Howard will reportedly be on David Letterman sometime this week. I am still trying to find a date, but CBS announced during a promo during the AFC Championship that Howard will be on.

Update: It is a replay featuring Gwen Stefani, and will be on Thursday night.

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Tuesday, Howard Stern will celebrate 1 year on the air at Sirius. They will replay his 1-9-06 show after the live one, and play the top 10 moments of 2006 as voted by the listeners.

It should be noted that his 1 year anniversary is actually a couple days before 1-9, because they were doing some audio checks and such and decided to go on the air spur-of-the-moment the week before the show officially started.

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According to Mediaweek, Air America Radio is talking to several parties about a possible sale and is hopeful of reaching a deal before Thanksgiving.

A lawyer for the liberal talk radio network told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday that the privately-held company was in discussions with seven different parties about a sale and was “very hopeful” of reaching a deal by Nov. 22, saying there was a “significant amount of interest.”

Air America is continuing to operate with financing from an investor group led by RealNetworks CEO Robert Glaser, who owns 36.7 percent of the company, and two other former board members.

The Young Turks, a popular liberal talk show on SIRIUS since the service launched, jumped to Air America in September. Fans are still reeling from that move. You can view the reaction here.

Rumor is that SIRIUS was supposed to be a founding partner in Air America back in 2004, earning the satellite network the opportunity to offer the progressive programming exclusively.

SIRIUS offered to front startup costs, studio space and even the chance to sydicate content in select cities. Instead, Air America decided to go it alone, and ended up bringing XM into the loop. SIRIUS did not carry Air America at launch; and for months, refused to give Air America it’s own channel as a punishment for that move.

While it makes sense for XM to buy Air America, SIRIUS may be hungry enough to firm up their liberal talk lineup on the cheap.

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“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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SIRIUS has hyped their 2-day “World Event” far and wide. While it has received good coverage on the internet news scene, what will the real impact be?

SIRIUS is not new to the Internet Radio scene, but they certainly have a long way to come in terms of interface, ease of use and the added value. Users have higher expectations than when they are in the car.
Will 2 days be long enough for listeners to get hooked?

I have reservations as to why this isn’t the best approach.

• Rhapsody offers a 14 day trial, in which you have access to their full 2,000,000 song catalog on demand.
• Sonos just launched the version 2.0 software, which features Rhapsody for your whole home audio system, all accessible via the iPod-like controller, free for 30 days
• Napster offers a 7 day free trial
• Yahoo! Music offers a 7 days trial
• Many streaming services offer a much more mature interface, for less money than SIRIUS Internet Radio.

The SIRIUS service is something that gets sticky over time. It also works great in the car, the one place the other internet radio providers can’t go. Yet it still takes a few days to figure out the lineup, to understand the formats and to discover new favorites.

The free “2 Day Global Event” sounds like a gimmick. If SIRIUS believed in their Internet Radio product that much, they would offer a month free and give the potential subscribers a real reason to fall in love with the service. SIRIUS is the new kid on the block in the internet radio niche, and they are using old world logic as an incentive.

This isn’t HBO, it’s internet radio. Two days is too few.

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Anyone looking for new Catholic content on channel 159 today has been greeted with some great music…and little else.  Bumpers suggested that the promised programming was “coming soon”

Noted Catholic blogger, Rocco Palma, posted last night that delays were due to Cardinal Egan’s recent health issues..

 At the request of Cardinal Edward Egan, tomorrow’s anticipated launch of The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio “has been put on hold for the next few weeks.”

As the archdiocese is responsible for putting together the channel’s content, Zwilling — who has served as the chief liaison for the project since its May announcement — said Egan’s request was “very reasonable.”

The change of time-frame will allow the 74 year-old prelate to take a full part in the launch, the revised date of which was not disclosed.

More details at Rocco’s blog, Whispers in the Loggia

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That’s according to Radaronline.com:

Stern Warning Gets Post Writer Canned

Howard Stern’s words may not carry the same weight now that he’s on satellite radio, but he’s still got enough juice to get a pesky critic fired. John Mainelli, the New York Post writer who irked Stern by reporting a rumor that he would return to terrestrial radio with his tail between his legs on Tuesday, has left the paper after receiving an ultimatum from editor in chief Col Allan.

Allan told Mainelli Wednesday that he had to choose between his freelance job covering the radio industry for the Post and his lucrative sideline consulting for radio stations and owners. “I consider myself fired,” Mainelli tells Radar. “I can’t live on what I earn from the Post.”

Mainelli claims he has made no secret of his consulting relationships and has always been careful to recuse himself from stories that might present a conflict of interest. But Allan, according to a Post spokesman, was not aware of the arrangement, and would have put a stop to it long ago had he known. Stern has been waging war on Mainelli since Tuesday, when Mainelli reported on speculation that Stern might cut a deal to get part of his broadcast back on terrestrial radio. (Since Stern left CBS in January, his show has only been available to Sirius subscribers.)

Full Article

Thanks to Backstage member XMECUTIONER for posting the story.

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Whenever he sees Barbara Walters, George Clooney mentions how he’s still paying for telling her in an interview that he was never going to marry again.

Future Clooney dates will have an opportunity to revisit that talk, and hundreds of other interviews Walters has conducted for ABC News specials over the past three decades, due to a deal announced Monday with Sirius Satellite Radio.

Sirius will air a weekly two-hour series, starting next year, that replays many of the interviews Walters has conducted since joining ABC in 1976. About four interviews will be featured in each program, with new introductions by Walters to place them into the context of the time.

“It is a wonderful way for them to be heard,” Walters told The Associated Press. “So many of them are classics. It is everything from Lucille Ball and John Wayne and Bing Crosby and George Burns to Matthew McConaughey and Julia Roberts.”

Separately, Walters will also conduct some call-in programs for Sirius.

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SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Fangoria Entertainment today announced the launch of Fangoria Radio, the first national horror-themed entertainment radio show. Hosted by renowned Twisted Sister frontman and horror film producer/actor Dee Snider, Fangoria Radio will air Friday nights from 10:00 pm - 1:00 am ET on SIRIUS Stars channel 102. The show will debut on Friday, June 23, 2006.

Fangoria Radio, a live, 3-hour weekly radio show from the creators of the world’s most popular and longest running horror publication, Fangoria Magazine, gives horror fans a place on radio to call their own. Listeners will be able to interact and get close to the best and scariest in horror entertainment. The program will feature interviews with celebrities and stars in the horror world, listener call-ins, updates on horror movies, and even on- location visits to the biggest horror films in production. In addition, Fangoria Radio will highlight the latest horror gossip as well as reviews of movies, television shows and video games.

For more information visit FangoriaRadio.com

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Ryan over at Orbitcast.com gives us a heads up about a new article discussing the potential of Howard Online.

Mark Ramsey at hear2.0 claims that a barrier to entry for Stern fans who haven’t migrated over, the radio, has been removed.

SIRIUS finally reduced the “pain” of listening to Stern, where that pain included going to a store and getting a radio and installing a radio and positioning an antennae, etc. Now, suddenly, it’s as easy as buying a book on Amazon.

It would be nice if it were as easy as shopping at Amazon.

Ramsey fails to realize that SIRIUS does not offer an online-only subscription. You still have to march down to the store, buy a radio, install it, activate it, and then set up your online streaming account.

There is no way to get Howard Stern or SIRIUS Music via the Internet without the radio. While XM Satellite does offer an online-only sub, for SIRIUS there is still no 1-Click way to instant gratification.

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