“I did hear from them actually,” Stern said on the program. “I got sort of a threatening kind of comment from one of the executives. I was laughing my ass off…I said do not tell me not to talk about Jay Leno. I will f–ing talk about Jay for four hours if you tell me not to. I was done with Jay, now I’m all fired up again. F— Jay. Take my job away from me. Who cares?”

“I will never, ever endorse Jay…” Stern said.

“They basically accused me of not knowing anything about the budget cuts, and I’m like of course I…I have theories…so what if I don’t know about the budget cuts? I’ll make it like I do know about it,” Stern said on the program.

“I don’t answer to anybody,” he said. “Everyone knows that. That’s part of the game. And that’s why I’m a great f—ing judge. I will tell people if they suck.”

“It’s pretty obvious I don’t know anything about the budget cuts over at NBC,” he noted. “So who cares what I think? Nobody cares what I think. Nobody takes seriously what I think.”

At one point in the show, Stern said, “Jay Leno’s the biggest wuss on the planet. He’s a backstabbing c–bag that I don’t give a s— about. I don’t care who I work for.”

As long as it’s available, you can listen to the segment via the following YouTube clip (hat tip to Business Insider):

The other day, DolphinsTalk tweeted at Stern, suggesting NBC is now messing with him on America’s Got Talent:

Follow @DolphinsTalk

DolphinsTalk.com
@DolphinsTalk

@HowardStern What’s up with NBC not showing your new hand signal the other night when Nick announced you? NBC messing with you again?

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3 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

To which he replied:

Follow @HowardStern

Howard Stern
@HowardStern

Attempting again this week rt @DolphinsTalk: @HowardStern What’s up nbc not showing your new hand signal the other night NBC messing with u

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3 days ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto

"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."

"They have voluntarily committed to setting forth price constraints, so the prices for consumers do not increase; smaller packages at lower prices; an open standard for radios; the sale of interoperable radios; and additional public-interest programming for noncommercial use and for qualified entities that have not been traditionally represented."

The smaller packages are part of the companies plan to offer programming similar to a la carte model the chairman supports and as a way to lower prices and increase choice for multichannel radio and TV. Those packages would be available about three months after the merger’s approval.

The two companies have committed to not raising prices for 36 months, to provide interoperable radios within a year of the merger’s approval  and dedicate 8 percent of their spectrum for noncommercial use.

The merger deal, offers 4.6 shares of Sirius for every XM share, is valued at around $7.54 billion, down from $11.4 billion when first announced in February 2007.
 

 Kevin Martin And The FCC Up Next

"[T]he evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and Sirius is likely to substantially lessen competition, and . . . the transaction therefore is not likely to harm consumers," according to a formal statement issued by the government entity.

Granted, the satellite radio market will be wrapped up.  Yet the DoJ took "AM/FM radio, HD Radio, MP3 players (e.g., iPods), and audio offerings delivered through wireless telephones" into consideration.  Add CD players and even in-car computers onto the list, if you like, and we wind up with a laundry list of options that should keep the combined XM-Sirius business from getting too strong.

Also, the DoJ believed cost savings will prevent the combined firm from trying to raise prices, anyway.  The two companies should be able to avoid, or at least streamline, a number of expenses after they begin working together.

A successful merger still depends on the FCC’s approval, but that isn’t seen as a major problem.  After more than a year of PR efforts and thumb-twiddling, it may not be too much longer until the companies instead have to focus on equipment compatibility issues.

 Specter Sees Resolution Happening Soon

During an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Senator Arlen Specter "said . . . a decision should reached by the end of the month," according to an Orbitcast article, which then added, "to his knowledge."

It’s not the strongest possible confirmation – Pat Leahy is actually the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairman, and Specter’s statement puts uncomfortably narrow (and yet nonspecific) time restrictions on the matter.  But Specter is hardly out of the loop, so we may see something happen soon.

Also, in terms of what that something will be, it seems at least one important onlooker believes the merger will be approved.  As reported by Eric Savitz, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst stated, "The FCC rumblings bolster our sense that the DOJ will likely clear the deal followed by FCC approval with conditions."

Customers and investors surely remain anxious to see what happens; the stocks representing both XM and Sirius have risen quickly in the past couple of days.

A gain of 38 percent in one year’s time is quite good; it brings the total number of subscribers to over 8.3 million, and Mel Karmazin, Sirius’s CEO, stated, "[O]ur gross subscriber additions in 2007 were the highest in the history of satellite radio."

But satellite radio has been around for how long, exactly?  And even if Sirius’s only serious competitor, XM, had grabbed bragging rights to subscriber additions, Sirius intends to merge with XM.

Also, in reference to a Sirius press release, Douglas A. McIntyre adds, "What it did not mention is that it also exited the year with about $1.3 billion in debt and $2.2 billion in total liabilities."

So let the arguments continue.  Just a tip to Sirius (and/or Ron Paul), however: if a few Audi R8s equipped with satellite radio were to show up outside WebProNews’s headquarters, we’d likely be in an optimistic mood for months on end.

Howard Stern and his merry band of entertainers could be looking at shifts in the corporate structure if Google were to deliver on what’s either a really hot rumor or a mischief making writer spinning out the end of a long Friday.

The rumor first appeared on ClickZ, with Zachary Rodgers stirring the pot on a blog entry:

A high profile source is pretty convinced ol’ Goog is on the verge of snapping up Sirius Radio. Heard anything of the sort?

Well, no, honestly, and neither has anyone else, it seems. If it is in the cards for Google to buy itself a satellite outlet for its dMarc/AdWords radio advertising, several things have to happen.

Seeking Alpha blogger Tyler Savery said the proposed merger of Sirius with satellite radio rival XM could get in the way:

So while Google buyouts are fun to consider, any company trying to buy either Sirius or XM would have to do so with very limited cooperation from either company. That adds risk to such a transaction.

Thanks to the various bureaucratic gymnastics involved in the Sirius-XM merger proposal, Savery thinks that deal could be approved and wrapped up before the end of the year. Perhaps Google will be able to deliver Sirius as a holiday gift to its employees and shareholders.

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

But, I’m probably one of the only bloggers who’s owned both a Sirius and an XM radio (my new Saturn has XM, my old Ford had Sirius). I can’t tell the difference between the two networks. Well, other than the channels’ numbers are different. So, I don’t see any great loss if these two systems merge.

Oh, great, I just pissed off all the NASCAR, Adam Curry, and Howard Stern fans who’ll write and remind me that those things are only on Sirius. OK, OK.

I love my satellite radio, but that AUX connector for iPods and Zunes on both of our cars has a strong calling too. I agree with Doc that listening to media you chose is a powerful thing. We have thousands of choices (maybe millions) and using an MP3 player we can listen to what we want, when we want it.

That said, I like the serendipity of listening to stuff I wouldn’t otherwise listen to. That, and podcasting won’t be able to compete with live news over CNBC or BBC or CNN.

Oh, on my Saturn I’ve already put 2,100 miles on the thing. Great car. Maryam’s mom likes riding in it better than she likes riding in the BMW (much more leg room in the back and softer ride). Oh, and the parking attendant at San Francisco’s Fairmont paid it a nice compliment. I’ve never gotten a compliment while driving the BMW. Of course, the fact that he probably parks a hundred BMWs in a day might have something to do with the compliment.

Me? Driving the BMW is more fun, but then I remind myself that I can buy two Saturns for the price of one BMW and all of a sudden the Saturn seems a lot better again.

Long and short of it? Neither system has that many subscribers. Most of my friends don’t have satellite radio. I doubt more than a small percentage of you do either. I bet more of you have HDTVs. Translation: this story doesn’t deserve the amount of pixels being killed for it.

Oh, if this all wasn’t clear: I love my satellite radio and can’t imagine a car without it anymore. But, then, I spend a LOT of time driving lately and I live in a place where radio signals don’t reach very well.

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But then I switch over to NPR and, whoa, Chris Anderson is on talking about the Long Tail.

Hey, Chris, can you get the Wall Street Journal to say our book sucks too? ; )

All your media are belong to us. Or, there’s snakes in the ************* plane. Or something like that.

Anyway, there is a serious (er, Sirius) point to all this.

The online (er “new”) media is starting to leak into the mainstream “old” media.

What I think everyone is missing in the “Digg” version of the world is that we’ve built a farm system for media now that anyone can make media.

I’ve been listening to a LOT of “anyone media” and I can tell you that the Long Tail will NOT roar here. Most video blogs and podcasts just aren’t high enough quality to get a large audience. But, don’t write them off cause of that. The Long Tail does have a huge positive aspect:

The Long Tail is a stair system to the head!

Someone who does have talent can use it to walk up the curve from where only family and friends will watch all the way up to main stream media where millions are listening.

If you think Ze Frank is gonna remain in the Long Tail for very long your latte is a lot stronger than mine is today – by the way, don’t miss the announcement that he made in today’s show, he’s building social software to let you do things with people near you. We all know that people who don’t blink are gonna take over the media world.

Now, if you’re content to have your video blog stay at #1309 out of the 1,400 on vlogmap, then that’s cool. But some really have dreams of being at the head of the tail. Why? Cause that’s where the money is.

I learned that in the book business. The books who are in the top 5 on Amazon make many times more than books that hang out around #1,000 to #5,000 as we’ve been doing lately. And, being at #5,000 is a great honor cause there’s more than one million books on Amazon.

I’m looking for people who are walking up the Long Tail. Are you? Give me a call.

Oh, and unlike other community sites I believe deeply that you should get paid for the value you’re creating for the company that you’re adding to (Leo Laporte makes a good case for the other point of view). There are ways to hand out goodies equally to all members, but to say “I ain’t paying anyone” seems to me to be the kind of capitalist who just wants free materials and huge profits. It’s why I hated the time I heard all the CEOs say “user generated content” at the Google Zeitgeist conference last year since they were all seeing huge profit possibilities by having users do the work and they just collect the profits.

Anyway, we’re here in Silicon Valley and I’m overwhelmed with email. So, I’m gonna take a few days off of blogging and catch up with that.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

Go to Scobleizer …

I think the Stern deal will go down in history as one of the best business moves ever made.

If Sirius hadn’t signed Howard Stern they would be about 2 million subscribers lighter. At $12.95 a month that is $155.40 per year totaling over $310 million generated by Stern the first year alone. Profits will come over time similar to cable television. Stern has single-handedly made Sirius the hip service everone wants while leaving XM for the older crowd. Howard Stern has clearly changed the competive landscape making XM the satelite radio company most likely not to survive.

The numbers tell the story … Sirius is signing up retail subscribers at a 2-1 pace over XM. One bright spot is that XM still has the most exclusive auto relationships, but they will be expiring over the next few years. However, even with those deals XM is losing money because of heavy discounting.

XM clearly needs its own Howard Stern. Congratulations Sirius!

Disagree or Agree? Comment in my blog … WebProBlog.com

Rich Ord is the CEO of iEntry, Inc. which publishes over 200 websites and email newsletters.

Rich also publishes his blog WebProBlog which focuses on internet business and marketing trends.

The New York subscription-based satellite radio company said Mark Cuban’s Radio Maverick will air Sundays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Sirius channel 102. Sirius said Mr. Cuban, a billionaire technology entrepreneur who bought the Dallas Mavericks basketball team in 2000, will take calls from listeners and talk with guests while discussing sports, business and everyday life.

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.