In short? Yes, the FCC can. An article by the NAMCT highlights some interesting points that "some people" are trying to get the FCC to do just that.

Specifically, Saul Levine - the owner of KUSR-AM Beverly Hills, Calif.; KTIM-AM Piedmont, Calif.; and classical KMZT-FM Los Angeles - filed a Petition for Rulemaking to amend Part 25 of the FCC?s pending satellite radio rules to include an indecency provision. He also feels that satellite radio is subject to Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 1464, which prohibits broadcasting indecent material between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Why does Mr. Levine think he can get away with this? Well, according to his petition, the FCC already has subjected satellite radio to Equal Employment Opportunity and political broadcasting rules and policies. So why stop there? Since the FCC has already put satcasters on notice that it ?may adopt additional public-interest requirements at a later date?, we should just slap them with every restriction possible!

Now, the FCC technically does have the authority to apply the indecency statute to satellite. Because a piece of the spectrum that satellite operators currently broadcast over was granted - not paid for - which places it as part of public airwaves. Since that slice of spectrum is public, the FCC can attach indecency regulations to it. But there's a lot of doubt that the FCC will follow through with this craziness.

Levine eventually has a bit of penis envy as he stated, "When I heard him (Howard Stern) say he was going to destroy radio, that he was going to kill it, I decided I had to fight back to protect the radio industry. I have three stations and over a million listeners a week. . . If they can say dirty words, we want to be able to too." Not that he ever would, he adds. But, "everybody else in the radio industry is running around like scared sheep. I am not going to just sit back."

Better to reign in hell, than to serve in heaven eh?

Rumor has it that Satellite Radio will be the gift of choice this season. Audiographics goes so far as to say

"Both Sirius and XM Satellite Radio are going to have happy holidays, because a satellite radio subscription (and receiver) will be the adult toy this year."

Rumor or not, why wouldn't satrad be an excellent gift of choice for adults this Holiday Season? With the receivers getting smaller and smaller, the marketing hype and hoopah at full tilt, and the programming getting 'more gooder' everyday - this season is ripe for satellite radio to break out.

Frank Giovinazzi of the American International Automobile Dealers wrote an 'open letter' to Howard Stern fans preaching that "Radio is dead. Long live radio!".

An interesting note of the article is that the conversion rates from free trial period (offered by many car manufacturers) to paid subscription is currently running high. The article notes that satellite radio hasn?t even reached critical mass yet.

While far from an 'open letter', this editorial provides an interesting insight into the development of satellite radio and it's potential for evolving into a common household technology.

Today's Chicago Sun-Times article, When the FCC gags come off, highlights what I consider to be the most advantageous aspect of satellite radio: unrestricted content.

Highlighting XM Satellite Radio's show Opie and Anthony, Sirius Satellite Radio's current hip-hop 'shocker' Shade 45, and of course the upcoming debut of Howard Stern in January 2006 - the underlying concept stands out: you can finally listen to radio in the same format that you speak with each other.

It has less to do with how 'shocking' these 'shock jocks' can get, and more on freeing up the ability to listen to content in an Adult format.

WLS-AM (890) afternoon host Roe Conn says, "There is the 'Sopranos' school of thought. Which means that you can finally sound on the air like everybody around you sounds. In the office, people are always dropping the F-bomb or the S-word or the MF. ... So it sort of widens the boundaries to make you sound like everybody else is sounding."

"It's all about being able to discuss sometimes adult subject matter plain and clear," Anthony Cumia of Opie & Anthony says, "without having to go through all the ritual that you would have to go through on traditional broadcast radio just to make the point, just to get the conversation started, to get people up to speed as to what you're talking about."

It's about time!!

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission opened a hearing today into domestic satellite radio licence proposals. This will spark a complicated debate about how to impose Canadian content rules on technologies that know no boundaries, who controls the airwaves, and how best to support and promote Canadian performers.

There are three players in this debate:
Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. - a joint venture with the largest U.S. satellite radio firm XM Satellite Radio.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Standard Radio Inc. - joined with Sirius Satellite Radio.
CHUM Ltd. - partnered with Astral Media. The CHUM Subscription Radio Canada differs from the others because it plans to distribute signals from land-based transmitters, and it would be available only in the larger Candian cities.

To add to the confusion, the CHUM Subscription is different in that the technlogy isn't the same approach as XM Radio or Sirius. CHUM signals will be received on radios equipped to pick up digital radio transmissions - different from those designed for satellite signals.

Part of the debate is the growing Candian "grey market" with satellite radio - Canadian residents who use U.S. based postal address to gain access to satellite radio. Brian Sharwood, a principal at communications consultant Seaboard Group in Toronto, said the grey-market threat is, in fact, significant, and he predicts there will be many illegal users of the U.S. Sirius and XM services if they don't get a Canadian licence.

?Right now, XM and Sirius are playing nice,? he said

One issue that is bound to be raised at the hearing - of course - is the control and monitoring of questionable or offensive content. With Howard Stern coming to Sirius in 2006, and Opie & Anthony already shocking the XM Radio waves, this is bound to be a heated aspect of consideration for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Business Week's recent article, Satellite Radio Shoots The Moon, highlights last month's flurry of recent activity involving the two major Satellite Radio providers. With Sirius' much publicized $500mil for Howard Stern, and XM's counterattack of $650mil for Major League Baseball - both companies committed to over $1 Billion in programming in a single month.

Amazing considering neither has yet to pull in a dime in profit:
"As if a reminder was necessary, on Oct. 27 Sirius reported that its third-quarter net loss widened by nearly 60% to $169.4 million."

Since analysts don't expect either XM or Sirius to generate a profit until 2008 at the earliest, it's going to be a long haul of spending and promoting.

Read the article for more...