wed - BrooklynVegan
• Thursday - ProductShopNYC
• Friday - Aquarium Drunkard
• Saturday - It's A Trap

Good stuff.

[via ProductShopNYC] 

Earlier this year Microsoft and Ford unveiled Sync, an in-car communications and entertainment system that is expected to be a factory-installed option for various 2008 model year vehicles.

This patent however details a "car stereo including a docking station into which an off-the-shelf handheld computer can be docked," and additionally, it hints towards support for a multitude of devices. The stereo would also include a memory system that will "maintain a record its current state when it is undocked from a particular type of appliance," so when you plug back in, everything starts up where you left off.

Not to be limited by digital audio players, the patent also allows for "another interface form [that] may allow the user to select from resources such as GPS, internet, a printer over USB, etc."

[View Patent (PDF) via Engadget] 

There's another merger going on in the ever popular audio-over-satellite market, with Muzak and DMX looking to tie the knot.

And just like our own Sirius-XM merger, the DOJ has issued a "Second Request" under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Both companies submitted an HSR filing to the DOJ back in April, asking for antitrust regulators to give the go-ahead for the merger.

If merged, the newly formed entity would be packaged and sold to an unnamed third party.

"We believe the additional information requested will serve to confirm that a merger of the two companies will not adversely affect competition, will result in significant synergies for the combined companies, and will benefit our customers," a Muzak spokesperson said.

With both DMX-Muzak and Sirius-XM looking to merge, you have to wonder whether regulators are questioning the strength that satellite-based companies possess, versus their earth-bound competitors.

[Digital Music News]
Thanks Tim!

A recent Bridge Ratings study took a look at the competitive media landscape and the usage of the U.S. population. The results are pretty interesting...

The survey found that about 450,000 people say they listen to HD Radio daily.

Now, 57 million Americans listen to some form of Internet radio in a typical week, according to the study. Compare this to Sirius and XM, who combined pull in nearly 15 million subscribers.

Still, terrestrial radio continues to dominate, and MP3 players also hold a massive amount of earshare. An amazing 280 million Americans listen to terrestrial radio in an average week. While MP3 players - yes, including the iPod - reach 90 million Americans.

So let's break this down in percentages:

• HD Radio: 0.0015% of the U.S. population
  
• Satellite Radio: 4.8% of the U.S. population
• Internet Radio: 21% of the U.S. population
• MP3 Players: 30.4% of the U.S. population
• Terrestrial Radio: 93.7% of the U.S. population

[Bridge Ratings]

The largest and oldest Latino organization in the U.S., the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), has publicly affirmed their support for the merger of Sirius and XM.

"This is obviously important to LULAC, and this is likely to provide both Hispanic programmers and consumers with opportunities and choices," said Rosa Rosales, LULAC National President. "More programming means that the ever diverse American consuming public can look to Satellite radio for news and entertainment."

Several channels are cited as being important to the Hispanic American population, including ESPN Deportes, CNN Espanol, and several Latin music channels.

"More programming means more jobs -- from the on-talent to production crews. And more programming means that the ever creative and entrepreneurial American spirit has yet one more potential outlet and distribution channel," said Brent Wilkes, LULAC Executive Director.

Interestingly, in most cases, LULAC said they would support the maintenance of competition in a relevant market - but this merger is different. In this case there are "considerable benefits from the proposed merger" that they say outweighs any countervailing concerns.

There's an obvious media blitz of minority groups coming out in support of the merger.

While the NAB continues to beat their repetitious drum, it seems that the team on Sirius-XM's side is addressing the FCC's concerns of diversity in media. With minorities now representing nearly 1/3 of the U.S. population, it's a legitimate purpose, and one that can be directly attributed to serving the "public interest."

• A very in-depth look at the NAB's latest hired guns: Bluewater Strategies [Technology Liberation Front]
• Senator Kohl's mistaken view on the audio entertainment market [Digital Media Wire]
• It's been a rough May for XM [Washington Post]
• What's up with Radio? [Zatz Not Funny]

Sony has stepped into the HD Radio arena now with the XDR-S3HD tabletop radio and the XT-100HD mobile tuner.

The Sony XDR-S3HD tabletop targets the retro-chic crowd with a large back-lit blue LCD display set in a mesh-covered front panel and wrapped in a cherry wood finish. Along with HD Radio support, the XDR-S3HD also sports MP3 playback (through an auxiliary cable), and 20 presets for either the AM/FM band.

Expect to see the XDR-S3HD in stores in July for about $200.

Then there's the Sony XT-100HD, which is a hideaway mobile tuner that connects through the Sony head unit's bus interface.

On top enabling your car to receive HD Radio, the unit will pump any available PAD data to the headunit. Also expect to see the XT-100HD available in July, running around $100. 

Earlier this month, the veiled FCC registration by "i-Sirius" caused many an eyebrow to be raised. Speculation had since ensued, with theories of potential products and partnerships (from an iPhone competitor, to a pending deal with Apple) began swimming around.

Luckily though, even though the FCC application asked for confidentiality, one of the test reports (PDF) apparently included a photo of the upcoming device (pictured).

And here's what we know:

• The company is named "i-Sirius Co.,Ltd" and they're located in Seoul, Korea
• The device will be a GSM 850/1900 phone
• It will be branded as the Motorola FX-850P

Nothing in the test reports seem to indicate a satellite radio device. And looking at the photo, it doesn't appear that any audio controls are visible, so I would rule out any relations to Sirius here, other than the name.

[via Satellite Radio TechWorld]

Sometime ago I was sent these spec TV spots (videos below) that took a different approach to promoting Sirius. And I really think the concept has potential.

In most other commercial spots - by both Sirius and XM - it's essentially been a one-way message: The companies telling the viewer how great the service is, and the variety of content available to them.

But these spots take a different approach.

Instead they give the personal experience of a single subscriber (a taxi driver... who is character) from their own point of view. I could see different spots featuring personal experiences from soccer moms, truck drivers, real estate agents, contractors, etc. Anyone who spends a lot of time in their car.

Anyway, take a look, and remember that they're test spots, so you're viewing them in raw form:

Sirius' music channels will feature in-studio guests and special programing for this Memorial Day Weekend. Check out the highlights below (all times Eastern):

Big 80s (ch 8), May 26 at 9am and 5pm; May 27 at 4am and Noon; and May 28 at 3pm ET.
The ‘OmiGod’ One Hit Wonders Big '80s Summer Countdown!
Hosted by four of the original MTV VJs, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn will count down the top 40 one-hit wonders of the decade as voted by listeners.  Each host will also pick an extra one-hit wonder that did not make the listener choices.

Buzzsaw, (ch 19), May 26 at 9am through June 1 at 12 midnight ET.
Air Guitar Week
Buzzsaw is celebrating the one guitar that everyone can play: air guitar.  Björn Türoque, air guitar champ and star of documentary, “Air Guitar Nation,” is coming in to host air guitar tunes and give you tips on how to achieve air guitar greatness.  Throughout the week, Buzzsaw will play the greatest air guitar anthems so you can play along.

Underground Garage, (ch 25), May 26 starting at 8 am ET through May 27 at 8 pm ET.
Summer of Love 2007
A salute to the 40th anniversary of the “Summer of Love” (the summer of 1967) jam-packed with special features revolving around the “Summer of Love”.

Left of Center, (ch 26), May 26 through 28 at Noon ET.
Blog Party Weekend
Your favorite Blog Radio hosts playing the best in indie, underground and alternative for the Memorial Day weekend.  Plus, please welcome our newest blogger to Left of Center, Aquarium Drunkard.

Faction, (ch 28), May 27 at 9 pm ET.
Joan Jett’s Radio Revolution
Joan Jett’s new radio show exclusive to Sirius launches Sunday, May 27 with a special salute to the men and women in the US military. Joan will be giving our troops, both stateside and abroad, the opportunity to request their favorite music and send a message home to friends and family.

Sirius Disorder, (ch 32), May 26 at 2 pm and 4 pm ET.
Rufus Wainwright discusses his new release The Stars in a two part interview with Sirius Disorder’s Meg Griffin.

Area 33, (ch 33), May 26 at 3 pm through 5 pm ET and rebroadcast: on May 27 at 6 pm-8 pm ET; and May 28 at 1 pm-3 pm.
StoneBridge: The Flavor The Vibe from Stockholm, Sweden
DJ StoneBridge takes his show on the road and broadcasts from Club Solidaritet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Outlaw Country, (ch 63), May 28 at 6 am-12 pm ET.
Memorial Day with Charlie Daniels
Southern rock icon Charlie Daniels gets behind the wheel in Outlaw Country, sitting in for DJ RigRocker on this six hour run of songs with a hickory-smoked patriotic flavor.

Siriusly Sinatra, (ch 75), May 27 at 5 pm ET and rebroadcast June 1 at 9 pm ET.
Nancy for Frank launches featuring Nancy playing favorite hits as well as rarely heard recordings by her father and other great artists dedicated to the time and spirit of Frank Sinatra.

Broadway's Best, (ch 77), May 25 at 7 pm and rebroadcast at 7 pm; May 26 at 3 pm; May 27 at 12 pm; May 28 at 2 pm-8 pm; and May 30 at 2 pm ET.
Seth Rudetsky’s Studio A Cabaret Memorial Day Weekend Special
Studio A highlights from Jennifer Hudson, the Jersey Boys, Kristin Chenoweth, Ben Vereen and others.  Plus, one-of-a kind live performances every hour on Memorial Day.

The NAB yesterday sent a letter to the FCC in response to XM and Sirius' request to deny the NAB's FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for information related to FM modulators and terrestrial repeater compliance.

In the letter, the NAB says they would like the records made public so that they may evaluate Sirius and XM's "character qualifications."

The NAB also wants to determine "whether the companies can be relied upon in the future to comply with FCC rules or with any conditions imposed or offered as part of the merger."

How noble.

[Read the full letter (PDF) via FMQB]

Hockey fans will be able to tune into XM next week for every game of the Stanley Cup Final, with three different broadcasts for each game. Choose from the home team broadcast, the visiting team broadcast, or NHL Radio for each game - all starting with Game 1 on Monday, May 28th at 8pm ET.

XM will carry the NHL Radio feed on XM channel 204, the home feed on XM channel 205, and the visiting feed on XM channel 206. Check out the full schedule here.

The Ottawa Senators will take on the Anaheim Ducks for the Cup. Anaheim will host Games 1, 2 and, if necessary, Games 5 and 7. The Senators will host Games 3, 4 and, if necessary, Game 6.

XM is set to become the "official satellite radio network" of the NHL starting with the 2007-2008 season.

(The picture above shows the XM Canada studios in downtown Toronto which recently played host to the Stanley Cup. Home Ice co-hosts Jim Tatti (left) and Gary Green (right) chit-chat around a somewhat creepy standee of Mark Messier in the background.)

Nancy Sinatra's new show on Sirius is set to debut this Sunday, May 27th at 5pm on Siriusly Sinatra (ch 75).

The show, entitled "Nancy for Frank," will feature Nancy playing her favorite hits as well as rarely heard recordings by her father and other great artists dedicated to the time and spirit of Ol' Blue Eyes. This is all part of the on-going rollout of Siriusly Sinatra, which debuted back in April.

Nancy Sinatra also has access to rare live concert performances and archived material that has never been released before - and she'll be present them on her show.

"Nancy for Frank" will air every Sunday evening from 5-8 pm ET with encores on Tuesday afternoons from 2-5 pm and Thursday evenings from 9 pm- 12 midnight ET.

Congressman Mike Doyle (R-Pa.), who is also a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, has recently written the FCC and the Justice Department, opposing the Sirius-XM merger.

Doyle said he was worried the merger would reduce the "diversity of artists" on the services. An odd assumption especially considering that both The Latino Coalition and the National Black Chamber of Commerce have come out in favor of the merger.

Mike Doyle also said that the resulting company would be a monopoly in the satellite radio market, and he complained that the two companies had not produced an interoperable receiver. Statements that seemingly echo the NAB's stance on the merger.

How coincidental, because it turns out that the NAB's Political Action Committee is one of Congressman Doyle's top campaign contributors.

But the connection between Mike Doyle and the NAB doesn't end there.

As it turns out, just over a year ago, the NAB hired Mike Mullen - and Mullen served as a senior legislative assistant for Congressman Doyle since March 2004. Mullen was responsible for all telecommunications, technology, consumer protection and health care issues before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Mullen incidentally is the NAB's Director of Government Relations now.

[Broadcasting & Cable] 

Now this is truly amusing. Clear Channel Radio Chief Executive John Hogan, in an interview with Forbes, said that there "certainly isn't much variety" in satellite radio's music programming.

The strikingly ironic comments came about from a question about satellite radio's influence on Clear Channel's programming decisions.

"Satellite actually has not influenced us at all--consumers have," Hogan said. "What you're hearing on our radio stations and hearing and seeing on our Web sites is really a reflection of consumers, and not of a competitor."

But of course, this impartial attitude quickly disappeared when John Hogan started describing what it is that satellite radio - particularly XM - offers listeners:

"We currently program ... [10] radio stations on XM, that's one of our distribution platforms. I think that the stations we're programming on XM are far and away the best programmed and the best produced," said the Clear Channel Radio chief. "I'm sort of underwhelmed by satellite. I think what they have is a lot of really interesting channel titles. But when you listen to them, there's not much there."

"There certainly isn't much variety, and what I think is really the essence of radio--that is, what is between the records--is really pretty lame."

(and cue laughter... now) 

[Forbes]

It seems that everytime a lawmaker comes out in opposition of the Sirius-XM merger, they have some level of financial motivation. First there was Arizona's Mike Hubbard, who ended up owning his own radio station, and now it turns out that Senator Herb Kohl has his own financial stake in a terrestrial radio endeavor.

See, Senator Kohl owns the Milwaukee Bucks - here's the public disclosure (PDF). Now normally that's all fine and dandy.

But it turns out that the Milwaukee Bucks have worked out a deal with WTMJ-AM (620) to sell advertising for when their games air.

Previously the Bucks and WTMJ shared that revenue, but with the 2007-2008 season, the Milwaukee Bucks will assume full responsibility for all their broadcast advertising sales.

In short, Senator Kohl directly earns revenue from Bucks broadcasts on WTMJ.

Connect the dots.

Sirius is the exclusive satellite radio broadcaster of the NBA. If XM and Sirius merge, then XM's 8 million subscribers can have access to these NBA games. And a this could put the amount of revenue that Senator Kohl and his company can generate, at risk.

Conflict of interest? You tell me.

[via Yahoo! Finance Sirius message board]
Thanks Brandon!

Mel Karmazin isn't very happy about the stock price of Sirius, but compared to XM? "We suck less," he said at today's shareholder meeting.

Sirius' shares are up just 8 percent since September 2004, but Karmazin noted that wasn't nearly as bad as the 61 percent decline in share price over the same period by XM Satellite Radio.

The Sirius CEO blamed the poor stock performance on the overly negative view of the satellite radio industry, despite the achievements both companies have made getting closer to profitability.

Karmazin also defended Howard Stern's $500 million pay package signed with Sirius in 2004, saying: "He earned it."

[AP Newswire] 

XM’s The Rhyme (ch 65) is premiering the special "Hip-Hop… At The Crossroads" tonight (May 24th) at 6pm ET.

The show will feature a diverse panel of hip-hop industry artists, producers and activists - with legends like Doug E. Fresh, Russell Simmons, Talib Kweli, MC Lyte, producer Chucky Thompson - as well as the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network’s Dr. Benjamin Chavis among others.

Together they'll discuss and examine the music of hip hop in connection with the recent news headlines, and its evolution from the streets to the mainstream.

The discussion is hosted by XM’s Leo G., program director of The Rhyme and RAW (ch 66), and VH1’s Janell Snowden.

If you miss it tonight, encore broadcasts will air Saturday, May 26th at 1pm ET, Sunday, May 27th at 9pm ET and Tuesday, May 29th at 6pm ET.

George Nethercutt, a former Republican congressman from Washington, is among those registered to lobby on behalf of the NAB. Bluewater Strategies actually originates from the firm Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles - with Andrew Lundquist, Eric Washburn and Tim Kurth running the show.

Decade-long buddies, both Lundquist and Washburn formed Bluewater Strategies after one of the firm's former founders, J. Steven Griles, was notified by the DOJ that he would be charged with giving false testimony. Griles eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges. So in turn, Bluewater was formed (the name is attributed to Washburn's love for sailing).

Under a 1995 federal law, lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches. They must register with Congress within 45 days of being hired or engaging in lobbying.

[Forbes] 

At this morning's shareholder meeting, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said that their merger is XM is an merger is an "uphill battle," though he continues to believe that it will be approved by regulators.

Karmazin also acknowledged that Wall Street estimates there is an "80 percent likelihood that the merger is not going to happen." In a generalized response to Senator Kohl's comments denouncing the merger, Karmazin said, "There are some people out there that think that any combination [merger] is bad."

He also noted that "the NAB is a very powerful lobbying organization and we are a relatively small company. We are fighting a very well-oiled lobbying organization in the NAB."

"Why are they hiring John Ashcroft and hiring all these advisors? It’s simple... because we do compete with them. They believe that if we combined, our company would be better, it would be stronger," Karmazin added.

When asked about the prospects of the company should the merger not be approved, Mel said, "Our business model is very much on track. I believe not only are we going to not be out of business, we’ll be a very successful profitable company down the road."

It's good to see Mel taking a somewhat "realistic" (for lack of a better term) approach to the merger prospects. To ignore the cynicism over the deal doesn't instill anymore confidence than if he acknowledges it. People expect management to remain positive over regulatory approval, but also don't want everything to be sugar coated. Mel does this well.

[TWICE] 

Judith Regan and her show on Sirius are undergoing some changes.

First she's been telling friends that she's going into the art business, according to a RADAR source. RADAR also notes that Judith's public profile has been diminishing ever since her OJ Simpson book created controversy in the headlines.

Her weekly two-hour talk show on Sirius Stars (ch 102) was recently bumped from its regular daytime slot and now only airs twice between midnight and 4am ET.

Could Regan eventually get phased out? One could only hope.

[RADAR Online] 

XM has inked a deal with FOX Sports to become the exclusive satellite radio network of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game and other BCS games, starting in January 2008.

The agreement means XM will be the only satellite radio provider for college football games like the Allstate BCS National Championship Game, Allstate Sugar Bowl, Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and the FedEx Orange Bowl.

This isn't the first time that XM and FOX Sports have signed deals over the BCS. Late last year, XM announced they would broadcast the 2007 BCS National Championship game, and then later extended their BCS college football coverage.

The new multi-year agreement now solidifies the partnership.

Thanks Donald! 

New York's 92.3 FreeFM WFNY is reportedly dropping their "hot talk" format as of today. The flip occurred at 9am ET.

According to the New York Daily News, CBS Radio's 92.3FM WFNY is switching from their all-day talk format back to contemporary rock as it was during the Stern days. WFNY's website right now has a clock counting down to 5pm ET.

The status of XM/CBS Radio hosts Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez are currently unknown. But if WFNY drops the talk format completely, that would leave O&A without a home for terrestrial syndication.

CBS Radio President Dan Mason (who replaced Joel Hollander last month) reportedly has made it clear Free-FM isn't his favorite format. Since he arrived, the Free-FM tag has been dropped at Chicago's WCKG and San Francisco's Free was moved from FM to a smaller AM frequency.

CBS Radio created Free-FM in reaction to Howard Stern leaving terrestrial radio back in 2005.

[via AllAccess] 

UPDATE: AllAccess is now reporting that Opie & Anthony will indeed remain in mornings, but that the other on-air staff (including Ron & Fez) are out. John Mainelli is also reportedly getting the boot. Mainelli came on board as WFNY's PD after being ousted from the New York Post due to "disagreements" with Howard Stern.

Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) recently sent a letter to the Justice Department and the FCC calling on regulators to oppose the Sirius-XM deal.

Kohl's opposition of the merger is not necessarily new, but being the chairman of the Senate's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, it does hold some weight. He is in fact the first chairman of the four Congressional panels that held hearings on the merger (Sen. Kohl's subcommittee held the hearing back in late March) to come out against it publicly.

Senator Kohl takes the position that satellite radio is in fact it's own confined market, and not part of an overall audio entertainment marketplace.

He also didn't buy the argument that future technologies threaten the stance of the satellite radio market, writing that "no other technology available today is a substitute for the satellite radio."

"Our concern is the marketplace today. Consumers should not suffer the price increases likely to result from a merger to monopoly because of a vague hope that new technologies may deliver new competitive alternative sometime in the future," he continued.

The problem with Senator Kohl's conclusion is that, if in fact satellite radio is defined as it's own finite market, then this definition opens up either Sirius or XM for takeover by a terrestrial radio corporation (such as CBS Radio) without fear of anti-trust issues.

And that is scary.

[Reuters & Wall Street Journal] 

Pandora isn't just going the mobile audio route, they're also going the digital audio player route. They've just pre-announced an upcoming Wifi device to be built by SanDisk, and powered by none-other than Zing.

Zing of course, debuted their Wifi technology with the Sirius Stiletto. They then followed suit with the Sansa Connect (which looks hotter in person than the photos give justice to).

So the Zing + SanDisk + Pandora combination shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Especially when Pandora founder Tim Westergren is dropping not-so-subtle hints about it.

Few other details were revealed about the player (you know, things like disk space and battery life). But there's several pics for us to drool over while we wait.

While WiFi is ubiquitous, it's not always available. If the Pandora player sports enough storage space, they could cache several songs in advance while you don't have signal. Either way, I really hope that XM and Sirius raise an eyebrow to this. And remember... Slacker is coming.

[TechCrunch and Zatz Not Funny] 

Pandora has just announced several new features and ways to listen to Pandora's personalized Internet radio. One of the key announcements is their new partnership with Sprint, which marks as Pandora's first mobile deal.

Sprint subscribers can now listen to Pandora on select mobile phones using a pre-installed player or downloaded software. Just point your Sprint browser to Pandora.com to initiate the download.

The Pandora service on Sprint is free for the first 30-days, afterwhich it's available for $3/month (on top of your Sprint Power Vision data plan). This subscription also removes the ads on the newly redesigned Pandora.com.

Mobile audio solutions like this pose a serious threat to the satellite radio industry. Yes, both Sirius and XM have had deals with mobile providers in place for quite some time, but inherently these services compete with satellite radio's own core service. Since this is Pandora's first un-tethered solution, you can bet that there will be quite a bit more interest from their 6.9 million registered userbase. And that ain't good news.

[via TechCrunch]

Starting today, XM is airing a full slate of programming for the 91st Indianapolis 500 all throughout the week until the checkered flag is waved on Sunday, May 27th.

The race and all the other Indy 500 programming will be broadcast on XM Sports Nation (ch 144).

XM's coverage of the Indy 500 begins today with a special edition of "The Andretti Green Racing Hour" recorded live from the XM Stage trackside in Indianapolis. The show will feature Andretti Green Racing's drivers Danica Patrick (who can be seen here in her new racing suit), Marco Andretti, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan, as well as Andretti Green co-owner and IndyCar racing legend Michael Andretti.

Tomorrow (May 24) the ever-popular host Claire B. Lang will serve double-duty as she covers NASCAR qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600, as well as Indy 500 coverage on her "Dialed In" show from 4:00-7pm ET. Claire will be joined regularly from "Powershift" host Joe Castello who will provide insight direct from the Indy track. Next up Thursday, Joe Castello's "Powershift" will air from Indianapolis from 8-10pm ET.

On Friday, May 25th, T.J. Rives (host of "XMSN This Morning") will join the XM team broadcasting live from Indy with a special Indy 500 edition of his daily morning show from 6-8am ET. Later that afternoon, Joe Castello will again be hosting a special trackside edition of "Powershift" on the Chevy Stage from 2-4pm ET, followed by "Dialed In" with Claire B. Lang live trackside at the Indy 500 from 4-7pm ET.

On Saturday, May 26th, T.J. Rives and Joe Castello will co-host a "Total Access Special" airing at 2-4:30pm ET, giving fans the inside scoop on the big event itself. Sunday T.J. and Joe will co-host a live, pre-race show at the Chevy Stage from 11am-12pm ET, with the live broadcast of the race itself immediately following.

Also on Saturday, NASCAR fans can hear their beloved host Claire B. Lang in a special edition of "Dialed In" live from Charlotte, NC, from 10-11am ET on Sunday, May 27.

As if the Indy 500 wasn't historic enough - being one of the oldest and having one of the largest audiences (both in attendance and in radio/TV coverage) - but this is also the first Indy 500 where three women are competing. Below is a photo of Milka Duno (left), Sarah Fisher (second from left) and Danick Patrick (right), joined with former driver Lyn St. James, center, and tennis great Billie Jean King.

In addition to XM's ongoing Indy 500 race coverage on XMSN, Chris Daughtry will perform for fans at the track just prior to driver introductions on Race Day as part of the XM Concert Series.

On track, Indy 500 attendees will have the opportunity to hear to XMSN coverage at various listening kiosks throughout the track, as well as purchase new radios and devices. Fans can visit the number of XM-branded locations for giveaways and to enter to win free XM Radios. XM and Honda will also display the No. 7 Honda Dallara in the main lobby of the Marriott Downtown, along with the No. 27, No. 11 and No. 26 show cars.

But wait there's more, for online goodness - check out driver Bryan Herta's blog - where he will share different experiences surrounding the Indianapolis 500 all week long.

The Latino Coalition (TLC) has publically come out in support of the Sirius-XM merger and has urged the FCC to approve the satellite radio marriage.

"For far too long, the Latino market has been ignored by traditional radio companies," said TLC President Robert G. de Posada. "Hispanics must turn to alternative sources like satellite radio for Spanish-language news, sports, music and diverse cultural programming."

The satellite radio industry has long been a launching pad for Hispanic programmers and is an increasingly popular service for a vast numbers of Latino consumers as well as other listeners. The TLC feels that for programmers, the elimination of duplicate programming and the resulting expanded channel capacity will provide new opportunities for Hispanics.

"As a strong advocate for the diverse needs of the Latino community, we are always supportive of measures that will bring variety and expanded options to our community. In our judgment, the XM/Sirius merger will accomplish just that by bringing more programming opportunities for Hispanic Americans and millions of other listeners," added de Posada.

The Latino Coalition is a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C.

Only two days ago, the National Black Chamber of Commerce came out in support of the Sirius-XM merger. This level of support from minority organizations could weigh heavily in the eyes of the FCC, especially when the issue of diversity in media is being criticized lately.

XM and General Motors have inked a deal to offer free satellite radio service in GM Certified Used Vehicles, Cadillac Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles, and Hummer Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles.

All GM Certified Used Vehicles (which includes Chevys, Pontiacs, etc), as well as Cadillac and Hummer Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles equipped with XM Radio will be available with a 3-month trial of XM service and a waived activation fee. You can find a list of Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Hummer vehicles with XM factory-installed here.

GM is the nation's largest automaker and the industry leader in manufacturer-certified used vehicle sales, representing nearly one-third of the volume of all certified used vehicles sold in the States.

Now with this deal, XM will be available in more than 115,000 of these certified GM vehicles in 2007, and grow to more than 168,000 vehicles in 2008.

According to the Detroit Free Press, XM Satellite Radio will give two-days worth of subscription credit for the recent outage in service.

"Subscribers who request a credit will receive one" by calling the listener care number at 800-967-2346, said XM spokesman Nathaniel Brown.

Since a typical subscription runs for $12.95 a month, a credit of 2-days would give you... a whoppin' 87 cents credit. I'll pass.

[freep.com]
Thanks Tim!

Believe it or not, but the 30th anniversary of Star Wars is coming this Friday, and XM's movie soundtrack channel Cinemagic (ch 27) is celebrating with a special edition of the show "Hi-Fi/Sci-Fi."

The 30th anniversary of Star Wars Episode IV - which was released back on May 25, 1977 - will be celebrated by geeks, droids and even normal people across the nation. And Cinemagic's "Hi-Fi/Sci-Fi" is doing a little celebrating of its own by taking an in-depth look at all six of the Star Wars films in a special two hour episode.

The show debuts tonight at 10pm ET, but don't get pissed at me for bringing it to your attention so late (sorry, my cat just got mauled by a neighbor's dog... yeesh) - because there will be replays airing at various times throughout the week.

UPDATE: And those various times are:

Today (Wed): 2-4 pm ET
Friday: 7-9 pm ET
Sat and Sun: 10 pm - 12 midnight ET

And remember, let the Wookiee win.

Sirius is webcasting their Annual Meeting of Stockholders on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 9am ET and you'll be able to listen to it here. 

People are staying busy over at Sirius' Martha Stewart Living Radio (ch 112). They've just launched "At Martha's Table," a new series that features Martha Stewart conducting live one-on-one interviews with influential tastemakers.

For the debut broadcast of "At Martha's Table," Martha will sit down with internationally acclaimed chef and restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The show will air tomorrow, May 23rd from 7 - 8pm ET. Martha and Jean-Georges will discuss his life, passions, and inspirations, and take calls from listeners. Jean-Georges will also share tips for the home cook.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten holds a total of sixteen stars from The New York Times for his New York City restaurants JoJo, Vong, Jean Georges, Mercer Kitchen, 66, Spice Market and Perry St. He has also received a total of 5 Michelin stars for Jean Georges, Vong, and Perry St. He currently has 19 restaurants in locations around the globe, including London, Paris, Shanghai, the Bahamas, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Bora Bora.

This is the third programming change to Martha's Sirius channel in the past few weeks. In late April Sirius debuted the "Morning Living" show, and a few days ago Sirius announced a new block of pet-centric programming.

XM's signal is back. SAT1 and Terrestrial repeaters are back online.

XM has issued another update about the service outage, this time giving more color behind exactly what happened.

"We quickly identified the problem and are working hard to return to our normal levels of service. The problem occurred during the loading of software to a critical component of our satellite broadcast system, which resulted in a loss of signal from one of our satellites. We expect normal service to resume midday today (eastern daylight time)."

XM also apologized for the downtime, and encourages users to go to XM Radio Online if you're near a computer.

Read the full statement here.

UPDATE: The statement was updated to give more clarity on the outage, and so I've updated this post to reflect the changes.

Sirius Satellite Radio will be launching a new channel dedicated to the legendary Grateful Dead, starting this summer.

Grateful Dead Radio will feature music spanning the band's long and storied career, live performances from the band's own archives, bootleg performances from fans (sweet!), previously unreleased recordings, and even special shows hosted by members of the band. 

The Grateful Dead, well known for constantly touring, started a musical revolution in the psychedelic landscape of the 60s. The band kept the hippy spirit alive during in the decades to follow, creating a "devoted" community of fans - and a way of life for many.

"We have fans who've driven hundreds of miles to see us," said Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. "Now you can save on greenhouse gas emissions with Sirius without driving a mile." 

XM issued an email update with the geeky subject line "Service Degradation Alert" that gave the following info:

"You may be experiencing temporary degraded performance with your XM reception at the present time. XM is aware of the issue and working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We anticipate full signal strength will be restored by early Tuesday morning."

At the time of posting, I still don't have signal here in Connecticut.

As far as I know, XM-3 (Rhythm) was experiencing performance issues and needed a software update to fix. As part of the process of updating, the satellite needed to go offline while it was being readjusted. (If any XM engineers have a more detailed description, I'd love to know.)

David Cavossa, of the Satellite Industry Association, said it perfectly. "These are very complex machines," he said. "Once they're launched we can't just send the Maytag repairman up there."

...it looks like Orbitcast has a bit of an outage of its own.

Somewhere amid the madness this afternoon, my server thought it was under attack "from a hacker" and it shut itself down. And much like a crazy ex-girlfriend, it didn't let me back in (in technical terms, the system set permissions to 0 and then crawled in the corner to suck its thumb).

After much screaming, and a swift kick to its liver, we've managed to get Orbitcast back up and running after a little over an hour of downtime. 

UPDATE: Ok, still a few issues here and there, but should be back up this evening.

UPDATE 2: Everything should be working now. Let there be much rejoicing.

Seems like there's a massive outage going on with XM right now. Reports have been coming in like crazy, and I myself in NYC haven't been able to get signal since about 12-noon.

UPDATE: Reportedly one of the satellites (SAT1) is down, and all of the repeaters are down due to a "software update." Some are saying that they were told the system is expected to be up within 2 hours, while others have heard that it will be fully restored in 2 days.

UPDATE 2: An XM Spokesman has provided this statement regarding the issue:

"We are experiencing a temporary degraded performance issue, which has affected some of our customers. We expect to return to normal service levels this evening."

UPDATE 3: Add yourself to this Frappr map so the world can keep track of your outage location (Thanks Ken!):

...and of course, more on this as info becomes available.

XM is launching a new 24-hour, commercial-free channel dedicated to the 2008 presidential election called "POTUS ‘08."

The channel's name (pronounced POH-tus... say it with me, POH-tus) comes from the Secret Service code name acronym for the President of the United States.

POTUS '08, created in association with C-SPAN and other media outlets, is the first national radio channel ever that is completely devoted to a presidential campaign. The channel will also be broadcast for free to all XM radio receivers. So even if you're not a subscriber, but have an XM radio installed, you can still listen to the presidential election channel.

You can expect to hear news updates, candidate interviews, complete speeches, debate coverage, latest polling results, fundraising status, and live call-in shows. The channel will provide free airtime for presidential candidates to speak to voters. Non-traditional media outlets, such as bloggers and podcasters, will provide content for the channel (very cool!). It will also air archival audio of historic moments from past campaigns, tapping C-SPAN’s political archive. (And there's more to come.)

XM will preview the channel in June 2007 with live XM original coverage and a re-broadcast of candidate debates hosted by CNN. The channel will formally launch in September 2007 and air through November 2008, when voters go to the polls to elect the 44th president.

"POTUS 08" will be located at XM Channel 130. Similar to previous "microchannels" dedicated to specific content (like Red Cross Radio), "POTUS ‘08" is the first microchannel dedicated to a major news event.

The recent advertising campaign by Mercury that prominently promotes a free 3-years of Sirius Satellite Radio, is being called into question - by Jacobs Media.

Jacobs Media, of course, is a terrestrial radio supported organization. But let's ignore that.

The whole reason why the campaign is being questioned, is because Jacobs own research shows that MP3 player integration and GPS navigation are more popular new car features than satellite radio. Now, the research was based off of a survey that polled "Rockers" specifically, which may (or may not) be Mecury's target audience. But let's ignore that.


Using this research, we see that 16% of respondents are "very interested" in seeing satellite radio in their next vehicle. Compare this to the 19% of respondents "very interested" in GPS navigation - and the relative costs incurred between satellite radio and GPS nav - and you can figure out exactly why Mercury is promoting Sirius instead. (Hint: $195 vs. $2,295) But let's ignore that too.

Instead, let's question whether Fred Jacobs would be taking the same accusing tone (hinting that partnerships like this artificially inflate satellite radio's subscriber numbers) if the promotion was for... oh I don't know, maybe HD Radio instead? Would Jacobs would take issue with Ford's partnership with Sirius, if it weren't for the Big Three automakers saying that there's no interest in HD Radio? Nah, of course not.

Let's just ignore all that.

[Jacobs Media Blog]

Thrash metal gods Megadeth shook the XM Performance Theater on Friday afternoon for the latest episode of the XM series "Artist Confidential."

Lead guitarist and vocalist Dave Mustaine (right) talked about the evolution of the band, which he formed after leaving Metallica in 1983. Along with being its main songwriter, Mustaine is the only original member of the band.

Megadeth is one of the most successful metal bands of all time, having sold over 20 million albums worldwide, including 5 consecutive platinum albums, and 7 consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance.

In 2002, Megadeth disbanded after Mustaine suffered a severe nerve injury to his left arm, but following extensive physical therapy, Mustaine reformed the band in 2004.

Megadeth released its eleventh studio album "United Abominations" this past Tuesday. I don't know the airdate for this XM performance, but it will be listed on XM's Artist Confidential page when available.

Eminem will host a special preview of The County Hound EP, the debut release by Cashis, exclusively on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Cashis is Shady Record’s most recently signed artist. Eminem was the executive producer of The County Hound EP - he also produced 4 of the 7 tracks on the EP and appears on the track, "Pistol Poppin."

Both Eminem and Cashis will provide an inside track-by-track look at the making of the new record.

This latest edition of Sirius' "Personal Preview Special" series airs on Monday, May 21st at 7pm - 8pm ET on Shade 45 (ch 45).

Encores air on May 22nd at 12-midnight and 3pm ET; May 24th at 12-midnight ET; and May 27th at 5pm ET.

In the on-going saga of XM subscribers upset over the suspension of Opie and Anthony, now a new issue is starting to make the rounds - one involving XM Customer Service.

According to individual reports, people are finding that instead of XM service cancelling their account (as requested), XM Customer Service is instead giving people 1-6 months of free service. I'm not talking about radios that still appear active (which can just be because the cancellation signal hasn't been received).

It's one thing to offer free months in an attempt to retain subscribers (I think pretty much every subscriber-based company does this), but it's another to appear to be deceiving. And it's something that XM needs to get a handle on sooner rather than later. The online buzz is giving XM Customer Service the kind of reputation that AOL Customer Service now has. And we all know how well that worked out.

In additional to the complaints that The Consumerist has received, Orbitcast has also numerous similar complaints regarding this. And this is not simply confined to online fanboyism. This has made it to CNN:

This is something that XM needs to get control of... quickly.

[The Consumerist]

Sirius' Martha Stewart Living Radio (ch 112) has expanded their format of cooking, homekeeping and gardening content, to offer a block of pet-centric programming.

From advice from Martha's personal vet, to expert tips and the latest trends in behavioral training - and much more - animal lovers can tune in to a variety of live call-in shows about how to care for their favorite furry friends (like that cute little doggie 'Chester').

The new block of pet shows airs Monday - Friday nights at 8pm ET exclusively on Martha Stewart Living Radio.

Check out the full lineup after the jump...

In the wake of the Imus, JV & Elvis firings and the Opie & Anthony suspension - Mancow (of all people) has crafted his "Ten Commandments for Radio Personalities" - preaching responsibility in radio.

Keep in mind that only last month, Mancow described a caller to his show as a "a brain dead fetus" and a "late term abortion that somehow climbed out of a dumpster."

Responsible radio indeed.

For whatever it's worth, here are Mancow's Commandments:

1. Thou shalt never endanger listeners.
2. Racism is always a dumb idea.
3. Complacency on the inside loses listeners from the outside. Work at your art.
4. Contests must always be straight forward. (Being too cute with contests can be costly.)
5. Advertisers pay you. They are your friends.
6. Have a delay button (preferably 20 seconds or more) and when in doubt use it.
7. Don't dis someone's religion.
8. Don't let anyone curse in your studio ever. Get them out of that habit. If they are comfortable with cursing, it can someday accidentally get on the radio.
9. Instruct guests on your radio standards so they don't get you in trouble.
10. Do good. (We're not on earth to mark time. We're here to make a difference).

[Radio Ink]

Just some quick news bits for today...

• FCC approves the Apple iPhone... she's coming folks, is the industry ready? [AppleInsider]
• FCC Chief backs a la carte at cable industry - "Fundamentally, I support consumers’ ability to pick and choose the products they want," said FCC chairman Kevin Martin [Reclaim the Media]
  
• Opie taking suspension hard? Nah. Taking nap [New York Daily News]
  
• Retirement Living program knocked from Sirius Satellite Radio [Baltimore Business Journal]
  
• Gibson forced to apologize for airing joke about "ejaculating in a woman's eye" [Think Progress]
  

I had a nice conversation with Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times over the XM subscriber backlash yesterday. A conversation which led to a very well written article:

"The reaction is mind-blowing," said Ryan Saghir of North Branford, Conn., who runs a blog about satellite radio called Orbitcast. "One of the main attractors to satellite radio is the unregulated content. Once you take away that … you're going to have some upset subscribers."

Even more impressive (at least to me) is that a commenter was quoted in the article:

"I will not support a company that has decided the one true reason they exist no longer matters," wrote one poster on Orbitcast.

Now I wasn't kidding about the mind-blowing part. This is the highest amount of attention I have seen since the Sirius-XM merger announcement (and it's a record for Orbitcast... thankfully I'm running on good strong servers). 

The old adage of "any news is good news" sometimes still runs true, and I think it will in this case, if XM/Sirius can handle the situation correctly. This suspension has brought to light the differences of satellite radio versus terrestrial radio, the topic of social responsibility in the media, and (most notably) the regulation of free speech. Imus, JV & Elvis and Opie & Anthony have collectively made the public question what exactly they want to be "allowed" to listen to, although maybe not in the most optimal of ways.

People are actually thinking about this topic, rather than letting the special interest groups dictate it for them. That's important in today's media landscape.

In the long-run this level of attention may actually serve the satellite radio industry, and the "shock jocks" that work for them, quite well. Through adversity comes strength. XM and Sirius now just need to spin this increased attention in their favor.

But for the next 28 days, well... viva la revolution!

[Los Angeles Times]

Sponsors of the XM Satellite Radio channel The Virus (ch 202) are reportedly pulling their advertising from the channel in protest to the Opie and Anthony suspension.

The Nashville Coffee Company, a sponsor of both The Virus and Radio Disney (ch 115), even goes as far as to issue a statement on their website regarding the matter.

"It is apparent that XM Radio is beholden to crybaby special interest groups who cannot separate humor from reality," the company said on its website. "It is also unfortunate that XM Radio executives don't have the guts to stand up for their on air talent."

Other advertisers, such as Adameve.com, are reportedly pulling their sponsorship if O&A are not reinstated.

"As an adult company with a long history of fighting for our First Amendment rights, freedom of speech issues are extremely important to Adameve.com.," wrote an Adameve.com representative  in a letter to People Against Censorship.

This level of pressure, combined with the enormous XM subscriber backlash, may weigh in XM reconsidering the suspension decision. XM has always said they want to appeal to "cult" audiences. Well... they got 'em.

[People Against Censorship] 

"What do you say Howard, are you with us or are you against us?" Hughes was quoted as saying in the article. (Full audio available here.)

"I'm not spending a minute thinking about you," Stern said in response on his show. "I'm not with you, and I'm not against you. Your biggest 'nemesis' is you. You're fighting with you."

Howard further distanced himself from the situation. 

"Listen guys, I've got nothing against you, do you're show, have a blast," Stern continued. "But don't call on me to help you. I don't condone what you said about Condoleezza Rice."

The question remains whether Stern's show itself will fall victim to this newfound scrutiny of what is said over the airwaves - even if on unregulated airwaves. It's painfully obvious that the reason why XM is being so careful with how Washington perceives satellite radio (especially the "shocking" content on satellite radio) is due to the pending Sirius-XM merger.

Stern himself was the topic of discussion at the Congressional hearings over the Sirius-XM merger, particularly when it came to the topic of decency. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the satellite radio companies have signaled a willingness to work with the FCC on the issue of decency as part of a merger.

Mel Karmazin even offered a block-and-rebate style tiered pricing plan, allowing consumers to receive a discount on blocked explicit channels. But with Stern likely being seen as "Public Enemy #1" by the decency police, you can bet that he too will do his best not to ruffle any features in the weeks to come.

XM subscribers have been reportedly canceling their subscriptions ever since the announcement that Opie & Anthony were suspended mid-day yesterday. The hold times for customer service yesterday escalated from a 30 minute wait, to an 1.5 hour wait, according to those who were on hold to cancel.

People Against Censorship (PAC), a group formed in reaction to recent radio hosts firings, has organized support rallies outside of O&A's CBS studios everyday for the remainder of the week. PAC also has a list of items fans can do to support the show, including canceling of XM subscriptions. They encourage subscribers not to smash their radios, though some angry fans have already done so.

It'll be interesting to see what happens over this...

UPDATE: I'm just curious, how many people here have canceled or suspended their XM subscription?

XM stated that comments made on yesterday's O&A show "put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter" as their reason for suspending Opie and Anthony.

Orbitcast has obtained the audio in question. You can listen to it below:

It's obvious that XM is seeing some level of seriousness in the matter (either through pressure from the media, from subscribers/advertisers, or from the merger task force who felt this was bad for business... though it's hard to know for sure) and they're sending a clear message here that they're not messing around. XM generally isn't one to backdown from a good fight, which makes me wonder about the behind-the-scenes events that have led to this decision.

XM has said they deplored the comments aired on "The Opie & Anthony Show" last week. At the time, the company strongly expressed its views to Opie and Anthony, and they issued an immediate apology.

Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter. The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them.

UPDATE: I'm looking for the offending audio from yesterday's broadcast that caused this... I hope to have it shortly.

This video says it all...

Patrice argues the point perfectly. The reality is that with comedy - or even the attempt of comedy - someone, somewhere, will be offended. Obesity kills 300,000 people in the U.S., but that doesn't stop people from making fat jokes. Why is there no "outcry" there? That's because sometimes comedy can be dark and people want the opportunity to laugh at otherwise depressing subject matter.

Satellite radio channels that are clearly labeled as "explicit" channels - with the full availability of blocking that channel - is where content like this can reside, unaltered. If you don't like it, don't listen. The only time when the "public" (and I use that term loosely) is offended is when pirated audio is distributed around the internet.

The HD Radio propaganda machine is at full-tilt right now, touting the fact that they've reached all of the top 100 markets in under 18 months.

This milestone was reached with the addition of 15 new markets - including Gainsville, FL; Charleston, SC; Daytona Beach, FL; Des Moines, IA; Mobile, AL; Wichita, KS; Madison, WI; Colorado Springs, CO; and Lexington, KY. to name a few - all of which now have HD2 multicast programming.

Meanwhile, Jacobs Media is showing that awareness of HD Radio went up 18% in 2006 to 45% in the latest "Technology Web Poll" of rock radio listeners. Right now, there's only moderate interest in having HD Radio in cars and trucks. Unfortunately, satellite radio didn't ring the bells in interest either...

Jacobs' study show that MP3 connectivity and GPS navigation are the leaders in desired new vehicle features. Not surprising. Only about 10% expressed strong interest in HD Radio in their next vehicle - while 14% expressed strong interest in Satellite Radio.

Good news right? Too bad that more people responded as "somewhat interested" for HD Radio (37%) than for Satellite Radio (26%).

It's obvious here that HD Radio is mounting competition for Satellite, and $250 million campaigns don't help the matter. The key is for Sirius and XM to gain back the mindshare that they've lost recently (but without the ridiculous advertising budget).

The CRTC has denied requests from Sirius Canada and XM Canada to change the payment conditions for Canadian talent development.

The companies had asked that the timing of the payments be changed from "during each broadcast year" to "by the end of each broadcast year," and that the payments be calculated as 5% of the cumulative gross revenues from broadcasting activities instead of from the entire satellite radio operation. They also wanted overpayments in any year to be credited to the overall obligations for the entire term.

The CRTC said that the 5% is a minimum contribution and under the new changes would become a maximum contribution. They also noted that changing the calculation to include only broadcasting-related revenues would reduce the money being dedicated to talent development.

And so... they declined the changes. 

[AllAccess] 

Bill O'Reilly, Mancow Muller and analyst Mike Gallagher debate the Opie & Anthony segment. O'Reilly sure didn't seem to appreciate Gallagher's more rational reasoning and gave Mancow "the last word."

...and Mancow is really milking this for all it's worth.

The Reverend Al Sharpton said he would meet with his associates today to discuss whether they'll call for Opie and Anthony's firing.

Sharpton called the Opie and Anthony segment "ugly and outrageous," according to the New York Daily News.

Both XM and CBS have said that the Opie and Anthony Show will continue to air regularly, but declined to say if any penalties would be imposed against the pair or if they would rein in their show.

[New York Daily News]

In regards to the Quinn and Rose drama, an XM Spokesman had the following to say:

"The Quinn and Rose show is not produced by XM.  Mr. Quinn and Ms. Rose are not employees of XM.  The Quinn and Rose show is produced by Clear Channel. XM merely retransmits this show, as it retransmits dozens of other shows from third-party outlets. Any concerns about the show should be addressed to the show or Clear Channel."

It must be a real fun time over at the PR Dept Situation Room. At least this is one issue that's easily squished.

Well, that didn't take long. Looks like there's more "outrage" over satellite radio shock-jocks, this time the target is Sirius' own Bubba the Love Sponge.

Bubba recently aired a recording by show member Manson that suggests that President Bush get ebola and bleed out of every orifice... adding that John McCain use his genitalia to stop the bleeding. The recording also paints a picture that Rudy Giuliani have anal sex with White House press secretary Tony Snow. Sound like satire to you? Listen to the audio below (and yes, it's not work safe)

Post Chronicle writer Jack Ryan is calling for a full burning at the stake. He even goes so far as to say that "thanks to all these clowns, the [XMSR and SIRI] stock prices are going to continue to spiral toward the awaiting ground."

Ridiculous. You need to look to someone else to blame for your stock losses.

Mr. Ryan unfortunately also doesn't understand the First Amendment, citing the "fire in a movie theater" old adage as his reasoning behind this witch hunt. Somehow "offending" speech is now equated with the "fire" analogy. A comparison as inaccurate as the reports about the O&A segment (can we take something any further out of context? please?).

But accuracy isn't the goal here, and we all know it. It's about attention whoring.

[The Post Chronicle]

UPDATE: FMQB has more on this as well. They also highlight the new People Against Censorship organization - a group well worth looking into given the recent events.

There's a bit of a controversy brewing - separate from Opie & Anthony - over the comments made by the Quinn & Rose show on XM Talk Radio (ch 165) .

Apparently remarks made on the Quinn & Rose show alleged that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to blame the war in Iraq for the slow response to the Greensburg, Kansas tornado disaster.

The remarks made their way to FreeRepublic.com, which cited the XM show, "Dean called Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius early, around 5 am, one morning after the tornado had destroyed the town of Greensburg, Kansas and discussed with her what to say about the tornado and how to blame the war in Iraq and the Bush administration on a slow response to the aftermath."

The Quinn & Rose Show website also alleges the Dean-Sebelius conversation took place.

According to Democrats, the conversation never occurred, and as a result a cease and desist letter was sent to James Robinson of FreeRepublic and Dara Altman, the Executive Vice President of XM Satellite Radio. The c&d was of course posted on FreeRepublic, creating a comment frenzy.

[The Raw Story] 

View the cease and desist after the jump...

Pandora, the popular recommendation-driven Internet radio site, has said they are looking to move beyond the PC... and strike a partnership to include the service in portable devices.

Hidden in an article written about Slacker, Pandora founder Tim Westergren said that they are seeking a mobile device relationship. Slacker will bring similar music discovery functionality like Pandora's to the mobile world with its own portable media player this Summer.

Cutting the chord between Internet radio and the PC is vital to the business, Westergren said.

"It's definitely holding us back and we're not sitting idly by," he says. "Our intention is to make radio, period, and to be radio with a capital R you have to be everywhere, you can't just be on the PC."

This is getting interesting.

[MP3.com]

Fox News has reported that Opie and Anthony have apologized for the Condoleezza Rice segment, but that doesn't stop Mancow from spewing his 'unique 'opinion on Hannity & Colmes.

"This is a very dangerous time in radio." I can't agree more.

Warning to broadcasters everywhere: you too may have your words taken out of context.

[Watch the Fox News video]

And so it begins...

• Stacy Parker Aab doesn't think the joke was funny.
  
• The Post Chronicle believes this jeopardizes the Sirius-XM merger.
• Neal Boortz, of all people, calls for O&A to be fired.
• David Hinckley first to call this an "outrage" and gives the full recap.
• NewsBusters asks if this behavior acceptable "when the targets are Republicans"
• And the New York Post said something, but I can't access their website for some reason that CBS has no intentions of firing O&A and publish a statement from XM:
  
  "We apologize to the public officials for comments that were made on our XM show... We take very seriously the responsibility that comes with our creative freedom and regret any offense that this segment has caused."

Wired is reporting that audio from today's Opie and Anthony show may put the Sirius/XM merger in jeopardy.

The snippet of audio was taken from this morning's yesterday's O&A show on XM, and was posted on Breitbart.tv and subsequently hyped up by the Drudge Report. It features an in-studio guest "Homeless Charlie" talking about forced sex with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, as well as with George Bush's wife. You can listen to it below (warning: NOT work safe, so wear headphones):

While there apparently isn't any public "outrage" over this - Wired still took Drudge's bait - and claims that this could make the Imus controversy "look like a small blip." They even go as far as to hint that this could jeopardize the Sirius/XM merger.

The fact is, satellite radio is a subscription service (i.e., not the "public" airwaves), and XM labels the channel as containing explicit language. Channel blocking is completely available (tell them about the discount Harry).

So offended or not, there is no way that the line was crossed here (except for the redistribution of a paid subscription content on Google Video).

UPDATE: Opie and Anthony have issued the following statement in regards to this:
"We apologize to the public officials for comments that were made on our XM show on May 9th. We take very seriously the responsibility that comes with our creative freedom and regret any offense that this segment has caused."

Under their recent signing with the SEC, XM will be broadcasting the SEC Baseball Tournament, May 23rd - May 27th, live from Regions Park in Hoover, Ala. (near Birmingham) on XM's SEC Channel (ch 199).

Game 1 begins at 10am CT on May 23rd. The championship game will air May 27th at 3pm CT. This is the first time the tournament has aired nationwide on satellite radio.

Southeastern Conference baseball leads the nation with the highest attendance among college baseball programs across the U.S. The same fervor that SEC fans have for football and basketball extends to the baseball stadium, where fans tailgate, rivalries are hot, and games are carried on local broadcasting outlets. SEC baseball on satellite radio has a special appeal forr the displaced fan – the SEC fan who can’t hear the games locally, can now hear the games on XM.

Starting this fall, XM will air select SEC football and basketball games on XM channels 199 - 201. XM will also air the SEC football and basketball championships, plus other SEC sports and SEC specials.

Sirius is giving listeners a taste of their Radio Mom (ch 119) with a special channel page setup just for Mother's Day.

While Mother's Day doesn't seem to bring in the same amount of sales as Father's Day does, the female demographic definitely shouldn't be ignored. Especially Moms (afterall, we know who the real decision makers are in the average household).

Aside from the whole content aspect of Radio Mom, which has been covered here, I really like how Sirius chose to describe the programming choices depending on what kind of mom you are. The "from Soccer Moms to Rocker Moms" section, with different rollovers unveiling different programming tastes, is a really nice touch.

Very nice. The page also includes an audio taste of what Radio Mom features, as well as links to some of the less pricey receivers. On a day when roses are marked up at a obscenely ridiculous price, this could to sway some to be more creative in their gift-giving.

Bring out the lobbyists. The latest battle gearing up in Washington involves the recording-industry calling for terrestrial radio to pony up performance fees for compositions broadcast over-the-air.

NAB President/CEO David Rehr wants Congress to reject the RIAA's plea to have broadcasters pay for the recordings played over the air, and he's come out swinging with a a letter to every Senator and Representative.

In the letter, Rehr says that the RIAA, "is asking Congress to support the creation of a new 'performance right' that would require local broadcasters to pay for the use of sound recordings when they are aired on the radio. But this is not a right. This is a new tax."

"In reality, the system in place today adequately compensates everyone," he writes. "Radio stations pay hundreds of millions of dollars every year to composers and publishers through fees paid to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. While record labels and performers may not receive payments from broadcasters, the free promotion that they receive by having their music played on the radio increases album and concert sales, which ultimately results in compensation for performers and record labels."

Funny, the same thing can be said about Internet radio and Satellite Radio. And from this standpoint, I actually will say that I agree with Mr. Rehr (*gasp!*) and the NAB (*double gasp!*). I don't believe that terrestrial radio should have to pay the performance fees - but on one condition - that Satellite Radio and Internet Radio shouldn't have to pay either.

Equal playing field. 

Sure, the NAB's motives are a bit selfish. If the NAB is going to bat for terrestrial radio, and for Internet radio, it's a bit hypocritical to not defend satellite radio at the same time. But the end game is the same: all broadcasters should be treated the same. Digital or not.

In 1995, Congress agreed with the RIAA that copyright owners should receive royalties for digital streaming of performances. But there is truly little difference between analog and digital broadcasts - especially from the listener's standpoint. All the recording-industry wants is to line their pockets further. But then again, so does the NAB.

Don't be fooled, this has nothing to do with the artists, this has everything to do with squeezing every industry they possibly can. But if terrestrial radio doesn't pay, then neither should other mediums. But if Internet and Satellite need to pay, well then...

[via Radio & Records] 

Samsung said they will introduce a new low-power, low-cost chipset for HD Radio receivers. These new chipsets will be an important step in the development of portable HD Radios.

Samsung figures that samples of the chipset will be available before the end of the 2007 - and production anticipated for the first quarter of 2008.

The low-power, high-performance chip will be capable of supporting all current and planned HD Radio technology features. It is being designed and manufactured using advanced technology and features a System-in-Package (SIP) module and a CMOS, mixed-signal single-chip tuner.

Target HD Radio applications include: mobile phones, portable media players, portable navigation devices, table radios and home audio-video components. 

If HD Radio is able to integrate into mobile phones and portable media players before satellite radio does, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.  

The Motley Fool's article last week on "Why Satellite Radio Will Fail" now has a counterpart, appropriately entitled "Why Satellite Radio Will Succeed." And if you're a regular reader here, you can take an easy guess as to which one I prefer.

Not just because it's pro-satrad, but because the reasoning is far more educated and logical. The original article on why the medium will fail was based on a single person's opinion ("it sucks"), and one who obviously had a limited exposure to the entire medium.

This second verdict on satellite radio gives a nod toward the "different channels for different people" thought. Sorry Rich Duprey (author of the first article), the world doesn't revolve around you.

Yes, some DJs are chatty - but the author of the counter-article, Rick Aristotle Munarriz, points out that some channels are almost completely void of DJs, while other DJs are completely captivating adding to the overall experience. He successfully argues the other complaints as well (about spotty coverage and limited playlists).

Munarriz also brings to light one of the major reasons why satellite radio will succeed: the on-air personalities. 

"There is a reason why Stern moved to Sirius and Oprah Winfrey went to XM. Satellite radio is the only talk format that can pay their salaries. Sure, syndication through terrestrial radio works for many mainstream celebrities, but what about the future?"

It's an article well worth reading, and if you feel so inclined, you should give it a recommendation so we can show the Motley Fool exactly which opinion is the popular one.

[The Motley Fool] 

A brand spankin' new Audiovox XpressEZ plug-and-play XM Satellite Radio receiver just was handed to a giggly yours-truly by the pretty FedEx lady this morning.

And while the XpressEZ isn't due to hit the streets until June, we're today getting a preview look of Audiovox's entry-level offering with an unboxing and undressing.

Follow the jump for more photos of the XpressEZ unboxing and initial impressions... 

In their ongoing rebranding effort, the Cingular 8525 smartphone now will be known as the... AT&T 8525. But the stellar namechange isn't the only news here, the 8525 is getting some added features, including XM Radio Mobile pre-loaded.

The AT&T 8525 still rocks many of the features that made it popular when it launched last year: like a sliding QWERTY keyboard, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 2-megapixel camera and video recorder, WMP 10 Mobile and support for Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0.

Now, the AT&T 8525 also comes with AT&T Push to Talk functionality as well as AT&T Mobile Music - which includes XM Satellite Radio - pre-installed.

AT&T Mobile Music lets you download full-track songs, music videos, ringtones, music news, and MusicID. AT&T 8525 users can also access music chat rooms, streaming over-the-air music and AT&T is the first U.S. carrier to offer subscription music to the handset from services like Yahoo! and eMusic.

AT&T Mobile Music includes XM Satellite Radio, pre-loaded on the 8525. So the 25 commercial-free music channels from the XM Radio Mobile service is immediately available to subscribers.

[Product Page] 

The new hotness from Panasonic has just been released: introducing the Panasonic Strada CN-NVD905U In-Dash Nav System/DVD/Hard Drive/Satellite Radio/Swiss Army Knife.

The double-din Strada CN-NVD905U features an integrated 7-inch touch panel LCD screen, a 30Gb Hard Drive, a MOS-FET High-power Amp (50W x 4 max), DVD video playback (with support for homegrown DVD-R/RW discs), WMA/MP3 playback with support for CD-R/RW, and... why not... a Voice Guidance/GUI in English, French and Spanish.

The pre-loaded NAVTEQ mapping software provides map data for the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, plus detailed maps of 86 U.S. cities. You can easily upgrade the software with DVD map database updates. There's also an SD Memory Card slot for map data upgrades.

The CN-NVD905U is ready for pretty much anything. It's Satellite Radio-ready (for either XM or Sirius), expansion module-ready, iPod-ready (including displaying Video content stored on your iPod), Bluetooth-ready, and Rearview camera-ready (Panasonic model CY-RC50KU).

Panasonic's  first mobile navigation system for the U.S. market also sports the option to display real time traffic information using Sirius Traffic. Icons can automatically show traffic flow or tie-ups on the screen, allowing the driver to take an alternate route. This feature is available by connecting the Panasonic CN-NVD905U to an optional Sirius tuner and antenna, plus of course a subscription to Sirius Traffic. 

Drooling yet? Well, save your lunch money kids, because the Panasonic Strada CN-NVD905U Double-Din HDD navigation DVD receiver will be available sometime this month with an MSRP of $1799.95.

[Panasonic Strada Mini-site] 

The PGA TOUR's signature event, The Players Championship, tees off this week at the legendary TPC Sawgrass golf course in Ponte Verde, Florida. XM Satellite Radio's PGA TOUR Network (ch 146) will air live play-by-play coverage of The Players - May 10th to May 13th - from 12 noon to 7pm ET each day.

Preview coverage starts today at 2pm ET live from Sawgrass (hey wait, that's right now).

When fans arrive at Sawgrass May 11-13, they can pick up a complimentary XM radio for the day to hear The Players broadcast (ask for Marie, she'll be there). The first one thousand spectators to sign up at the XM booths each day can listen to a portable XM radio for no charge. This is all part of XM's Fan Enhancement Program, which allows fans to listen to the action free of charge and receive special pricing on products/service.

If you happen to be in the NYC area, go check out Rockefeller Plaza. The PGA TOUR has built a replica of the 17th hole at Sawgrass (pictured) in the middle of Rockefeller to promote The Players.

You can grab a club and take a shot at the 1/4 scale replica through May 17th. But don't worry if you miss - the 17th at Sawgrass is notorious for being one of the toughest holes in golf.

There's a very interesting interview with Bob Struble, President and CEO of iBiquity Digital Corporation on C-SPAN.

Stuble talks about the commercialization of HD Radio, as well as the competition they face from various audio entertainment media like iPods and satellite radio. Interestingly enough, Struble points out that iBiquity is partnered with both XM and Sirius.

Also of note is how iBiquity is the only provider of the HD Radio technology nationwide. Struble explains that iBiquity is subject to the FCC patent policy. This means that if a patented technology is incorporated as a standard, the owner would have to agree to license it on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Worth the watch and very in-depth (approx 30 mins).

[C-SPAN] 

XM, in partnership with Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Music Group, will release a compilation CD featuring music from XM’s popular blues channel on May 15th.

Appropriately named after the channel itself, the Bluesville CD will feature songs from blues greats Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sonny Terry, Odetta, Roosevelt Sykes, Mildred Anderson, Furry Lewis and many other artists heard on XM Bluesville (ch 74).

The CD will give listeners a flavor for the music heard 24-hours a day on XM’s Bluesville channel.

The Bluesville disc will be available exclusively at Starbucks locations ($13.95 in the U.S. and $16.95 in Canada) and on the Hear Music website starting on May 15th.

"This disc offers customers yet another opportunity to experience the depth of music presented on XM," said Lee Abrams, chief creative officer, XM Satellite Radio.

View the complete track listing after the jump...

• "Why Satellite Radio Will Fail" - The Fool lives up to its name. (warning: highly opinionated, and lame, article ahead) [Motley Fool]
• Survey: iPhone awareness is huge, but desire to buy is little (yes, price matters) [MobileMag]
• DirecTV ships their portable receiver: DirecTV Sat-Go (pretty cool, though highly niche) [TWICE]
• DIYMedia rants about XM's repeaters (paints an uber-bleak picture) [DIYMedia.net]
• Westwood One soon to be on the auction block (food for thought: what's the difference between national syndication and national broadcasting?) [NY Post]

Gretchen Wilson will be performing live on Sirius New Country (ch 60) on Thursday,  May 10th at 1:30 pm ET. The "Redneck Woman" will sing acoustic versions of three of her new songs from her new CD.

This isn't the first time Gretchen has performed acoustic versions of her songs for New Country listeners - she visited Sirius with another stellar performance almost a year ago. Gretchen has been credited with saving country music at a time when Nashville was leaning toward an Adult Contemporary style.

Sirius will also give you a first listen to some of the new music on her new CD, One Of The Boys, which is set to be released on May 15th.

Don Imus is going to sue CBS for $120 million, according to a draft copy of the suit - expected to be filed next week - that ABC News has obtained.

The lawsuit reportedly says that CBS Radio expected Imus to be "controversial" and "irreverent" under the terms of his contract. He also claims the show was on a 5-second delay that let the network censor him if they wanted.

In a statement released by CBS in response to news stories about the impending lawsuit, CBS said that "We terminated Mr. Imus for cause. Based on the comments in question and relevant contract terms, we believe that the termination was appropriate and CBS would expect to prevail in any attempt by Mr. Imus to recover money for his actions."

CBS is expected to rely on a clause in the contract that says Imus can be terminated for 'just cause' if CBS determines that he used "distasteful or offensive words or phrases, the broadcast of which [CBS] believes would not be in the public interest or may jeopardize [the networks's] Federal license to operate..."

But Martin Garbus, a well known First Amendment attorney who represents Imus, says CBS breached Imus' contract, pointing to the clause: "Company [CBS Radio] acknowledges that Artist's [Imus'] services to be rendered hereunder are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial and personal character and that programs of the same general type and nature containing these components are desired by Company and are consistent with Company rules and policies."

The $120 million suit covers the $40 million remaining on Imus' multiyear contract (which began in 2006), stock options, damages to his "reputation and future prospects" and "damage to Imus' charitable and business endeavors."

[ABC News] 

Sirius is broadcasting the COSMO Radio Confessathon - tomorrow, May 5th starting at 2pm ET - on Sirius' Cosmo Radio (ch 111).

The special will feature 500 real confessions based on the magazine's popular "Confessions" and "Guy Confessions" columns.

From dating disasters and sex snafus (grrr) to bad office behavior (grrr) and the shocking things people say behind their friends' backs (grrr?), hear the hilarious and scandalous (grrr) messages left on COSMO Radio's voicemail.

COSMO Radio will also give men and women the chance to spill their naughtiest secrets live on air during the broadcast. (Grrr.)

But wait, there's more.

The COSMO Radio Confessathon will also include confessions from people whose jobs and lives make them privy to some extra juicy scoop-like a Miami socialite who regularly parties until sunrise, a celebrity trainer who knows what the stars really do to get red-carpet ready, and two backup dancers who have performed with some of the biggest acts in pop music.

Tune in tomorrow at 2pm ET, and stay tuned in, because the Confessathon won't end until all the confessions have aired.

I've confirmed that the Finisar Corporation patent in question for the recent infringement lawsuit against Sirius and XM is indeed the same as the one Finisar sued DirecTV over.

Patent #5,404,505 - also known as the "505" patent - is described as a "System for scheduling transmission of indexed and requested database tiers on demand at varying repetition rates." The abstract of the patent describes it as:

"An information broadcasting system provides a large number of subscribers access to a large amount of information using one or more satellite transmission channels... A program supplier station stores an information database and tags all the information in the database with indices so as to form a single hierarchical structure which encompasses the entire information database. Portions of the information database are transmitted often, at least once per day, in order to provide the basic subscriber with information need to access the remainder of the database..."

I'm no lawyer, so whether or not this lawsuit has any validity to it is beyond my scope of knowledge. But the fact that DirecTV lost their case may say something - but also note that Finisar asked the jury for $1.65 billion in damages (3% of DirecTV's gross sales) - and was only awarded upwards of $100 million.

Download the full "505" patent (PDF), or download the Finisar v. DirecTV verdict (PDF).

Zipcar and XM apparently are parting ways, according to a mailing sent out to customers recently. The car sharing service started offering XM in their vehicles just over two years ago, which makes the reason for the break-up even more suspect. UPDATE: See below for the real reason.

Zipcar is blaming... of all things... the proposed merger between Sirius and XM as the reason they're dropping the service.

Forget that the merger is far from certain, Zipcar still felt it necessary to "break ties with XM while things get sorted out in the satellite radio industry." As Ryan Block notes, this is a a huge loss for Zipcar customers.

Personally, I call Bravo Sierra on their reason. I suspect that Zipcar and XM just couldn't come to terms with the renewal agreement, and they're trying to blame it on merger uncertainty instead.

UPDATE: I was just contacted by an XM spokesperson to clarify the reason why Zipcar and XM have ended their relationship. It was in fact XM who decided to end the partnership with Zipcar. I don't the exact reason why they decided to end their partnership, but was assured the break-up was a completely amicable one and it was not because of the proposed merger.

(Zipcar's communications with customers tend to be fun, lighthearted and witty - so this likely was just one that went a little further than it was supposed to. That's my take.) 

Read the full letter to Zipcar customers after the jump... 

The suit filed by Finisar Corporation against XM, Sirius and Satellite CD Radio, claims the companies violated a 1995 patent that utilizes high-bandwidth communications between the server and radio receivers. It also reduces the amount of two-way traffic between the receiver and the server, which further speeds transmission, and relies on a tiered system of transmission.

Finisar, which makes optical components and test equipment, claims they contacted XM and Sirius in 2005 about licensing its technology, but the satellite radio giants ignored the request.

Finisar is seeking damages, “enhanced” damages, and a permanent injunction.

If much of this sounds all too familiar, that's because Finisar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against DirecTV not too long ago. It's a lawsuit that they won last year, resulting in over $100 million awarded in damages (initially Finisar was awarded $78.9 million, but then the court tacked on an addition $25 million). The court also ordered DirecTV to pay a compulsory ongoing license fee to Finisar at the rate of $1.60 per set-top box throughout the duration of the patent, which expires in April 2012.

The Finisar v. DirecTV lawsuit appears to be the same patent in question that Finisar is suing XM and Sirius over (though I haven't been able to verify this at the time of posting).

[EDN] 

All five FCC commissioners hosted a public hearing in Tampa yesterday to take comments about potential changes to media ownership rules. Localism, or more precisely the lack-thereof, was a hot topic.

Commissioner Michael Copps had some harsh words for the media not reflecting the local diversity of their markets, "You know, minorities are now nearly a third of our country's total population, but people of color own just 3.2 percent of the full-power commercial television stations and only about two percent of total broadcast assets. Could it be this is why minority interests and issues don't get covered very well?"

"Our media have an obligation to reflect our country's diversity. They have an obligation to nourish our country's diversity. It's a job not getting done," Copps added.

Many of those from the audience - reported in the range of 300 attendees - also felt that their local areas weren't being represented as they should be.

"If I want to hear local bands, I have to go to MySpace.com, even though there's a station just five miles away - but they only play preprogrammed junk," said Gavin Baker, a political science student at the University of Florida who drove down for the event.

"Anyone with a computer can now compete to serve the local audience," said Bill Carey, general manager of WFTS-TV and incoming president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. Those new outlets are serious competitors for news, Carey said.

It seems that the FCC is giving a clear message here. Sirius and XM should take note.

[The Tampa Tribune via FMQB] 

Now that the numbers are in, we can compare and contrast over one of my favorite metrics - gross subscriber additions.

For the second quarter in a row, Sirius has outpaced XM in the number of quarterly gross subscriber adds. This is pretty significant because historically XM has held the lead in gross subscribers. And gross subscribers are our purest form of tracking marketplace penetration.

As you can see in the chart above, the gap isn't quite as wide in the first quarter of this year as it was with the fourth quarter of 2006, but it's still a decent gap (~120k this quarter).

Sirius also managed to outpace the same period last year. Think about that for a minute. Last year we were in midsts of the Stern Effect, and Sirius still managed to edge out their previous gross additions.

That shows the power of OEM subscribers, regardless of the debate over "car lot subs" or not. As the satellite radio industry continues to shift into a largely OEM driven market, there's a strong growth curve ahead. They just need to make sure they keep that churn in check.

Joss Stone and her band held a soulful performance at XM's Jazz at Lincoln Center studios for the latest installment of XM's "Artist Confidential" series. But don't worry if you missed it yesterday because you can still catch it later today at 3pm ET on XM Cafe (ch 45), and there's several more encores playing throughout the week.

You'll hear an hour of music and a live interview with XM's George Taylor Morris in front of a 100 fans. Joss is positively engaging, offering hugs and unabashed answers to some pretty strange questions (because, who wouldn't want to be elbow deep in placenta?).

Well worth the listen. 

Check out additional encore times after the jump...

While Sirius Satellite Radio subscriber first quarter 2007 numbers were well above many analyst's expectations, analysts seem mixed over the implications of their results.

In a recent note to investors, Jacoby highlighted that the source of the high subscriber numbers was the OEM channel. Jacoby said that since Sirius counts subscribers at the time of vehicle production rather the time of sale, this is less indicative of true consumer demand.

"This suggests the biggest boost to the subscriber base in the first quarter has come from "car-lot" subscriptions," Jacoby wrote in a research note.

Craig Moffett, with Sanford C. Bernstein, said in a note to investors that Sirius' subscriber gains were also ahead of his expectations, indicating that "demand for satellite radio is far from dead." Moffett cautions that customer acquisition costs still remained "stubbornly high" and that churn was higher than he had expected, although in line with forecasts.

[Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek]

I'm live blogging the Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) 1Q07 earnings call for those of you who can't listen in, or who just want to read some quick notes about the call.

Just keep hitting that "refresh" button to see the updates...

• Right now it's just hold music...
• And we're beginning
• Over to Mel
• "2007 is off to a great start for Sirius"
  

Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) just announced their 1Q07 results, showing a 61% increase in revenue to a record $204 million from the year ago quarter, strong first quarter subscriber growth of 556,490 driving ending subscribers to approximately 6,581,045 subscribers.

Sirius ended 1Q07 with almost 6.6 million subscribers up 61% from the 4.08 million subscribers at the end of the year-ago quarter.

During 1Q07, Sirius added 556,490 net subscribers consisting of 192,978 from the retail channel and 364,674 from the OEM channel. In 1Q07, Sirius captured 66% of satellite radio segment share, marking the sixth consecutive quarter for leadership.

Total revenue for 1Q07 increased to $204.0 million, up 61% from $126.7 million for the year-ago quarter. Advertising revenue was $6.7 million during first quarter 2007 and average monthly revenue per subscriber (or "ARPU") was $10.46. Average monthly subscriber churn was 2.3%, and was consistent with previously provided 2007 churn guidance. SAC per gross subscriber addition was $104 for the first quarter of 2007.

Sirius reported a net loss of ($144.7) million, or ($0.10) per share for 1Q07 - a 68% improvement from a net loss of ($458.5) million - or ($0.33) per share for 1Q06. The adjusted net loss for 1Q07 (adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation) improved to ($120.5) million, or ($0.08) per share, a 31% improvement from the adjusted net loss for first quarter 2006 of ($174.0) million, or ($0.13) per share.

Sirius reaffirmed their 2007 guidance of more than 8 million subscribers for the full year of 2007; total revenues approaching 1 billion dollars; average monthly subscriber churn of approximately 2.2 - 2.4%; and SAC per gross subscriber addition of approximately $95.

Full financials after the jump...