Crucified by the FCC again. Not!

Yesterday Howard talked briefly about the fact that Chairman Kevin Martin said that the FCC will not allow XM and Sirius to merge. (I have been predicting for some time that they will merge soon.)

FCC Bozo Speaks

Martin is a Bush appointed Republican stooge whose only interest is helping those who already control the airwaves and has no interest in promoting new technology like satellite that might hurt established business interests, like traditional radio, and promote free speech. He has made it clear time and time again that he works for the money, not for the people, which is suppose to be his job. HIs attack dismissing in advance any proposed merger should be enough to disqualify him from being able to rule on it, but I'm sure he isn't really concerned with legal ethics.

Just so there is no confusion, Republican Robert M. McDowell, a true hero on the FCC, refused under huge pressure to rule on the merger of ATT and Bell South because of a prior conflict of interest. Just because you're a Republican doesn't mean your a jerk. But Martin is a jerk.

And he's an idiot. First of, there aren't any real legal grounds to prevent a merger, and I'm sure XM and Sirius could fight the FCC in court.

Second, there isn't any reason they would have to.

Howard, it should be noted, didn't seem too upset about the announcement. Almost as if he already knew about it and knew what the answer was. And he talked about it on air. If the FCC wants to play hard ball, XM and Sirius don't have to merge their hardware.

They could simply merge their programming.

And what programming would that be? The only programming that really seems to move customers. Howard fucking Stern. Oh, and maybe sports. But the rest really doesn't matter. The music channels are already almost exactly the same. Even if the FCC wants to stop an official merger of XM and Sirius, there is absolutely nothing illegal (or requiring a hint of FCC approval) for XM to lincense the rights to broadcast Howard on XM along with his Sirius broadcast.

And why would XM do that? Because they have to. Their ship is slowly sinking. To keep their business alive, they need the life line Howard could throw them. What's in it for Sirius? Money, yes, but also access to XM sports.

So once again, Howard has outfoxed the FCC. This latest advance attack didn't even get more than a brief mention on his show because he's already way ahead of them.

A merger by just another name…

As I've said, hold on to your Sirius stock. More news is coming soon.

Mary DeSade