Primosphere was profiled recently on Radio & Records about their latest attempts to get back into the industry as part of the Sirius and XM merger.

Partners Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, who also operate Q Prime in New York, told R&R that they want the FCC to live up to the original rules and have at least two different license holders. And they want to be one of them. 

The company was one of the original SDARS bidders alongside Digital Satellite Broadcasting Service, CD Radio and American Mobile Satellite Radio Service. Each paid the government $70,000 for two "satellite slots," recalls Burnstein. But while CD Radio and American Satellite, which became Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., ultimately won the spectrum, Primosphere never had its original $140,000 deposit returned, according to Burnstein.

On the current proceedings, Burnstein told R&R he could not get a read on the FCC merger decision based on its recent meetings, but it was clear to him that FCC officials are "uncomfortable with a single provider."

What about the minority owned Georgetown Partners? They have had a similar request and numerous meetings with the Commission, but Burnstein says: "they don't have any standing in this."

"We have a legal standing even if it is by a thread," he said, adding that Primosphere doesn't need funding and could be up and running with newly built studio space within six months. However, Primosphere would need the merged entity lease some technology for uplink and downlink capability for its programming to satellite receivers.

Primosphere's programming would be advertising-based and would offer about 30 channels of mostly music programming, forecasts Burnstein. He says Primosphere's "will come at this from a music and programming perspective."

Burnstein's goal - while admittedly "a little bit idealistic" - is "to serve the underserved."

[Radio & Records]

The founder of Sirius Satellite Radio, Martine Rothblatt, was profiled recently by the Associated Press in a rare interview.

Martine Rothblatt explained to the AP that her 1980 MBA thesis at UCLA was essentially the blueprint for her first company, PanAmSat, which created a satellite-based vehicle tracking system.

Rothblatt then wanted to create the radio equivalent to cable television, a "cable on wheels." Most of the technology was already in existence, Rothblatt said.

Still, engineers told her there were too many technological impediments; others said the business model was flawed.

Undaunted, Rothblatt eventually convinced the FCC to devote a slice spectrum to satellite radio. But the FCC insisted a competing company, which eventually became XM, be given some of the bandwidth so that Rothblatt's company would not enjoy a monopoly.

Martine Rothblatt moved on from satellite radio, founding United Therapeutics in a desperate battle to save her daughter's life. Now, the AP reports, that while still running United Therapeutics Rothblatt devotes much of her spare time and energy "to perhaps the ultimate challenge: defeating death itself."

[Newsvine via RWOnline]