The NAB President/CEO David Rehr sent two letters to the FCC on Monday calling for probes into XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

In his first letter (PDF), Rehr asked the FCC to "immediately commence a full investigation into both the actual and reported operations of Sirius and XM's terrestrial repeater networks."

XM and Sirius recently asked for a window of time to continue operating terrestrial repeaters that did not meet FCC regulations, allowing them time to correct the issue. "These latest disclosures reveal a persistent corporate (if not industry) circumvention of the FCC's regulations," Rehr wrote.

In his second letter (PDF), Rehr said that XM and Sirius currently have a "privileged regulatory position" because of "the expanding delivery of complimentary satellite radio services to nonsubscribers."

Rehr brought up the recent XM deal with Acura as well as Sirius' free online trial of Howard Stern. He adds that "drawing a regulatory distinction between satellite and traditional broadcast radio simply because satellite radio content is available on a subscription basis may no longer be justified." 

[via FMQB]

XM Satellite Radio's response to this is, "NAB's sole interest here is in trying to hamper competing services that offer consumers compelling choices that terrestrial radio can’t provide."

You can say that again. I thought satellite radio wasn't a threat? 

Remember the Sinus Buster commercial from last week that used such dirty, filthy and obscene language that it got the NAB in a tizzy? Well, it looks like the NAB got its way.

Sirius started bleeping the commercials shortly after the NAB whined about the commercial, stating that it's a supporting reason to get both Sirius and XM to do a complete recall of all their receivers. As a result of the mounting pressure, SiCap Industries (the makers of Sinus Buster) have decided to pull the commercial.

According to the press release, Sirius sales staff stated that "the situation is far more complicated than it seems."

Speaking the National Press Club in Washington, DC, NAB President and CEO David Rehr felt that it was appropriate to attack the satellite radio industry again. Further solidifying that the NAB is not all threatened by the growth potential of satellite radio, Rehr deferred to the numbers in hopes to prove his point:

"...let’s look at the facts. Satellite radio says it has at most 12 million subscribers. By contrast, 260 million people listened to local radio last week." 

The difference here is that satellite radio isn't saying they have 12 million subscribers (12.2  thankyouverymuch). This is fact. This number isn't based off of any extrapolated numbers based on a written diary, but on actual paying subscriptions.

If we want to compare extrapolated numbers, there are on average ~2 listeners per satellite radio subscriber, meaning the true number of comparison is over 24 Million listeners. That's roughly 10% of terrestrial radio's audience. Not bad when you compare an industry that's been around for 5 years, versus one that's been around for 80+ years.

Rehr goes on to bring up the "upwards of 500,000" satellite radio subscribers that "are in empty cars that sit in dealer parking lots." This is the same old song that Rehr has been singing. It's funny that an industry that dominated the 20th century and holds the ear of the majority of the U.S. population, is so concerned with such a relatively small number. It's in fact, very telling. Threatened? No, not at all.

You can read his speech here, or if you're so daring watch the video (RealPlayer) but honestly, it's not really worth it. 

If you listen to Howard Stern, you're well aware of Sinus Buster. Recently Sinus Buster has decided to utilize the power of uncensored radio and include dirty-dirty language in their latest ad spot. Normally I wouldn't think it's such a big deal, adult-language channels = adult-language commercials, so who cares. Most satellite radio listeners, at least after a couple months of listening, don't take adult-language all that seriously.

But the NAB does apparently.

The cheerleaders trade publication Inside Radio turned to the NAB for comments on this, because who else would YOU turn to for comments on a "no threat" industry? NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said that "this is a fairly predictable development, and serves as Exhibit A about why Sirius and XM should withdraw all devices in the marketplace that bleed their programming into over-the-air-stations."

Ugh.