They Might Be Giants will be swinging by Sirius Satellite Radio to preview songs from their upcoming children’s album Here Come The 123s.

A sequel to the ridiculously successful Here Come The ABCs album back in 2005, the band will also spend some time playing kid-friendly favorites from their previous albums.

While produced and released under Walt Disney Records, They Might Be Giants was reportedly given complete creative control for Here Come The ABCs. As a result, the album went Gold (over 500,000 in sales) and became the 2nd-highest selling They Might Be Giants album of all time. The follow-up release aims to see a similar level of success.

If you have a young'un in the household, you've probably had several They Might Be Giants songs (like "Here in Higglytown" and the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Theme") rattling around in your head all day.

Now here's your chance for you and the kids to hear the band on Sirius. Tune in on Monday, February 4th at 8am ET with encores all week long on Sirius Kids Stuff (ch 116).

Platinum selling singer-songwriter Jack Johnson will sit down for an intimate interview on Sirius Satellite Radio to discuss his upcoming album Sleep Through The Static.

Johnson will share with listeners his inspiration for the album, and discusses other topics like his life as a parent and his new “green” studio where the album was recorded.

Sleep Through The Static is his 5th studio album and is due for release on February 5, 2008. It was being recorded at L.A.'s Solar Powered Plastic Plant - he has recorded all of his previous albums in Hawaii.

Jack Johnson also will treat fans to an acoustic performance of the album’s title track, "Sleep Through The Static."

You'll have plenty of opportunities to hear this interview/performance. Sirius will air it on Friday, February 1st at 5pm ET; on Saturday, February 2nd at noon ET; and February 3rd at 3pm and midnight ET - all on The Spectrum (ch 18).

View a video about the making of Sleep Through The Static after the jump...

Tony Bruno, who was a mainstay on Sporting News Radio, has officially left the network.

His three-year contract expires in April 2008, but he'll remain on the payroll for the next two months.

"Unfortunately, our strategic objectives and Tony’s personal interests are not in alignment at this time, and we have each agreed to move in a new direction," said Clancy Woods, President of Sporting News Radio, in a statement. While Sporting News Radio is in search of a replacement, Bob Berger and Bob Stelton will host SNR’s morning program during Super Bowl week starting January 28th, and Arnie Spanier will host the program the week of February 4th.

Bruno was heard on XM Sports Nation (ch 144) on weekdays from 10am - 1pm ET, and on Sirius Sports Central (ch 123) on weekdays from 9am -1pm ET.

Thanks Rich!

Sirius will hold its first ever Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender presidential caucus, featuring representatives and supporters for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

The Gay Caucus, which takes place on The Michelangelo Signorile Show on Sirius OutQ, will feature these reps/supporters sharing their candidates' platforms and views, taking questions, and engaging in an open dialogue.

Hilary Rosen, President of OurChart.com and regular on-air political/business commentator on national television, will support Senator Clinton. She is also the former Chairman and CEO of the RIAA.

Stampp Corbin, National LGBT Liaison for the Obama campaign and Co-Chair of the National LGBT Leadership Team of Obama for America '08, will represent Senator Obama. Corbin served on The Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign from 1996-2003, and served as HRC Finance Committee Co-Chair from 1998 to 2003.

Eric Stern, Political Advisor to the John Edwards, will represent Senator Edwards. Stern is an attorney, educator, and social activist who worked for more than a decade on numerous Democratic campaigns and in the movement for social justice and equality. In the 2004 election cycle, Stern served as the Director of LGBT Outreach at the Democratic National Committee where he developed a voter mobilization plan that helped to turnout more than 3.5 million LGBT votes for Democratic candidates nationally.

Sirius' Gay Caucus will air Thursday, January 31st from 3 - 5pm ET on Sirius OutQ (ch 109).

When Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. announced their plans to merge, no one expected the process to be easy. But what I don't think anyone expected, was for the process to take so long.

Oh sure we knew there was trouble when the preliminary review process dragged on to the point that it earned the dubious distinction of the longest application-to-clock delay in FCC history. But that simply meant that the Commission was dragging its feet in starting its unofficial shot-clock - a timeline that made no difference anyway, since the FCC blew past the deadline regardless.

But the Department of Justice had already begun its process long before. XM and Sirius even certified their compliance with the DOJ's Second Request back in early September, causing industry experts to predict a decision as early as October (the Second Request compliance usually triggers a 30-day clock).

So here we are, 342 days later, and still no decision in sight.

Take a look at the graph above, mergers with far bigger valuations and/or far more monopolistic concerns, were decided upon earlier than the XM-Sirius merger. That graph illustrates the length of time from when a merger was announced, to when a government body actually made a decision.

And remember, Sirius-XM haven't had a decision yet, so that red bar will continue to grow.

It's sad, because in the case of Whirlpool-Maytag, the washer/dryer market was consolidated to a 70% share and it was ultimately approved by the FTC. In the case of Whole Foods-Wild Oats, the FTC charged that prices could go higher, while quality and service could get reduced - but that deal ultimately went through - in almost half the amount of time that Sirius-XM have been in limbo.

Need more examples? The FCC approved the AT&T-Bellsouth merger (valued at a whopping $85 billion - Sirius/XM is estimated to be 10% of that), which controls 22 states, and includes local phone service to 70 million residents - in some states, it made AT&T the only choice for business access services. Google's purchase of DoubleClick combined the two largest online advertising distributors - which was criticized for hurting competition by two companies that are no stranger to antitrust concerns: Microsoft and AT&T - and it was ultimately approved as well.

Even EchoStar-DirecTV, arguably the most similar to the Sirius-XM merger - and was ultimately denied by the FCC - took less time to come to a decision than the satellite radio merger.

Echoing the sentiment of others: it's time for the government to come to a decision. Whether it be to approve or deny the merger, the DOJ and the FCC need to stop stalling, and start acting. Not only investors, but also consumers and especially employees, of both Sirius and XM are suffering at the expense of the government's indecision. And this constant state of speculation needs to end.

Make the decision, and let's move on.

The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) submitted a letter to the FCC yesterday, voicing their general opposition to the Sirius-XM merger.

And one of the main reasons as to why they don't approve of the transaction is... Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony and Bubba the Love Sponge.

"One only has to evaluate the current programming now offered by Sirius and XM to recognize that our concerns and fears are well founded," the NCNW wrote in their letter to the FCC Chairman. "Programming such as Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, and Bubba the Love Sponge - which help to perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes in our culture - drive the business of both companies." (emphasis added)

The African-American women's organization goes on to say: "A Sirius - XM satellite radio monopoly will focus it (sic) resources on only its most profitable audiences, with more of the same lowest-common-denominator programming of the Howard Stern variety."

That's quite the assumption for a post-merger scenario.

And if that's the case, why wait? Both companies already seek profitability right now. Why would XM hire Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Maya Angelou, and the Reverend Al Sharpton - after hiring Opie & Anthony mind you - if selling out to the "lowest-common-denominator" was such a priority?

Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony and Bubba the Love Sponge constitute only 3 channels out of over 300 combined - that's 1% of all programming offered by Sirius and XM together - let's not forget that.

The National Council of Negro Women goes on to voice their support for Georgetown Partners. Georgetown, which also has the support of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, is asking that Sirius and XM be required to hand over 20% of their channel capacity so as to "create competition and diversity" in satellite radio.

Disgusting.

[Read the full letter (PDF)]

During the interview, Starr discusses with Sirius host Meg Griffin his early musical influences, favorite drummers and the making of his latest album Liverpool 8.

Immediately following the interview, Sirius will broadcast live from the Liverpool 8 album release party at LA’s House of Blues. The event will included a performance by Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart, the albums co-producer and half of the British music duo, Eurythmics.

Listen in today, January 25th, on Sirius Disorder (ch 70) and The Spectrum (ch 18). The interview starts at 3:15pm ET and the album release party and performance starts at 4pm ET.

Sheryl Crow will take over Sirius' The Spectrum channel for five days starting in two weeks.

The special will feature Sheryl playing her favorite music including a track-by-track preview and in- depth discussion of her new album Detours which arrives in stores on February 5th.

Among the many tracks on the album, Sheryl discusses how "Lullaby for Wyatt," a song about her son (who she adopted back in April and named after her father) " ... really informed this album."

"There's an urgent feeling about what's going on in the world," added Crow. "This song is really about, as a parent, you just want to protect your children from the pain that they're going to ultimately experience in their lives."

During the take-over Sheryl also will perform songs from Detours and some of her classic hits at Sirius' studios. This isn't Sheryl's first time guest DJ'ing at Sirius - she helped out her former beau Lance Armstrong by broadcasting live from Spain back in March 2005.

"Sheryl Crow's Spectrum" will kick-off on February 4th at 7am ET and run through February 8th on The Spectrum (ch 18).

The ever-important Holiday Shopping Season didn't prove to do much for XM or Sirius last year, as NPD Group's December sales data shows a continued decline.

Combined data shows that satellite radio retail sales were down 37.5% for the month, when compared to December of last year. The sad part is that the comparisons were relatively easy.

The Quick Glance:

• Sirius December 2007 Year-over-Year Retail Sales:
  Down 36%
• XM December 2007 Year-over-Year Retail Sales:
  Down 41%

Marketshare:

• Sirius Dec '07 Retail Marketshare: 68.3%
• XM Dec '07 Retail Marketshare: 31.7%

That's a steep decline, especially when you consider that last year satellite radio retail sales were already down 46%. Looking at retail marketshare at this point is nearly pointless as it's simply a piece of an ever-shrinking pie.

Something needs to change in how we approach retail, because this obviously isn't working. And it needs to change now.

[SiriusBuzz]

Sirius will be increasing their coverage of Super Bowl XLII, with 12 live broadcasts featuring game calls in eight languages - up from the 11 broadcasts and seven languages from last year.

Sirius will also provide live day-long news and expert analysis every day of Super Bowl Week.

On Super Bowl Sunday, February 3rd, Sirius will air an expanded lineup of play-by-play broadcasts of Super Bowl XLII live from University of Phoenix Stadium. Among the 12 different game calls in eight languages, the local radio broadcasts of both the AFC Champion New England Patriots and NFC Champion New York Giants will also air.

Here's the channel breakdown:

• Patriots team broadcast - channel 126
• Giants team broadcast - channel 123
• Westwood One Radio broadcast - channel 124
• BBC Radio broadcast - channel 125
• Westwood One Spanish broadcast (Spanish-Latin America) - channel 181
• CANAL+ Spain broadcast (Spanish-Spain) - channel 110
• France 2 broadcast (French) - channel 143
• NHK Japan broadcast (Japanese) - channel 140
• ARD broadcast (German) - channel 130
• Telenet broadcast (Flemish) - channel 119
• NTV Plus broadcast (Russian) - channel 122
• SMG broadcast (Mandarin Chinese) - channel 121

On Tuesday, January 29th, Sirius NFL Radio will be live on Media Day with a slew of interviews with players and coaches from the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

Then the day before The Big Game, Sirius will have live coverage as the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2008 is announced at the Phoenix Convention Center.

Check out more info and schedules here...