Political talk programming from all corners can be found on SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio delivers in-depth and diverse coverage 24/7 of all the action in Iowa and New Hampshire with political talk, analysis and opinion spanning liberal, conservative, African-American and GLBT perspectives.

Highlights include:

• SIRIUS Left’s Alex Bennett reporting live from Iowa and New Hampshire. Bennett goes “inside” two actual Iowa Caucuses for a firsthand account of the debate, discussion, and procedure. In Manchester, Alex Bennett broadcasts live inside the legendary Red Arrow Diner to speak with “everyday Americans” to gauge their interest, passion, and opinions. [SIRIUS Left channel 146, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm]

• Also on SIRIUS Left, Mark Thompson hosts Make it Plain, a political, human rights, and current events based program focusing on issues from an African-American point of view. [SIRIUS Left channel 146, 5:00 – 8:00 pm ET].

• SIRIUS Patriot channel 144 features the conservative voices of Bill Bennett, Andrew Wilkow, Sean Hannity, Mike Church, Mark Levin, and more. [SIRIUS Patriot channel 144, see below for full programming schedule].

• On SIRIUS OutQ, America’s first and only 24/7 radio channel for the GLBT community, Michelangelo Signorile fearlessly takes on the right wing, the media and the homophobes with hard-hitting and humorous talk. [SIRIUS OutQ channel 109, 2:00 – 6:00 pm ET]

Visit www.sirius.com/politicaltalk for the latest headlines and a daily lineup of guests for all SIRIUS political talk shows. Online media listening passcode available, please let us know if you are interested.

Complete programming lineup for SIRUS Left channel 146:

The Alex Bennett Program

∙Weekdays 9 am - Noon ET
∙”If I wanted a president who spits, wears cowboy boots, and can’t pronounce words correctly, I would have voted for a guest on Springer!” Alex Bennett is a self-proclaimed radio gadfly who brings unmistakable opinions, celebrity interviews, and great entertainment to SIRIUS Left.

The Bill Press Show

∙Weekdays 6 am - 9 am ET
∙Bill Press - former co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire” and MSNBC’s “Buchanan and Press” - brings his liberal agenda to SIRIUS for a brand new “liberal way” to start every weekday. Bill keeps the right wing in check, tells it like it is, and tackles all the hot issues with prominent and powerful guests from Capitol Hill and beyond.

The Thom Hartmann Show

∙Weekdays Noon - 1 pm & 1 am - 3 am ET
∙Thom Hartmann’s progressive approach uncovers corporate lies, rampant confusion in the offices of politicians, and exposes the “con” in conservative. Thom takes on pop culture, enthusiastically promotes democracy, and helps listeners make sense of the news.

Lynn Samuels

∙Weekdays 1 pm - 3 pm ET
∙Lynn Samuels, the fiercely liberal NYC talk radio legend, now speaks her mind five days a week…exclusively on SIRIUS Left. Lynn’s loyal audience knows her as a neighbor, the one who spouted liberal, smart opinions — with her signature Queens accent — as passionately to customers at her job at a Greenwich Village laundromat as she does to listeners on the radio.

The Ed Schultz Show

∙Weekdays 3 pm - 5 pm ET; Sundays 5 pm - 7 pm ET
∙Ed Schultz goes toe-to-toe with conservatives while injecting common sense, intelligence, and humor. Ed energizes the debate with razor-sharp views on life, politics, and people in America.

Mark Thompson’s Make It Plain

∙Weekdays 5 pm - 8 pm ET
∙Make It Plain, hosted by Mark Thompson (Matsimela Mapfumo) is a political, human rights, and current events based program focusing on issues from an African American point-of-view. Thompson passionately and provocatively moderates discussion with well-informed listeners and nationally known leaders and celebrities on pressing political, social, economic, cultural and spiritual issues.

The Stephanie Miller Show

∙Weekdays 8pm – 9 pm ET
∙Forty years after her father accepted the nomination to run alongside GOP Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (and lost) Stephanie Miller embarks on her own crusade. With her background in stand-up comedy, political satire, even late night TV, Stephanie Miller proudly accepts the duty of balancing out the “right-wing wackos” by joining the ranks of the “left-wing wackos.”

The Mike Malloy Show

∙Weekdays 9 pm - Midnight ET; Sundays 10 pm – Midnight ET
∙Mike Malloy is a traditional Democrat – working to return the party to its historic liberal roots.

Mike Feder

∙Saturdays 5 pm – 8 pm ET
∙For Mike Feder, freedom of speech is a religious principle. In more than 25 years on the air, he has tackled everything from politics to culture to religion from a liberal-left point of view. His interviews, critiques, rants and sermons on the state of the world are personal, compelling and transforming.

Complete programming lineup on SIRIUS Patriot channel 144:

Bill Bennett’s Morning in America

∙Weekdays 6 am - 10 am ET
∙Former Secretary of Education, best selling author, and respected commentator Bill Bennett hosts a fast-paced, issue-oriented talk show that tackles news, politics, culture, sports, media, and more. From influential guests to everyday citizens, Bill Bennett is having a conversation with America.

The Mike Church Show

∙Weekdays 9 am ET; Weekends 5 pm ET
∙Mike Church fearlessly skewers liberalism and the people that practice it. Its conservative analysis of today’s top issues with a biting, satirical wit… peppered with Mike’s original parody creations.

Andrew Wilkow

∙Weekdays Noon - 3 pm ET; Weekends 9 am - Noon ET
∙Raised during Reagan – suffered through Clinton… Andrew Wilkow - the next generation of conservative talk and undisputed leader of the “new school.”

The Sean Hannity Show

∙Weekdays 3 am & 3 pm ET; Weekends 3 am & 2 pm ET
∙There’s a new generation on the right side of the political spectrum. Every day, they exert more influence on American political, fiscal and social policy.

The Mark Levin Show

∙Weekdays 6 pm ET; Weekends 8 pm ET
∙Mark Levin is one of America’s preeminent conservative commentators and constitutional lawyers. He’s in great demand as a political and legal commentator, and has appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs. Levin is also a contributing editor for National Review Online, and writes frequently for other publications. Levin has served as a top advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet - including as Chief of Staff to the Attorney General of the United States. In 2001, the American Conservative Union named Levin the recipient of the Ronald Reagan Award. He currently practices law in the private sector, heading up the Landmark Legal Foundation in Washington DC.

The Michael Reagan Show

∙Weekdays 8 pm ET; Weekends 10 pm ET
∙Michael Reagan aggressively confronts issues affecting the nation with his sharp, unyielding opinions. The eldest son of former President Ronald Reagan, Michael cuts through the spin and brings perspective to everything from news to cultural matters.

Cam Edwards’ Cam & Company from NRANEWS.com

∙Weekdays 9 pm ET
∙ Cam Edwards covers breaking stories and current events as well as lively debate and discussion with lawmakers and newsmakers engaged in the battle to preserve American freedoms.

The G. Gordon Liddy Show

∙Weekends 6 am ET
∙While others may talk about the military, the FBI, the White House, and topics ranging from government to guns — G. Gordon Liddy has been there. Hear Gordon’s smart perspectives on the world today and the fascinating stories of his life experiences.

Cigar Dave

∙Weekends 12 pm ET
∙Often referred to as the Sultan of Smoke, the Professor of Puff, the Cigar Sommelier, and the Connoisseur-in-Chief. Cigar Dave caters to cigar lovers far and wide. Loyal followers known as “Cigar Lieutenants” tune in for news and information about cigars, spirits, and other lifestyle diversions.

Political programming on SIRIUS OutQ channel 109:

Michelangelo Signorile Show

∙Weekdays 2 pm - 6 pm ET
∙Columnist and rabble-rouser Michelangelo Signorile fearlessly takes on the right wing, the media and the homophobes with hard-hitting and humorous talk. Michelangelo sits down with all the big names — authors, newsmakers, and icons from pop culture to politics — while breaking down all the stories of the day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070523/tc_nm/xm_sirius_dc_1;_ylt=Aj8X9txfNwyP9cWt.FqeSBkE1vAI

Reuters is reporting that Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) has come out on record as opposing the XM-Sirius merger.  As we’ve said before, Congress does NOT have a direct role to play in the merger decision, but that regulators who do have a role will take the input from those who control their funding very seriously.  Senator Kohl is the chairman of the Senate’s anti-trust subcommittee, and works closely with the DoJ anti-trust division.

For Mel and the merger team, this is clearly bad news.  On the good news front the marketing department ought to take some of Sen. Kohl’s words for their advertising.  Terrestrial radio is too limited to compete with satellite radio, while personal audio players can not match the programming of satellite service, he wrote.

“No other technology available today is a substitute for the satellite radio,” Kohl wrote.

Heck, we’ve been saying that for years!!  As much we all of us here would tend to agree with the Senator on these points, we also need to recognize that millions of consumers disagree and find their terrestrial radio stations and personal music players not only competitive, but superior.

Orbitcast is reporting that XM “shock jocks” Opie and Anthony will immediately start serving a 30-day suspension. Apparently there were comments made on yesterday’s program that indicated to XM management that their earlier apology was insincere (as many commenters here pointed out at the time).

The XM statement is here

More details as they become available…

Update 3:50pm ET: Orbitcast has a second post that includes the offending audio.

Update 5/16: Although I first found this report at Orbitcast, I have to give credit where it it is due, and recognize Ryan at XMFan for being first to break this story early yesterday morning.

Did you know that SIRIUS is a satellite radio (SDARS) service that operates in both the United States and Canada?

Headquartered in New York City, SIRIUS has smaller studios in Los Angeles, Memphis,  Nashville, New Orleans, Houston & Daytona.  SIRIUS provides over 130 channels of music, exclusive sports channels, news, talk, entertainment, traffic, weather and data to listeners. 

Additionally, Sirius has a subset of channels as part of the Dish Network satellite television service. 

(Keep your eye out for more ‘Sirius Tidbits’ from Bruce in the weeks to come.)

Mel Karmazin, CEO of SIRIUS Satellite Radio, announced today that parents who are offended by programming such as Howard Stern will recieve a decrease in programming costs after the XM-SIRIUS merger.

“There would be a cost reduction to their bill in a more a la carte way,” said Karmazin. “If somebody doesn’t want it, not only are they not getting it, but they’re not subsidizing it either.”

This announcement comes after FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has publicly expressed interest in having of an a la carte programming system. Previously, Karmazin has said that Satellite technology will not allow for such programming choices but it seems that instead of customers paying more for the Howard Stern service(a la carte style), customers will have the choice to remove Stern from their radios and recieve a price cut in the monthly price of the service. Karmazin also noted that these details were included with the FCC merger notice filed on Tuesday.

This decision by the merger corporations could not only influence the FCC to approve the merger, but could influence other services such as cable television to do the same type of program discounting.

Dan Isett, a spokesperson for the Parents Television Council, who also supports such a la carte programming said, “This is good news, but we want to see the details. The problem they face is why should consumers be forced to subsidize Howard Stern if they want Major League Baseball?”

How do you think this will affect the FCC decision to approve or dissaprove the XM-SIRIUS merger?

Source: Dow Jones Newswire

Broadband Instruments recently unveiled Slacker, a “Personal Radio” service to deliver content online and through a WiFi and Satellite-capable portable player. After recruting executives from MusicMatch, Rio, and iRiver; Slacker was ready to expand Personal Radio services, introduced by internet-only Last.fm and Pandora, to the portable market. Their satellite bandwidth will be leased from the Ku band, and is rumored to deliver 10,000 tracks/day (7 tracks/minute) to be archived on the portable receiver while docked. Slacker’s Portable Player will cost between $150-$350, dependent upon storage capacity desired. It will support MP3, subscription-based WMA, WMA, and MPEG-4/AAC-encoded audio files, and play WMV video on a 4-inch screen. You can try out the Slacker Jukebox online at Slacker.com. The online service is free, but for $7.50/month you’ll get a player without video ads and the ability to skip more than 6 songs per hour per channel.

How will the introduction of Slacker affect the Sirius/XM merger? Post in the comments section below.

[Via Wired, Orbitcast, Engadget, and CNet]

Via Satellite magazine has named Space Systems/Loral’s CEO Patrick Dewit as its Satellite Industry Executive of the Year for 2006.

In 2006, under DeWitt’s leadership, SS/L won a total of seven new satellite construction awards, from a wide array of customers, including Fixed Satellite Service (FSS), Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) and Direct-To-Home (DTH) service providers. The company also saw the successful launch of five SS/L-built satellites during the year.

Both SIRIUS (satellite # 1,2,3,4 & 5) and XM (satellite # 5) have had satellites designed and built by SS/L.