Check out this very long and in-depth interview with Howard Stern in this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Definitely a worthwhile read, where Stern talks about everything from Howard 100 News, to the Howard TV VOD service and the general evolution of the show since it's moved to SIRIUS.

Even if you're not a Howard fan, it's worth checking out just for the photos.

[Entertainment Weekly]

Thanks Tim! 

SIRIUS Satellite Radio will feature Barry Williams - aka Greg Brady - on Wednesday, April 5th at 10pm ET, the TV Land series Living in TV Land. Not only will he be hosting his daily regular program (Barry hosts The Brady Brunch with Barry Williams on SIRIUS' Totally '70s - Ch 7), but he'll also be throwing pitches at Dodgers Stadium, showing off his singing talents, and meeting with his some of his many fans. (Living in TV Land has previously profiled William Shatner, Adam West, Davey Jones and others.)

Barry will also be on FOX's That 70s Show on Thursday, April 27th at 8pm ET, with his Brady Bunch little brother, actor Chris Knight - portraying a gay couple who move in next door.

Edward Weber, Jr., SIRIUS' Vice President, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer, resigned on March 27th, 2006.

Mr. Weber has been appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. For being in his mid-30s, that's not a bad opportunity.

David J. Frear, SIRIUS' Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will serve as the principal accounting officer on an interim basis.  

[SIRIUS Form 8-K] 

It looks like Sprint is expanding their offering with SIRIUS, which debuted back in September allowing users to get 20 Sirius radio channels on their cellphones. Spring is now looking to give customers the option of buying songs that they hear on the satellite radio channels later this year. Essentially, adding a "buy button" - similar functionality to what Mel Karmazin highlighted as a feature for the upcoming SIRIUS portable.

Sprint is now looking to offer heavier music users a monthly subscription to music, rather than a one-time fee of $2.50 to download each song from a virtual store, under its current service. These advanced services (music, text messaging, games and video) represent about 10 percent of Sprint's revenue.

"We'd like to have the capability later this year that the customer listens to a song and says, 'I want to buy that song,'" Sprint COOr Len Lauer told the audience during his keynote speech at the World Congress of Sports conference.

One big question about SIRIUS' "buy button" (or Push-to-Purchase - whatever you want to call it) is who will fulfill the music.  I wonder if this Sirius/Sprint partnership hints towards that.

[Reuters] 

Thanks Tim! 

According to this Reuter's article, SIRIUS CEO Mel Karmazin said, at the Sports Business Journal's annual World Congress of Sports event, that he met with Howard Stern on Monday to try to get him to extend his term with similar pay structure.

Howard wasn't interested.

"He'll take his chances when the contract is up," said Mel Karmazin.

The only reason why I could see Howard turning down an extension of the contract would be either:

1. He's considering retirement.
2. He's waiting to see how much advertising revenue he can bring in within the 5 years.

I can't really blame him if you think about it. At the current rate of growth, why would lock in the current salary when it could be much bigger in 5 years?

Thanks Cranky Media Guy! 

[Reuters] 

There's been some growing anger among Sirius S50 owners about the lack of a firmware update for nearly 4 months now. While the December S50 update fixed some stability problems, it didn't address lockup problems and certain UI issues subscribers have been complaining about.

Over at SIRIUS Backstage, a thread was created compiling a Master Bug & Issue List that people have reported with the Sirius S50. In fact the entire S50 Section of SBS seems to be riddled with complaints and a growing anger in the lack of support experienced.

To add fuel to the fire, recently a dedicated S50 owner was able to get an email forwarded containing a shortlist of issues to SIRIUS' Firmware dept, and the response wasn't too encouraging. For you lazy clickers, here's a paraphrase of the requests and the actual responses received:

1. Playback Sorting. The sorting of the My Sirius Shows content is reversed. For instance, if The Howard Stern Show is recorded in three 2 hour blocks, first block is followed by the third block because it plays the newest content first.
   
   Response: We will look into feasibility and determine if this is a possible change.
   
   
2. Lack of Bookmarking. There is no way to save the playback location when the S50 unit is shut down.
   
   Response: We have looked into this, however the current architecture does not lend itself to such a feature.
   
   
3. Deleting Shows. This is a general UI complaint that the delete shows screen is very difficult to find because the date and time isn't displayed and due to the sorting it's not inuitive to locate the content you want to delete.
   
   Response: This will be discussed and a solution proposed that could address this issue.
   
   
4. Fast-forward and Rewind Speeds. FF and RWD speeds are slow for moving inside longer recordings. Can the speeds be made faster?
   
   Response: The current speeds were selected for the average user (Speeding up was considered, however the current speeds were determined to be optimal).
   
   
5. Two Hour Limit. Users want to be able to record at the four hour duration as originally specified.
   
   Response: Unfortunately this is also a limitation of the current architecture and it is being investigated to open this up to four hours.

Compound all that with a recent post on Get Sirius Info that the Sirius S50 will be discontinued due to the upcoming release of a live portable Sirius receiver, and you've got yourself some very upset customers.

Why am I posting about this? Because several Sirius S50 owners have contacted me asking for help over this. Subscribers are feeling frustrated and ignored, and are hoping that by making issues like these more public, we can get some answers. I know SIRIUS is plenty busy back there, what with settlements to pay royalties to music companies for every S50 sold, but considering the price of the unit - you really can't blame people for being upset.

I also know that some of you will chalk this up as the whining complaints of a "Message Board Mob" but this is also a community of people who have provided extended support for the Sirius S50 - such as incredible documents like the "3 Finger Salute" (PDF) and indepth FAQs like this one being written. These are people who love the S50 and simply want it to work the way it was intended. And sometimes going public with these problems is the only way to make these issues a priority.

So what can be done? The only real thing to do is to increase the number of open ticket complaints submited to Sirius S50 Product Support. If you too are an S50 owner and are experiencing problems, do not remain silent about it - the only way to get results is by letting Sirius know you have a problem. Contact SIRIUS S50 Customer Service at (800) 869-5364 and notify them of what problems you're having.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[Digg It] 

So yeah, The Scott Ferrall Show aired last night and will be a live weeknight talk show - Monday through Friday from 8pm – 12am ET - on SIRIUS Howard 101. Ferrall will wrap up the day’s events on both of Howard Stern’s SIRIUS channels along with throwin in some sports talk and more.

Ferrall has hosted numerous radio shows on a wide variety of stations in both local and national markets, including WNEW-FM, ESPN Radio, and WFAN 66 in New York, WMAX-FM in Atlanta, WQAM-AM in Miami, and the nationally syndicated Sportsfan Radio Network.

"I've finally arrived at the holy grail of broadcasting. I meet my maker, Howard Stern. It's absolutely sick being on SIRIUS - I've joined the revolution and my fans will follow,” said Scott Ferrall.

Now that he's officially on Howard 101, can he do something to fix his website? Please?

The Smiths, who have been referred to as “the definitive British indie rock band of the ‘80s,” and allegedly turned down a $5 million offer to reunite, will the premiere of the new album by Smiths leader Morrissey on Saturday, April 1st, starting at 12am ET on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 22, First Wave.

The Smiths-Morrissey music weekend will be the first time that the First Wave has devoted itself to the music of a single artist, and the first time it has world-premiered a new album before it’s available on April 4th.

Considering the sensitivity of this information, I really need to stress that this is currently speculation and based on 2nd hand information. But according to sources, there is a strong rumor that Howard Stern was served a subpoena by the SEC last Wednesday (March 22nd). The grounds for the subpoena are unknown.

Several attempts to contact SIRIUS regarding this went unanswered. The only feedback I received was to forward me to Patrick Reilly, SVP of Corporate Communications at SIRIUS, but then further communications stalled. I had really hoped that SIRIUS could at least confirm or debunk this rumor before posting, but after multiple attempts I've still heard nothing. I'm no lawyer, so I don't know if they're even allowed to make a statement at this point anyway.

So there it is. As I find out more information, I'll post it. If you yourself have more information you can email me here.

Thanks Jonathan!