Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin said he would back the merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio under voluntary conditions created by the two companies.

"As I have indicated before, this is an unusual situation," Martin said. "I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they’ve offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest."

The Department of Justice took long enough to make up its mind; both "no" and "yes" are pretty short words.  But in regards to the XM-Sirius merger, the DoJ finally landed on a drawn-out version of the latter.

For the sake of avoiding repetition, the words "may" and "might" aren’t going to appear in every sentence of this article.  Go ahead and mentally insert them, though, because this concerns the resolution of the long-uncertain XM-Sirius merger.

Ron Paul received 10 percent of the vote in the Iowa’s Republican caucus, and onlookers are busy debating about whether this is encouraging (because 10 percent isn’t insignificant) or a sign of defeat (because 10 percent isn’t nearly enough to win).  A similar (though much quieter) discussion is taking place over a 38 percent growth in Sirius’s subscriber base.

This hot little rumor has been bouncing around through the weekend: Google could be willing to purchase satellite radio provider Sirius.

Ahh, yes, I will jump on the bandwagon and talk about Sirius and XM merging. No, not so I too can get on the top of TechMeme (it’s too late to play that game, if you want to get to the top of TechMeme you’ve got to be early, or you’ve got to say something interesting about the news, like Doc Searls did).

Since I’m late and not interesting, we’ll give up on that game, OK? Heheh.

I was poking through the satellite radio stations on my Sirius radio when, whoa, Jason Calacanis’ voice was speaking at Maryam and I over Gillmor Gang. OK, that’s weird.

There is a lot of news today reporting on the latest quarterly financial report from Sirius. Most seem to be negative on Sirius and the money they are paying Howard Stern.

Billionaire tech entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, is getting his own radio show, according to the WSJ (sub).

Celebrity shock jock Howard Stern may prove himself to worth the half billion dollars SIRIUS Satellite radio spent on him. Since Stern defected from the FCC controlled airwaves, traffic to the SIRIUS website has ballooned, surpassing rival XM Radio, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

CBS Radio filed suit today against Howard Stern for $500 million for breach of contract and fraud.

Internet portal powerhouse Yahoo announced on Wednesday exclusive, Internet video coverage and an audio webcast of the party celebrating Stern’s moving to Sirius satellite radio.

Sirius Satellite Radio announced the release of their upcoming portable satellite radio device. It is called the Sirius S50, and is scheduled to come out in October.

For the first time, a satellite broadcaster will have its airplay impact the makeup of the Billboard Top 40.

My step mom is in town, so yesterday we drove for 10 hours through Northern Washington (went across the Cascades). Stunning scenery.

A recent decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will be appealed by a self-proclaimed media watchdog group.

Canadian radio listeners will have the opportunity to subscribe to a pair of satellite radio providers.

Adding to the ever-expanding lexiconical (lexiconal? lexiconiferous?) universe that cyberspace has berthed, the most recent newborn phenomenon of “podcasting” has caused radio giant Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and Viacom’s Infinity Broadcasting to develop a whole new brand of radio.

On the heals of Infinity Broadcasting’s recent news, Sirius Satellite Radio will announce tomorrow that it’s getting into the podcasting mix by teaming up …

Todd over at the A Penny For Blog, shares some great insights on word of mouth marketing (WOM). Check it out.

Mitsubishi Motors North America announced an exclusive agreement with SIRIUS Satellite Radio to offer satellite radio as a factory-installed option in various Mitsubishi models.

Sirius Satellite Radio is going to begin broadcasting NASCAR events live in 2007 on a new channel.