As the only satellite radio fan here at CrunchGear, I feel it’s my duty to review the year that was and point out some of the events that made the medium such a joy. This isn’t a typical “Top 10 Movies” snoozefest, but rather an illustration of what makes satellite radio inherently superior to regular, terrestrial radio (provided you don’t mind a nominal monthly fee).

Please note that this list isn’t to be ranked, but seen as a sum total “these were the best moments of the year, in my [worthless] opinion.”

With that…

1. The Back to the Future Secret Show on XM. If any broadcast showed the power of satellite radio it was this one. Hosted by the Opie and Anthony staff (minus Opie), they narrated the classic movie Back to the Future live on the air, riffing on the abject corruption of Mayor Goldie Wilson, the awkwardness of having your high school-age mother hit on you in the past (even though you’re from the future and know she’s your mother) and just how big a creep the Doc is. I could have done without Sam’s last 100 examples of “foreshadowing,” however.

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the XM-Sirius merger has been given the tentative OK by the FCC. Deborah Taylor Tate, the final FCC commissioner to cast a vote, is expected to vote in favor of the merger, thus clearing the way for the merger.

There are, of course, a few restrictions to be placed on the newly combined company.

• Price freeze. They have agreed not to raise prices for at least the next three years.

• Fines. The companies have to pay some $20 million in fines for all sorts of transgressions, including building satellite repeaters in unapproved locations, and creating FM transmitters that were more powerful than the FCC allows.

• Minority programming. The companies will have to set aside a percentage of their bandwidth, currently thought to be about 8 percent (24 channels) for educational and minority programming.

Be sure to watch the National Association of Broadcasters’ Web site, since the merged companies are not being forced to include regular radio or HD Radio in their new receivers, something the NAB lobbied for.

Expect to hear from both XM and Sirius soon.

Today was a big day vis-à-vis the XM-Sirius merger, as Johnathan Adelstein, the FCC commissioner who wanted to place all those restrictions on the merger in exchange for his support, has officially withdrawn his proposal, voting against the merger in the process. That leaves us all tied up for votes for and against the merger with one single, solitary vote pending.

Deborah Taylor Tate (right), a Republican, is now the final deciding vote. If she votes for the merger then it goes through. If she votes against it, all of this merger talk has been a giant waste of time, even more so than it already has been.

Tate is thought to be in favor of the merger.

Adelstein’s statement reads as if he expects the merger to go through:

… it appears they’re going to get a monopoly with window dressing. We really missed a great opportunity to reach a bipartisan agreement that would have benefited the American people.

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure more Americans are concerned with things like high gas prices than whether or not a couple of subscription radio services merge.

Bottom line, this merger thing should be wrapping up sooner rather than later. Imagine that!

Believe it or not, the XM-Sirius merger could be finalized “any day now.” Cowen & Company, a high-profile investment bank, says the merger “is finally at hand and should occur by the end of this month.”

Finally, right?

In other possibly corroborating news, XM staffers have been asked to cancel any vacation plans for the week of July 21 (Opie said as much last week), when The Final Vote is expected to be cast.

We can see the light, people!

Let’s be honest. We’ve seen this coming for more than a month now and the Financial Times is reporting that VM and Helio could announce sometime this week that the two MVNOs will merge leaving SK Telecom with a 20 percent stake. There have been rumors floating around that Helio stores will shut their doors in an effort to cut costs, which we haven’t been able to confirm nor deny, but we’re pretty sure they’re true. We’re unsure which stores will close, but I’d like to think that the NYC store that’s 200 meters away from me will remain open. We’ll have to wait and see, though. Now that all this merger nonsense is over with, I’d like for Helio to release OZ2.

Reuters is also reporting on this matter. Sources say Helio will be absorbed into the Virgin Mobile brand. Maybe we won’t see OZ2 with the backlit Helio name. :( I guess I’m ok with Virgin.

It looks like Kevin Martin of the FCC is now supporting the XM-Sirius merger. I think my brain just exploded a little bit.

Yes, 16 months after initially proposing the merger (and three months after the Justice Department gave the green light), the FCC’s chairman has given it a thumbs-up. Said the chairman:

I am recommending that, with the voluntary commitments they’ve offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest

What soaring prose from Mr. Martin!

As you might expect, there are some conditions that both XM and Sirius will have to meet for the merger, which will now need to be endorsed by at least two of the remaining four FCC commissioners, to go through.

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Flickr’d

“But if the FCC will no longer approve mergers without Congressional blessing, why does it even need to exist?” So asks the Wall Street Journal, and so ask the good boys and girls—shareholders—who are tired of this charade.

The Wall Street Journal wondered aloud yesterday just why it has taken 450 days since the merger was first proposed for it to given the thumbs up or down. The Iran hostage crisis, where lives were at stake, was wrapped up in less time.

Like, if the Justice Department has already decided that there’s nothing wrong with the merger, just what is taking the FCC so long?

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We’re all waiting on this guy

The FCC “will hopefully be able to do something on it soon.” “It” is the proposed XM-Sirius merger, while “soon” means whatever you want it to mean.

Yup, the FCC chair, Kevin Martin, said today that the deal has taken as long as it has because of all the different regulatory matters involved. Or, maybe, because the likes of the NAB have been hounding everyone since Day One, claiming that the merger will ruin radio blah blah get an iPod.

The news comes nearly three months after the Justice Department said “sure, why not?” to the merger.

And, for the zillionth time, I’m pro-merger in as much as I don’t see anything particularly wrong with it; I think those running around saying “but it’ll be a monopoly in the satellite radio industry” are being disingenuous. It’s not like satrad is a necessity and you’re forced to buy it. That, and for $10 you can buy a tape deck to connect your portable media player (iPod) to your car stereo.

Alltel, the little carrier that could, is in talks with Verizon to merge this year. Verizon is expected to pay eight times Alltel’s EBITDA (”Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization”). How much that is we do not know but it’s definitely more than fifty dollars.

UPDATE – The deal could be about $27 billion, according to Reuters.

There isn’t a whole lot to this one other than a quote from an SK Telecom official regarding the Helio and Virgin Mobile merger rumors. But it leads one to believe that the rumors are true. Make the decision for yourself, though.

An SK Telecom official said nothing has been decided yet, but the two companies are “seeking various ways that would be mutually beneficial.” “What is certain is that SK Telecom will never give up on Helio, our foothold for business in the U.S.,” he added.

Update: Reuters is confirming what was reported by the Chosun Ilbo earlier today.

“(SK Telecom) is currently exploring strategic opportunities for Helio and has engaged in preliminary discussions with Virgin Mobile USA with respect to such an opportunity,” SK said in a clarification statement.

Talks between SKT and Virgin Mobile are said to be in the preliminary stages and that it may not lead to anything in the end. It’s also unclear whether or not SKT will sell it’s stake in Helio to VM or that they would purchase VM.

“SK Telecom has an aggressive stance on expanding its operation in the United States,” said Hyundai Securities analyst Lee Shi-hoon. “They have money to invest. It could be that SK changed its focus to Virgin Mobile after the deal with Sprint Nextel did not work out.”

Wedbush Morgan, an analyst firm that likes to analyze and comment on things, says that Take-Two is making a mistake in spurning EA’s advances. $26 per share is a good deal, they say, and the company isn’t going to be any more valuable after the release of GTA IV, which they assume was the reason behind Take-Two’s unwillingness to sell. EA is getting serious now and trying the hostile route and offering to buy up outstanding shares, and analysts are divided on whether Take-Two made the right move.

Personally I’d rather not see EA swallow any more game development houses, lest we be stuck with even more yearly sequels like GTA:Extreme Sports Edition II.

The Justice Department gave its blessing to the XM-Sirius merger yesterday. Now we wait for the FCC to weigh in, most likely siding with Justice in giving the merger the OK. Maybe they’ll throw up a few last minute hurdles—please demonstrate how this merger helps the consumer and not just your bottom line, for example—but most analysts I’ve heard and read said they expect the FCC to ultimately give its OK.

Not everyone’s happy with the decision, as you may have guessed.

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The Justice Department has approved the $5 billion merger between Sirius and XM. No news on when the merger will officially happen, but you might want to start your petitions to keep your favorite channels intact right about now.

CG’s XM/Sirius coverage

A decision, one way or the other, on the proposed XM-Sirus merger should be reached by the end of the month. So says Sen. Arlen Spector, the ranking [Republican] member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Pat Leahy is the chairman of the committee, it should be noted.) He made an appearance on the Howard Stern Show earlier today and tried to explain why no decision has been made just yet, well over a year since the merger was first announced.

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It’s been more than a year since the proposed XM-Sirius merger was announced and we’re no closer now to a combined company than we were then. But there’s hope… maybe! Actually, XM and Sirius just extended the deadline by two months for the deal to go through (or not). Now the satellite radio companies have given the Feds till May 1 for the thumbs up or thumbs down.

So only two more months of teasing to go. Unless they extend the deadline again. All this futzing around must please the shareholders.

XM and Sirius extend merger deadline by 2 months [Reuters via Drudge Report]

Wow

ClearChannel has been working behind the scenes in a rather unsavory way to prevent the XM-Sirius merger from happening. I know ClearChannel is “evil” because it killed local radio years ago (I ask, who still listens to local radio, and why?), but its reliance on the government to protect its business is silly. Since when was it the government’s job to ensure your business is successful?

The national radio corp says XM-Sirius would have/already has too much spectrum. It says this threatens commercial, over-the-air radio, its bread and butter. It says you can’t go around saying XM-Sirius competes with every audio device (Note: Yes you can. I say it all the time.) because then that’d put regular radio under “intense competitive pressure” because things like iPods are unregulated. The fact is, I don’t listen to FM radio because I listen to an iPod. I’m pretty sure that’s called substitution, aka competition. ClearChannel also wants the XM-Sirius spectrum to tack on a HD Radio signal. Again, bail us and our friends out, government.

If you’ve read between the lines, you’ll notice that ClearChannel has a basic problem with the XM-Sirius spectrum. It shouldn’t surprise you, then, to learn that the whole point of its complaining to the FCC is to wrest some of that spectrum away. Classy.

Clear Channel continues anti-merger blitz [Orbitcast]

Source: Surrendering spectrum is the “end game” [Orbitcast]

Something’s afoot regarding the XM-Sirius merger tonight. Drudge has a sly little note on the left-hand column that reads: “Approved or Denied? Drama Builds Around Sirius-XM Merger… Developing…”

The proposed merger was announced nearly one year ago on February 17, 2007 and has developed into one of the most annoying stories I’ve ever followed. One week approval is imminent the next the Feds are still undecided. For the record, as long as the merger doesn’t adversely affect “Opie and Anthony” I say let it happen. I don’t listen to radio anyway. It’s not like everyone doesn’t already have an iPod or other player.

It’s a good thing I refresh Drudge every 35 seconds otherwise I never would have spotted that gem.

UPDATE It’s 7am on Monday and the story is still “developing” on Drudge. Wasn’t there a children’s story based on this?

Drudge Report