Alt rock band Weezer will be taking over Sirius' Alt Nation for the entire weekend, starting Friday at 6pm ET.

"Weezer Nation" will celebrate the band's latest release The Red Album, which lands in stores on June 2nd.

Not content with simply playing DJ for a weekend, Weezer will also perform their single "Pork & Beans" (which is currently topping the Billboard Alternative chart) plus other new songs. Additionally, Weezer will host Alt Nation's "Countdown from 21," the weekly countdown list of the best songs in alternative rock.

It all begins Friday at 6pm ET through Monday. The Weezer performance will air Saturday, May 31st at 2pm ET, with encore broadcasts on Sunday, June 1st at 1am and 7pm and again on Monday, June 2nd at 4pm ET.

Watch the video of "Pork & Beans" below...

Get Weezer - Pork and Beans on iTunes:

[Weezer]

Bubba the Love Sponge and executives at Sirius Satellite Radio appear to be having a disagreement about on-air material, and emotions have come to a head.

Yesterday, claims from Bubba that Sirius is censoring the show reached a heated moment when Tim Sabean, Program Director of the Howard Stern channels, called into the show. The on-air argument ended with Sabean hanging up on Bubba.

Listen to audio of the incident below:

Whether or not you're a fan of the Bubba the Love Sponge show, the issue of using the "corporate dump button" isn't a new one to satellite radio, and many listeners considered it to be completely unacceptable.

These channels bill themselves as being uncensored, and many times that includes the portrayal of opinions that may be unpopular with the company. Unless there's obvious issues with libel, defamation or other legal matters, there shouldn't be a reason to censor on-air material.

We still don't know the full story (especially behind the scenes), so look for more info on this as it develops.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Jewel will perform acoustic versions of songs from her highly-anticipated new country music album on Sirius tomorrow.

Jewel will perform the acoustic versions of songs from Perfectly Clear, her new country record which is coming out in stores on June 3rd.

In addition to her performance, which air on Sirius' New Country (ch 60) channel, Jewel will also guest DJ on the channel, premiering several songs from the album and playing her favorite country hits. 

She's not done though. Because that day Jewel will also guest DJ on The Roadhouse (ch 62) in an hour-long special where Jewel will introduce her favorite classic country songs and share her personal stories behind them. 

You can hear the performance and guest DJ on New Country tomorrow, May 30 at 12-noon ET. Encores will air Saturday, May 31st at 6pm ET, Sunday, June 1st at 12-noon ET and Tuesday, June 3rd at 6pm ET.

Jewel's guest DJ on The Roadhouse will also be tomorrow, June 6th at 2pm ET. Replays will air on Saturday, June 7th at 12-noon ET, Sunday, June 8th at 5pm ET and Monday, June 9th at 7am ET.

Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly known as the Euro 2008, in both English and Spanish-language broadcasts starting on Saturday, June 7th.

Sirius will air every match of the Euro 2008 with live play-by-play coverage of Switzerland v. Czech Republic at 12pm ET, followed by Portugal v. Turkey at 2:45pm ET.

Euro 2008 will take place in Austria and Switzerland from June 7th to June 29th. A total of 16 national teams - the two host nations and 14 other qualifiers - from around Europe participate in the tournament with the winner representing the UEFA at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. Euro 2008 will feature Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The Euro 2008 matches will air on Sirius' ESPN All Access (ch 121) throughout the tournament. On days when two matches are played simultaneously, the second match will air live on Sirius channel 125. Spanish-language broadcasts of Euro 2008 matches will be carried on ESPN Deportes Radio, (ch 181).

Pioneer of North America has joined the masses of folks meeting with the FCC over the Sirius and XM merger. But it wasn't the merger specifically that they wanted to talk about.

Indeed, they had a bone to pick with iBiquity, the government sanctioned monopoly purveyor of HD Radio technology.

Remember, iBiquity wants the FCC to mandate that Sirius-XM include HD Radio chipsets in all satellite radio receivers. iBiquity expressed "concern" over the competitive implications should the merger be approved.

But Pioneer, who knows a thing or two about receiver manufacturing, doesn't see it that way. And they were sure to express this to Elizabeth Andrion, the Legal Advisor to Chairman Martin.

"The iBiquity conditions would limit the breadth of radio product offerings to consumers, limit which radio component suppliers' products be designed into radios, have the effect of decreasing AM/FM tuning performance, unnecessarily increase costs to consumers uninterested in HD Radio and interfere with the useful and healthy free market mechanisms extant in radio electronics purchases," writes Pioneer.

The company continues: "Consumers should be allowed to choose radios which meet their needs, without undue government influence."

"It is our belief that HD Radio should compete in the marketplace with other radio services: if free local digital terrestrial radio services are compelling to consumers, HD Radio technology will succeed in the marketplace."

"In this case, the free market is the best measure of the public interest."

Take a bow Pioneer, because that was extremely well said.

[Read FCC Filing (PDF)]

This video is picking on Sirius specifically, but the same thoughts can be applied to XM. The main question is: is satellite radio a doomed business model as the speakers seem to think?

Do the content providers really have all the control, and will the cost of maintaining a satellite-based architecture forever limit the amount of profit these two companies can make?

[MSN Video]

The "Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio" - or "C3SR" - is at it with their hijinks. This time around, the best connected group of college students side , has issued a press release demanding the FCC hold a hearing on the Sirius-XM merger.

Their reason? Because of a letter C3SR filed with the Commission today which they say "brings new light" to the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

C3SR further labels the merger as "an anticompetitive merger to monopoly that would harm consumers." (Note the "merger to monopoly" wording? Sounds familiar... like, something the NAB might say. Oh right, C3SR is "supported" by the NAB.)

The filing, which numerous parts are redacted due to confidential information, claims that documents filed by Sirius on April 10th "cast the merger in a very negative light," according to C3SR. This "new light" appears to be based on Sirius-XM's failure, or as they call it, a "coordinated plan to restrain trade," to bring interoperable radios to market.

The group adds that Sirius' filing, in their opinion, calls into question "the truthfulness and candor of both Sirius and XM with respect to their dealings with the Commission as licensees and during this proceeding."

Seriously? Are we still stuck on the same NAB talking points from Spring '07? Does the failure to bring an interoperable radio to market completely trump the entire merger process?

Oh, and speaking of truthfulness and candor. Remember that last year C3SR's founder Chris Reale told Corporate Crime Reporter:

"If we were out there in the media telling people who funded us, it would detract from support from different groups."

Groups like... consumers.

[Read Filing (PDF)]

According to TheStreet.com, the FCC's review of the proposed transfer of licenses in the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. has taken longer than any other in history.

I'm not sure of the exact validity of that statement because a quick glance at the FCC's own major transactions shows the DirecTV-Liberty deal slightly edging out the Sirius-XM merger, and the Clear Channel deal taking the lead.

Still, the FCC's "unofficial" timeclock spans 180 days. By next week, the Commission would have taken twice that long to review the Sirius-XM deal. And there appears to be no end in sight.

By Orbitcast's count, it has been an incredible 433 days since Sirius and XM filed their application with the FCC. Children have been conceived, born and are just starting to crawl while the government has held these two companies hostage.

And that - by any measure - is pure insanity.

[TheStreet.com]

Chairman Kevin Martin said today that the Federal Communications Commission could rule on the proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. before June 30th.

"I still think the commission could act by the end of the second quarter," Martin said at a press conference.

Earlier this year, Martin had asked his staff to compile a report on the various conditions the FCC could impose on the proposed merger. Today, Martin said the staff has done what he asked, but he declined to comment on their recommendations.

Martin added that the proposal hasn't been circulated to the four other commissioners.

As suspected, Martin said that the FCC won't consider the merger proposal at its June 12th meeting. This could mean that the ruling might be delayed until July unless the commissioners agree to vote on the merger proposal without a public meeting.

On Tuesday, public interest groups Public Knowledge, Media Access Project and New America Foundation all met with the Federal Communications Commission to discuss the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

The meeting - which was attended by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Elizabeth Andrion, Acting Legal Advisor for Media Issues for the Chairman; as well as Gigi Sohn and Alex Kanous of Public Knowledge; Andrew Jay Schwartzman and Parul Desai of Media Access Project; and Michael Calabrese of New America Foundation - also resulted in one of the most detailed public filings regarding this merger of recent history.

The meeting revolved around two main topics: non-commercial/education set-aside, and open access.

But what I found most interesting was the details in the filings. I'd highly recommend reading the entire filing (PDF) to get the big picture, but here's some excerpts that I think should be highlighted:

"[Public Knowledge] suggested 10% for the minority setaside and 5% for the noncommercial set aside as reasonable."

Takeaway: That's half of what Georgetown is requesting. Keep in mind that PK is also asking that if Georgetown's proposal is granted, that they too be required to setaside 5% of their own leased spectrum for non-commercial purposes.

"...Sirius purports to demonstrate that it already provides noncommercial programming that meets the 5% threshold the parties are seeking." (See below for the chart of Sirius' proposal.)

Takeaway: Public Knowledge isn't happy with this suggestion because they'd prefer to see programming that "would not ordinarily be on satellite radio" - plus several channels are owned by the same entity, and they would prefer a limit of one non-commercial programmer per channel.


I found this section particularly noteworthy:

"Regarding the open device condition, we agreed with the Chairman that should the Commission permit any entity to manufacture a satellite radio receiver, it would obviate the need for a mandate that all satellite radios have an HD radio chip, or that they be interoperable. In that case, the market would inevitably provide for satellite radio receivers with a wide variety of features." (emphasis added)

Takeaway: This is a strong suggestion that iBiquity's proposal is losing ground in favor of open access. That's a good thing in my opinion - requiring that HD Radio be included seems to have little to do with the "public interest" and more to do with "iBiquity's interest."

What I particularly find important is that these three public interest groups appear to be challenging the proposals of Georgetown and iBiquity with more "reasonable" public-centric proposals. I'd hope that the FCC would be more inclined to agree with Public Knowledge, Media Access Project and New America Foundation, as opposed to companies that just want a piece of the action.

[Read FCC Filing (PDF)]