“It’s time for Howard Stern to podcast” says Mark Ramsey of the Hear 2.0 blog.

While Ramsey agrees that this week’s “free trial” event was a good first step, a weekly podcast would spur subscriber growth over the long haul.

This would be an easy way to create a SIRIUS iPod without Apple’s consent. By the end of the year, more than 67 million iPods will have been sold since its launch five years ago. That’s a huge niche to exploit.

A free daily Stern podcast is a good idea because it would remind people of what they are not hearing. In Stern’s case, Ramsey suggests that absence does not make the heart grow fonder. “Unless you know what you’re missing, right now, you don’t know,” he said. It would draw new subscribers to Sirius.

Ramsey said it’s inevitable satellite radio companies are looking to the Net for growth. “Who is better positioned to bring a national assortment of brands that are recognized in a way that’s easy,” he explained. “They’re both going to go in that direction. It’s going to be less about the bird and more about the Net.”

You can read excerpts and listen to his full interview with MarketWatch here.

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Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer celebrated their first anniversary this week.

Ryan at Orbitcast had a chance to talk to the girls.

Check out a few of their new website and fan sites below. Or tune in Monday - Friday, 5pm to 7pm ET on channel 112.

Whatever Fan Network

Whatever Radio Blog

Whatever on MySpace

Keep up the good work.

SIRIUS came through for all Halloween fans by offering several Halloween specials. Thanks guys!

SIRIUS Halloween Radio
Channel 116
6:00 am – 3:00 am ET

SIRIUS Halloween Radio is a ground-breaking new radio station that will exist just for Halloween day, playing uninterrupted atmospheric and thrilling Halloween sound effects. A catchy, creepy, fun background for Halloween parties at work or at home, to listen to in the car driving around the neighborhood trick-or-treating, and to play in the house and front yard as trick-or-treaters come over. Kid-friendly spooky noises include creaking doors, wolves baying, footsteps, bubbling potions, fog horn, breaking glass, being chased through the woods, eerie screams, echo of dripping water, heart beating, slow walk and thunder and lightening.

Martha Stewart Happy Halloween Special
Channel 112
Happy Halloween Special 2:00 pm ET
Morning Living 7:00 – 9:00 am ET
Afternoon Living 3:00 – 5:00 pm ET
Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer 5:00 – 7:00 pm ET

On the Martha Stewart Happy Halloween Special Martha and her team of experts will share their creative and original tips for pumpkin carving, decorating ideas, choosing a costume, safe trick-or-treating and fun party foods. Morning Living and Afternoon Living will feature interviews with a real witch and a real ghost hunter. Morning Living will also feature two fun and timely segments: All About Bats and The History of Halloween Candy. Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer will feature Halloween surprises. And Martha’s radio team will travel to a famous graveyard in Brooklyn to search for ghosts.

RadioClassics Halloween Spooktacular
Channel 118
War of the Worlds, October 30 at 8:00 pm ET

The RadioClassics Halloween Spooktacular will feature the original, unedited version of War of the Worlds on the very same day and time it originally aired in 1938. The horror will continue Halloween Day with programs like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Werewolf and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde featuring famed actors Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Gregory Peck, and Burt Lancaster.

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Source: The Marley Group

Already leading the satellite radio industry in net subscriber additions for the past four quarters, Sirius Internet Radio should help bolster additions in the all important retail sales category, which has been dominated by Sirius since the signing of Howard Stern. It is reasonably optimistic to believe that this service could yield between 200,000 and 500,000 subscriber additions by the end of 2007. With a monthly fee of $12.95, that would translate to an additional $31,000,000 to $77,000,000 in annual subscription revenue.

200,000 subs from now until the end of 2007 seems realistic. Particularly if SIRIUS continues to add value, such as ways to stream to other devices in your home, and niche channels not available over the satellite network.

Read the full article.

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There’s Maxim Magazine, Maxim Radio on SIRIUS, so why not Maxim Prime?

In a partnership with Jeffrey Chodorow’s China Grill Management, at least 15 Maxim Prime restaurants will open over five years, the first in spring.

The deal is part of the media company’s strategy to bolster its bottom line through licensing the well-known brand name for other ventures. The men’s magazine has also put its brand on shower curtains, furniture and a soon-to-be-built casino.

While the magazine features foxy females, restaurant patrons shouldn’t expect scantily clad servers. The chain will not be a Hooters (known for servers in shorts cut high and shirts cut low). Maxim Prime will be more upscale and intimate. “Sexy but sophisticated,” Chodorow says. “They’re not going to be airy, light places.”

Source: USA Today

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Chris Walker at CocoonTech.com has tried the Conductor first hand. Here’s some of this thoughts:

UEI and Sirius brought these out at a dinner party a few weeks ago, and they are really, really cool. Basically, you put the radio receiver part in your media cabinet, and then the remote communicates with it via Z-Wave — and the display on the remote has a 3-line display showing the categories, station, current song, etc.

I never really liked having to turn on my TV to change channels on the Satellite Radio receiver from across the room. Now, I could do it from any room in the house–and the IR connector on the receiver would let me control the volume on my AV receiver too (all via Z-Wave, hopping through my home network).

Plus, the remote is a very nice universal remote–so you can also control your TV, DVR, etc. the old fashioned way.

Pretty nifty. This unit uses the Z-Wave “AV control” and “external screen” (aka “screen metadata”) functionality, and you’ll be able to control it from software applications on your PC as well.

Crutchfield is taking preorders.

Source: CocoonTech.com

Comment here.

SIRIUS fans are wondering why there’s no Halloween themed music on the lineup. The strange thing is that it wasn’t always this way.

Here’s a blast from the past, SIRIUS’ Halloween Specials from 2002. The Galaxy (formerly on Ch 100) did a ‘War of the World’s’ broadcast in 2002. And here’s a few more specials from 2003.

Backstage member 7Aaron posted:

Excellent idea! One of the things I liked every year on Halloween morning, WTIX in New Orleans would play 4 straight hours of halloween/horror type music. Stuff like Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, Werewolves of London, Spooky, Love Potion #9, Purple People Eater, Thriller, the theme songs of some horror movies + anything else you can think of that fits the theme of Halloween.

XM on the other hand seems to have some fun with it every year.

Read the requests and offer your opinion.

Source: Satellite Standard Group

Mr. Rehr, perhaps your energies would be better focused on improving the content that you deliver. After all, the music you play is royalty free. This gives you a distinct advantage over satellite radio, which pays royalties on every song they play. Surely you can make that work to your advantage somehow (we wont get into all of the payola). Hopefully you will also begin to see that you are attacking millions upon millions of people who have made their listening desires clear.

Some powerful words from SSG in a letter to NAB head David Rehr. You can read the full letter here.

NAB president David Rehr recently sent letters to the FCC, calling for investigations of SIRIUS and XM over ground repeaters and free trial offers.

Comment here.

Source: iMedia Law Blog

Contrary to earlier reports XM & Sirius digital satellite receivers bought in the U.S. will not be locked down in Canada.

Satellite radio just got a little cheaper in this country as XM Radio Canada has informed Digital Home Canada that it will activate satellite radio receivers purchased in the United States provided the listener resides in Canada.

The change in policy means that grey marketers will be able to convert to XM Radio Canada without having to buy new receivers, and more importantly it means that Canadians will have access to the same radios which are being sold in the United States.

Here’s the full article via Digital Home.

Comment here.

It appears that SIRIUS Canada is poised to launch a new subscriber panel, the SIRIUS Sound Board, as a portal to mine data and recruit audience feedback.

I was able to register for the Sound Board, though a Canadian postal code is required.

After logging in, there are no “open studies”, or surveys, to complete at this time.

It appears that the Sound Board will be one-way communication, so that complaints or negative feedback from other panel members is not viewable to all.

Possible incentives listed include:

• A chance to win SIRIUS lifetime subscriptions
• Valuable discounts on SIRIUS merchandise
• Sneak peeks of new SIRIUS products, programming and promotions
• An opportunity to be sent periodic updates on research

I do give SIRIUS Canada credit for taking the initiative toward online community, even in this very early incarnation.

Vision Critical is the developer behind the Sound Board.

Comment here.