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!

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)]

According to various sources, the supply of XM Satellite Radio's retail products appears to be running thin, and some products have even run to the end of their life.

The RoadyXT, once seen as a technological accomplishment when it was unvealed in 2005, along with the fan-favorite SkyFi2 are now officially "end of life," and no more units are available from major distributors, according to people familiar with the matter. UPDATE: I was just told that "there are still plenty" of RoadyXT/SkyFi2 units out there, but that Best Buy and Circuit City have stopped selling them a while ago.

Additionally, according to sources, new Pioneer Innos have been back-ordered from Pioneer for about two months now, and fresh stock won't be available until mid-June at the earliest. The aging Inno, now 2-years old, was also once considered a gadget-lover's dream.

Back in Fall of last year, XM CEO Nate Davis told Reuters that the company plans to introduce new portable receivers in 2008, citing a strategy to partner with GPS and mobile phone providers.

Sadly, nearly six-months into the year, we have yet to see any evidence of this (unless you consider the BlackBerry deal as fulfilling the latter).

So what gives? Has XM completely abandoned the retail market?

At least Sirius has released the Stiletto 2 and apparently has plans for new receivers like the Stratus 5 and the Starmate 5. Yes, they don't look like leaps in technology, but at least it's something.

Where is XM's new portable radio? Where's the "new Inno"? What the hell is XM thinking?

At one point, I had learned that a "new Inno" was indeed in development - featuring additional buttons and a larger connector. Unsurprisingly, the next-generation device was also to have some RIAA-limiting functionality that would only allow for "disaggregating" of songs recorded individually, not recorded as a channel. But since then, the buzz has gone silent, and I don't know if it's even still in the works.

Now business is business. It's understandable that the current state of retail doesn't support the case to dedicate a large budget to R&D and the release of new devices. But, at some point, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't come out with new products, don't be surprised when sales continue to decline.

There's value to further developing sleek new gadgets, even if they don't fly off the shelves. Consider them to be "flagship" products - much like the Corvette is to Chevy, or the Viper is to Dodge. Sure, they don't sell as much as a mini-van, but they keep your company in the top-of-mind - especially with enthusiasts.

A touchscreen portable device with gigs upon gigs of storage may be expensive, and only sell a paltry number of units (though, at a high margin), but it certainly doesn't position your company as being stale.

Don't be like terrestrial radio. Don't relegate your service strictly to vehicles. Don't be isolated to devices that people scoff at. And most importantly, don't allow a merger to get in the way of growing a business.

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]

Michael Meece, of the aptly named Meece Group LLC., held a telephone conversation with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Wednesday on behalf of Georgetown Partners.

On the same day, Meece had another phone conversation with Commissioner McDowell's legal adviser. Both conversations were revealed in FCC filings [1, 2] made public today.

Meece, a former White House aide who once was a top contender to become a FCC Commissioner, also apparently has ties to Kevin Martin. Both Michael Meece and Kevin Martin serve on the board of the early-stage venture capital fund TDF.

Meece's services have also been retained by ICO Global Communication and Mobile Satellite Ventures, among others.

But it's the fact that Meece and Martin both serve on the board of TDF that raises the question of a conflict of interest. I'm no lawyer, nor am I familiar with any federal restrictions, but I feel that any business relationship between a lobbyist and the Chairman of the FCC should be put under scrutiny.

[TDF]
Thanks Gary!

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)]

Sirius Satellite Radio has entered into an agreement with Formula One Management to become the exclusive North American radio broadcaster of all Formula 1 (F1) races.

Sirius' F1 schedule kicks off this weekend with live coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, May 25th at 8am ET on Sirius channel 125. Often referred to as the crown jewel of F1, the Monaco Grand Prix is one of the only street circuits in use.

The FIA Formula 1 World Championship is the highest end of open wheeled motor racing and a single season can consist of a series of 18 races, known as Grands Prix, run from March to November on road course circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. The cars race at high speeds, exceeding 200 mph, and the results of each race are combined to determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers and one for constructors (teams).

Sirius will broadcast the entire remainder of the 2008 calendar's races live nationwide on Sirius 125, including the first-ever F1 night race, being held in Singapore on September 28th.

Click the jump to see the full schedule...

Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today voicing their concerns about the pending merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

While the merger was "recently approved" (that is... nearly two months ago) by the Justice Department, the Senators say that they believe the merger "could possibly undermine competition and harm the consumer if certain conditions are not applied."

McCaskill (pictured) and Snowe urge the FCC apply a list of conditions that the Senators say would ensure "competition and fairness in the marketplace."

Their merger conditions include:

• Spectrum Divestiture: "up to half"
• Open Access: to ensure that manufacturers are "not locked or blocked," including somehow preventing the "integration of high-definition [sic] (HD) radio reception"
• Localism Preservation: "Local news, weather and political information are essential to our communities and should not be undermined by national programming."
  

Sounds like someone is being, ahem, "influenced" by the NAB doesn't it?

[Read the Letter (PDF) via FMQB]

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Lou Reed will host his own weekly show, entitled "Lou Reed's New York Shuffle," on Sirius starting this Saturday, May 17th.

"Lou Reed's New York Shuffle" will feature an eclectic mix of music running the gamut from jazz to vintage rock, and everything in-between. Reed will co-host the show with music producer Hal Willner, who recently collaborated with Reed on the concert film Berlin.

Lou Reed said, "For years, I've always been a fan of eclectic radio, such as FM radio in the past when you could hear stations play widely divergent music, ranging from rock to country to jazz to opera. I loved the days when DJs who did their own programming set the bar high. I learned from these DJs and it's a delight, with my friend Hal Willner, to do this type of radio today on Sirius. We will try to bring Sirius' listeners audio from all parts of the world that covers the whole musical spectrum."

In the 1960s, Lou Reed led the Velvet Underground as the antidote to the counterculture hippies of the time. Produced by Andy Warhol, they became a band with an avante-garde vision beyond the realms of popular music.

In addition to Reed's success as part of the Velvet Underground, he scored a major solo hit with his gritty urban anthem "Walk on the Wild Side" and has released over 20 solo albums since 1972. Lou Reed's talents were recognized in 1996 when the Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2006, he played a series of now legendary shows at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, on a stage designed by the painter Julian Schnabel. Reed's performance was recorded live and released as a film by Schnabel in 2008. Lou Reed most recently collaborated with The Killers on the alternative rock hit, "Tranquilize."

"Lou Reed's New York Shuffle" will air on Sirius Disorder (ch 70), Saturdays at 6pm ET. Encore broadcasts will air on Sundays at 12-noon ET and Mondays at 4pm ET.

Pictured: Lou Reed answers questions from the audience at the 'Celebrating Berlin With Lou Reed At The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival' held inside the Directors Guild Theater on May 4, 2008 in New York City. Photo Credit: Getty Images.