SIRIUS Satellite Radio will unleash classic unedited material from Howard Stern's last 20 years on radio starting this weekend.

Chosen from 23,000 hours of tape, these fan favorite moments will include unedited interviews with such memorable guests as Paul McCartney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump, Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, Sylvester Stallone and Sam Kinison.

In addition, bits featuring famed impersonator and past longtime Stern show regular Billy West will air throughout the weekend, as well as classic prank calls, song parodies, live musical performances and much more. The material will be played 100% unedited and censor-free... the way it was meant to be.

The all-request special begins Labor Day Weekend, airing Friday, September 1st at 3pm ET and will run through Monday, September 4th at 12 midnight ET on Howard 100. Simultaneous West Coast broadcasts will also be heard on Howard 101.

Yesterday we saw the Stiletto/Soloist photo which apparently was taken at a Directed Electronics independent retailer showing earlier this week.

Today, we get in-the-flesh photos of the SIRIUS Sportster4 and the upcoming SIRIUS Starmate4, Stratus, and the SIRIUS Universal Boombox (shown with Sportster4 docked). These photos were taken last week during a Radio Shack meeting at the MGM hotel in Vegas.

[via Sirius Backstage]
Thanks Tyler!

Banc of America Securities analyst Jonathan Jacoby said yesterday that the NPD-reported satellite radio unit sales grew an average 2% year-to-year in July.

Those numbers are better than June - which was pretty much flat - but XM’s growth was down year-to-year by 29%, likely due to the product shortages thanks to receivers that failed to pass the FCC emissions tests.

Sirius' growth, on the otherhand, was up 49% year-to-year. Jacoby said that "Sirius has taken share on account of product shortages for XM." He also warned that, "We do NOT believe that satellite radio is out of the woods yet regarding the fallout from the FCC issue." Ugh. Say it ain't so.

While SIRIUS' on-air hosts are interviewing celebrities as part of the MTV Video Music Awards, SIRIUS is also offering a Gift Suite Collection in their SIRIUS Suites at the W New York - Times Square hotel. Celebrities can choose from a prestigious assortment of luxury products and services - including a free SIRIUS Sportster 4 - produced by On 3 Productions, the leader in celebrity gifting.

Anticipated guests include Ne-Yo, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, OK Go, Vanessa Minnillo, Brandy, Method Man, Cobra Starship, Mario Vazquez, New Found Glory, The Roots, JoJo, Brooke Hogan, Angels & Airwaves, 10 Years, Jesse McCartney, Lil Jon, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Wyclef Jean, Chamillionaire, The Killers, Fall Out Boy, and many more...

The list of goodies is a bit long, and pretty ridiculous, so check it out after the jump:

HotMovies.com is kicking off a multi-week promotional campaign with Sirius Satellite Radio and The Howard Stern Show, called the "Ho-Deo" starting on September 5th. The promotion asks listeners to ride the Sybian - a lovely machine that has been host to several of Howard Stern's female guests, including Jenna Jameson, Carmen Elektra, and Jenny McCarthy.

Howard will invite five to seven female listeners to ride the Sybian in the next few weeks. Of those chosen, the contestant who stays on the longest will win $5,000 courtesy of HotMovies.com.

In addition to running on live broadcasts and replays on Howard 100 & Howard 101, Sirius will work in conjunction with Playboy Radio to have Playboy Sexperts drive subscribers to the Sirius Playboy Radio webpage where they can register to win a $500 gift certificate from HotMovies.com.

HotMovies.com is a pay-per-minute adult website - with fees starting at 8 cents a minute - where visitors can watch more than 45,000 adult titles in streaming (or download).

[Press Release] 

The folks over at Sirius Backstage have learned that Sirius is planning on offering an online-only subscription which has reportedly been given the moniker, "Sirius Internet Radio Plus."

The new internet-only service will provide both music at "CD quality" and select talk channels (yes, including Howard) at a whoppin' 48kps. The current free Sirius Internet Radio service (which is included with a regular Sirius subscription) offers streaming audio at a mere 32kps.

According to SBS, Sirius Internet Radio Plus will run you $12.95 a month, with 3 additional SIR Plus subscriptions for $6.99. If you're an existing subscriber, you can upgrade to SIR Plus for an additional $2.99 a month.

No additional channels will be offered according to SBS, this is simply an upgrade in sound quality.

Compare this to XM's existing XM Radio Online (XMRO) service, and you have to wonder what Sirius is thinking (if in fact these numbers are true). XM Radio Online offers up to 64kps - for free - to current subscribers. And if you want an Internet-only subscription, XMRO will only run you $7.99 and month.

I really hope Sirius has something more up their sleeve for this one.

[Sirius Backstage]

UPDATED: Music will actually be provided in "CD quality" and talk in 48kps. 

Deadwood may have ended on HBO, but SIRIUS Outlaw Country still has Deadwood Radio.

Join host W. Earl Brown (who plays the knife-weilding, eye-gouging, Dan Dority) and his fellow cast members include: Ian McShane (Al Swearengen), John Hawkes (Sol Star), Keith Carradine (Wild Bill Hickok), Sean Bridgers (Johnny Burns), Robin Wiegert (Calamity Jane), Geri Jewell (Jewel... oddly enough), Jim Beaver (Ellsworth), Keone Young (Wu!), and Peter Jason (Con Stapelton). They'll all get together, regrettably without any whiskey, and revisit one-by-one all 12 episodes of this season's Deadwood and play hand-picked music throughout the day.

The Deadwood Radio Marathon runs all day, September 4th, on SIRIUS Outlaw Country (ch 63). Give it a listen... you Hoopleheads.

Satellite Standard Group got their hands on a criper image of the much anticipated Sirius Stiletto wearable. At least we get to see a different view other than the ugly blurry one. Compare the Stiletto to the prototype Zing (pictured below) and you can see where that "bump" on the top comes from.

Additionally, thanks to GSI we now get to see the reseller product sheet which features the Sirius Stiletto 100, the Stiletto 10, as well as the Starmate 4 and the Stratus (the latter two have already been officially announced by Sirius).

View a higher-resolution version of the product sheet. 

Thomas Cipriano, better known as Captain Janks from The Howard Stern Show, got through to CNN's "The Situation Room" yesterday. Janks was posing as Wendy Hutchens, a California woman who claims that five years ago she had detailed chats about the death of JonBenet Ramsey with murder suspect John Mark Karr.

"Wendy Hutchens is joining us on the phone right now," Wolf Blitzer told viewers. "Wendy, thanks very much for doing this. Tell our viewers how you got involved with John Mark Karr." The fake Wendy, being impersonated by a man mind you, explained that she met Karr through a relative.

"So then what happened after that?" Blitzer pressed. "When did the E-mail, when did the talk of JonBenet Ramsey begin?"

The fake Wendy answered: "It started around September of 2001, when he told me that he knew more about the JonBenet Ramsey case than what anybody else had known - and that he was instructed to kill JonBenet by Howard Stern."

"All right. Well, that sounds like we've just been Howard Sterned, as they say," concluded Blitzer.

[NY Daily News via SSG]

A new study by Bridge Ratings found that the renewal rate of XM/SIRIUS subscribers, when broken down by OEM channel and Retail channel acquisitions, differs significantly.

The report found that of those subscribers who purchased a satellite radio at the retail level plan on renewing at a 78% rate. Meanwhile, subscribers who acquired their satellite radios from the OEM channel (new car purchase) plan on renewing at only a 54% rate.

This shouldn't be of much of a surprise to anyone as it's also the difference between push and pull. In the retail situation, the consumer actively is seeking out the radio (or is sold on the idea by a crafty salesman), whereas in the OEM situation the radio falls on their lap with a free trial.

Actually, what is a surprise is the 78% retail renewal rate. That means that, based on this report's findings, nearly 1/4 of retail purchasers are unhappy with something. Either they didn't get what they expected, the unit was too difficult to setup, or the customer service was poor. Improving in all areas would be great - but better customer service would help in both the retail and OEM side. Something to think about.

[Bridge Ratings]