She passed on Christmas Eve, it seems. One of her last Christmas podcasts can be heard via Lynnsamuels.com. “I just hate everyone,” Samuels declares. “Merry Christmas.”

In truth, Samuels didn’t hate everyone. She didn’t even hate anyone. Perusing through her online oeuvre, her approach comes back to me. Samuels was a populist liberal—a raunchy feminist New Dealer with little patience for the identity politics and far left romanticism of the 1970s. Instead, she found her politics in the absurdity of daily life.

“North Carolina man is in critical condition!” Samuels disclosed on WABC in 1983, bemusedly reading from a newspaper article, “and his wife has been charged . . . ”

“You think this is funny, Lynn?” her co-host soberly asked as she broke down in laughter.

” . . . with setting his genitals on fire!” Samuels continued.

“What she do, pour gasoline on him?” he speculated.

“No. Come on. This is a woman doing it! She used nail polish!” she corrected.

In 1990, during an on air firefight with conservative talker Barry Farber over the US invasion of Panama, Samuels called President George H.W. Bush a dictator and drug runner. In more recent years, she found common ground with the right in her hatred of President Barack Obama. Samuels castigated Obama for what she saw as his elitism, espoused Birther opinions about his place of origin, and also sympathized with Juan Williams’ famous commentary on Muslims at airports.

“All you liberals that listen to me, all you people that complain that I’m not liberal enough,” Samuels began, “if you’re in an airport, and there are people . . . I don’t even have to see them in Muslim garb; people that are obviously from the mid-east, particularly if they’re getting on the same flight as you, doesn’t that make you nervous? It makes me nervous!”

And yet even in these contentious and controversial moments, Samuels’ affection for people always came through.

“And nobody likes Muslims as much as I do,” she added, “well, maybe other Muslims.”

At long last Sirius XM has allocated four percent of its full-time audio channels to various “qualified entity” minority oriented broadcasters. Howard University is among the winners, something I’d hoped would happen. Howard runs WHUR-FM (see YouTube clip to the right).

The four percent allocation was part of the deal that Sirius XM made with the Federal Communications Commission as a condition of its 2008 merger. Below is the FCC’s full list of the winners. More about the long, torturous process by which these recipients were decided here and here.

• Howard University (licensee of WHUR-FM and WHUT-TV)
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Music and talk programming for the African American community
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Music and talk programming for the African American community, with programs from Historically Black Colleges and Universities

• BYU Radio (licensee of KBYU-FM and KBYU-TV)
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Music and talk programming for the Mormon community

• Eventus/National Latino Broadcasting
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Spanish language talk programming
One channel each on Sirius XM – Spanish language music programming

• WorldBand Media
One channel each on Sirius and XM – Spanish language talk programming

• KTV Radio
One channel on XM – Korean language music and talk programming

The FCC seems happy about this new line up. “This marks a valuable step in increasing the diversity of programming available to satellite radio listeners while promoting access for new entrants and independent satellite radio programming,” declared Commission boss Julius Genachowski.

Sirius XM owns the Digital Audio Radio Spectrum ("DARS" in red) right smack dab in the middle of the WCS bands.

The great war between Sirius satellite radio (SIRI) and the Wireless Communications System Coalition has taken another interesting turn as the Federal Communications Commission ponders whether to lift the price caps the FCC imposed on Sirius as a condition for its merger with XM in 2008.

The WCS Coalition—backed by Comcast (CMCSA),  Nextwave (WAVE), and other wireless companies has spent years trying to resolve spectrum interference issues with Sirius so it can offer wireless broadband services in two nearby spectrum bands. Now the group says drop the caps if the FCC rejects Sirius requested rules that the wireless coalition thinks will screw up its networks.

“It would be premature for the Commission to lift the price cap that was put in place to protect consumers against unwarranted Sirius XM price increases. Rather, the WCS Coalition respectfully suggests that the Commission retain the existing price cap on an interim basis, and defer any decision to lift or modify the price cap until the Commission can address [Sirius's] pending petitions for reconsideration. By first assuring that spectrum will be available for the delivery of Internet-based audio services to automobiles and other places where consumers listen to Sirius XM, the Commission will then be able to lift the price cap without fear of anti-consumer impacts.”

Some background on this godforsaken mess, which we have been covering here for some time. For at least half a decade Sirius, XM and companies in the WCS band have been trying to work out a peaceful coexistence non-interference deal. The owners of the WCS spectrum occupy the 2305-2320 and 2345-2360 MHz bands, while Sirius occupies 2320-2345—smack dab in the middle of WCS.

Finally last year the FCC implemented the non-inteference recommendations mentioned in its National Broadband Plan, but Sirius continued to object to them, and filed a petition for reconsideration against the provisions, which the satellite radio company argued were too lax.

But now, as the third anniversary of the Sirius XM merger approaches (July 28), the FCC must consider whether to lift the three year subscriber price caps that it imposed as a condition for the union. Present Sirius subscription prices range from $6.99 for an a la carte package to $19.99 for the Sirius XM “all-in-one” deal. Obviously Sirius wants the option to raise prices, and said so in a recent filing with the Commission, arguing that the Internet has made the radio business robustly competitive, so the caps aren’t needed:

Satellite radio competes for listeners with an expanding array of audio entertainment choices—most of which are available to consumers for free. These choices include terrestrial AM/FM radio, HD radio, iPods and other portable audio devices, and they increasingly include Internet-based services, such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Slacker, Lastfm and iheartradio.

Pandora alone is reportedly available on over 200 devices in addition to the computer. This competition for audio entertainment is especially acute in vehicles, with several automakers introducing features integrating Internet-based services, further reducing any remaining arguable hurdles to the seamless use of smartphones, iPods and other portable audio devices in vehicles.

But WCS pushes back that, yeah, the environment is potentially competitive, but not if the FCC screws up our new wireless broadband services in those bands with the revised non-interference rules that Sirius wants:

“It is ironic that Sirius XM would in this proceeding point to Internet-based services as competitive threats,” the coalition writes, because “Sirius XM continues to advocate a wide range of rules and policies that will severely limit, if not effectively preclude, the offering of broadband services over WCS as envisioned by the National Broadband Plan.” And:

As the Commission considers Sirius XM’s request to be freed from its price cap, it can and should find that Internet-based audio services have the potential to compete with Sirius XM. But the Commission cannot ignore that Internet-based services will only realize that potential if there is sufficient spectrum that is both available and appropriately regulated to meet the exploding demand for mobile broadband.

It never ends. More public comments to the FCC on this issue here.

Every day I watched the news reports and press releases from the just-ended 2011 Consumer Electronics Show hoping for some interesting radio news. Instead, what we got was mostly more of the same. You might call it CES 2010 2.0. Aside from the Android-powered car radio that Matthew covered the other day, there was nothing new or innovative offered up in the radio world.

CES 2011 is over, but iBiquity is still pushing CES 2010

Even though the company never updated its website from the 2010 CES, iBuiquity did announce that HD Radio would be standard in 36 car models from 17 brands, which does indicate some stability for the technology. But as far as satellite radio is concerned XM/Sirius only had one announcement on hand, touting a deal with Nissan offering a a three-month intro subscription on dealer-certified pre-owned Nissan and Infiniti cars.

Internet radio primarily built on the smartphone integration model introduced by Pioneer at last year’s CES. Toyota jumped into that fray with its Entune system offering control of not just Pandora, but also Clear Channel’s iheartradio, XM satellite radio and HD Radio. However, this system is just an option on “select vehicles,” which means that in reality only a minority of Toyota buyers will end up with it. Sony and other after-market mobile stereo manufacturers also announced smartphone-connected head units that will control Pandora and other apps.

What we haven’t seen yet is a car stereo with native internet radio capability built-in. While smartphone sales are growing I still doubt that the majority of owners are willing to deal with the hassle of connecting their phones most of the time in order to take advantage of internet radio access. Furthermore, this functionality is mostly offered on optional equipment or after-market items, further limiting the number of car owners likely to use it.

I don’t see mobile internet radio reaching any kind of critical mass–even on par with Sirius/XM–until the experience is completely integrated. That will likely require manufacturers to pair up with mobile broadband carriers similar to how Sirius/XM struck deals with them. But I don’t think such an idea is farfetched, noting how Amazon bundles AT&T 3G service with its Kindle e-readers. Still, it hasn’t happened.

Although the car has always been an important place for radio listening, more than ever it is now the battleground for radio technologies. Major electronics manufacturers seem to be largely ceding the home HD, satellite and internet radio market to niche players.

New radio platforms will succeed or fail in the car based upon their ability to offer a seamless, integrated experience with desirable programming. Sirius/XM has the leg up here with 20 millions subscribers and established relationships with most major auto manufacturers. HD Radio’s principal advantage is that it’s free, but it’s also hampered by far less diverse programming, even taking into account HD2 and HD3 channels. HD also has all sorts of reception problems outside of the strongest signal areas.

Internet radio poses the greatest threat to HD and satellite, but not as long as people have to plug in their smartphones to tune it in.

In the end, I think the dirty little secret is that when it comes to radio in the car, traditional analog broadcast still wins. It’s standard equipment on pretty much every vehicle sold and it’s a feature in pretty much every aftermarket stereo, alongside CD, MP3, satellite, HD or smartphone connectivity. Broadcast is also free, and while we can find many faults with mainstream commercial programming, there is still plenty that attracts millions of listeners every day.

This is not the sort of conclusion that makes news at the Consumer Electronics Show. But that doesn’t make it any less true.

Sirius XM satellite radio is celebrating the renewal of its contract with Howard Stern with yet another installment of its “History of Howard Stern” series. This would be the “highly anticipated fourth chapter in the award-winning series that offers an unprecedented celebration and rare behind-the-scenes look at the life, career and achievements of Howard Stern,” according to the press release that we received.

There is a certain cult of personality tone to all this, but what do you expect? Anyway, one has to give credit to Stern for his ability to recycle himself as a kind of ongoing rags-to-riches success story . . . endlessly on the brink of failure, catastrophe, or disgrace, then the comeback. Makes you want to root for the guy, or not.

In any event, The History of Howard Stern: Act IV premieres today, December 20 through December 31 on Howard 100 and Howard 101—beginning at 6:00 am ET on Howard 100 and 6:00 am PT on Howard 101.

Part IV will explore (this is from the release):

• Memorable moments from the late 90′s/early 2000′s era of the Stern Show
• An in-depth look behind the scenes of the acclaimed film Private Parts , from the casting process and the filming to the larger than life premiere at Madison Square Garden in 1997.  Exclusive first-hand accounts and backstage stories from the cast and crew.
• Rare in-studio interviews with JFK, Jr. and David Letterman
• Fred Norris and “The Rainbow Room incident”
• First appearances from show legends Artie Lange , Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, The Jesus Twins, Beetlejuice, KC Armstrong, Sal & Richard, Benjy Bronk, High Pitch Eric and other members of “The Wack Pack”
• Staff fights and famous feuds with celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell
• Howard’s continuing battles with station management
• The Scott Salem Push Up Contest
• In-studio musical performances from Aerosmith, Green Day, and Goo Goo Dolls, plus Dave Grohl ‘s original acoustic performance of “Everlong”
• Stories behind the Howard-produced F/X series, Son of the Beach
• Highlights and stories from the “drunk show” backstage at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards
• Gary’s legendary “love tape”
• Howard Stern meets future wife Beth Ostrosky
• Archive interviews with Hollywood heavy-hitters Robert Duvall, George Clooney, Warren Beatty and James Caan
• Behind the scenes of staff band The Losers and their memorable performance on Magic Johnson ‘s ill-fated talk show, The Magic Hour
• Truth behind Jackie Martling ‘s departure from the Stern Show and the comedians who auditioned for his chair
• A look back at Howard’s historic broadcast from September 11, 2001

None of the drama over Stern’s place at Sirius seems to have hurt its stock, which now hovers at a little above $1.40 and has even gone higher than 1.50 over the last few months.

Howard and Sirius still stuck with each other

So much for the drama. Howard Stern announced this morning that he signed a new five-year contract with Sirius satellite radio, ending a protracted negotiation. He did not indicate how much the contract is for, only saying that it is “very fair.”

The end of this contract will be a different sort of drama since Stern also said that this will be his last five years in radio. Whether that means he’ll pursue other media opportunities or choose to retire altogether is anyone’s guess. No matter what he decides I’m sure that Stern will milk the mystery for all it’s worth.

Of course, this puts to bed the absurd rumor that Stern was contemplating a $600 million contract with Apple to distribute his show exclusively on iTunes. However, we still don’t know the terms of Stern’s new deal with Sirius, although eventually investors are going to want to know the details. There has been some speculation that a new deal would involve a little less cash and more stock, though the stock isn’t exactly performing its best. Nevertheless Sirius (SIRI) stock was up over 6% this morning following the news. I’m guessing that’s all the bump the stock is going to see unless it turns out Sirius got some real cash concessions in this contract.

We don’t know yet whether Sirius decided that a Stern-less future was too risky, or whether Stern realized that there are likely no more lucrative options than staying put at Sirius. Status quo is obviously the safest option for both parties, especially as Sirius closes in on celebrating the milestone of 20 millions subscribers. Losing Stern and triggering a possible exodus of possible hundreds of thousands of subscribers would have certainly marred the occasion.

What is Sirius XM looking for? Here are the deets:

In selecting programming for this set-aside, we are looking for the following:  Programming representing diverse viewpoints and/or diverse entertainment content; improved service to historically underserved audiences; original content of a type not otherwise available to Sirius XM subscribers; access to new sources of content and new entrants to mass media.  Applications should demonstrate that proposer has the financial, operational, and technical ability to perform its obligations under the lease.  We will select programmers that, in our judgment, will be able to meet their obligations and deliver their proposed mix or type of programming for the duration of the lease term.

The deadline for applications is January 7, 2011.  Sirius XM has to disclose its “tentative selections” by March 2 and sign leasing agreements by April 17.

But Radio One, the black oriented radio station network, doesn’t like Sirius XM’s definition of a qualified entity, which, in fairness, was created by the FCC.

The FCC has made this set-aside available only to lessees that (1) are not directly or indirectly owned, in whole or in part, by Sirius XM or an affiliate of Sirius XM; (2) do not share any common officers, directors or employees with Sirius XM or any affiliate of Sirius XM; and (3) do not have any existing relationships with Sirius XM for the supply of programming during the two years prior to October 19, 2010.

Radio One in a recent filing to the FCC protests this definition.

As shared by Radio One in prior comments and during ex parte communications over the course of these proceedings, we believe that it also is critical that a Qualified Entity possess sufficient
financial capability to provide the proposed services, as well as the resources to offer programming consistent with broadcast industry standards and any applicable laws. That an entity may have had limited prior interaction with Sirius XM should not, on its face, act as an absolute disqualification from the lease channel set-aside process.

So Radio One supports a proposal already made by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council to provide that “a party will not be disqualified if it has supplied programming to Sirius XM, but: (l) the party did not supply a majority of the programming heard on the designated Sirius or XM channel; (2) the party did not have its brand associated with the designated Sirius or XM channel; or (3) the party derived nominal or no net revenue (e.g., due to a programming swap) from Sirius or XM from supplying the programming.”

It’s pretty obvious that Radio One doesn’t want to be left out of this opportunity. But the whole point of those channels was to give programmers who don’t have air time elsewhere a break. We’ll just have to wait to see how the FCC and Sirius make this call.

Quick history: back in July of 2008 the FCC approved the merger of Sirius XM satellite radio, but with lots of conditions. One of them was that four percent of the merged company’s channels had to be set aside for minority broadcasting entities, defined as (take a deep breath) “any entity that is majority-owned by persons who are African American, not of Hispanic origin; Asian or Pacific Islanders; American Indians or Alaskan Natives; or Hispanics.”

But “following approval of the merger,” Commissioner Michael Copps dourly noted this week, “it quickly became apparent that this particular condition—perhaps well-intentioned, but hastily and inartfully drawn—was going to cause problems. It did, and it has taken more than two years to get to today’s solution. Those were two lost years for more diverse programming on these satellite channels.”

Indeed, the complexities of Federal affirmative action law made it difficult for both the FCC and Sirius XM to resolve how to allocate the channels under those terms. So the new rules pretty much scotch that list of ethnic groups, and just define a Qualified Entity as one that doesn’t have an established business or programming relationship with Sirius XM (and hasn’t for the last two years).

As for how many channels an entity can take on (12 all told), here are the conditions:

“Sirius XM has discretion to allocate capacity among the lessees, provided that: (1) no more than one-half of the total channels set aside for this condition are allotted to full-power broadcast licensees, including entities and individuals with an attributable interest in any such licensee; and (2) no more than four of the channels set aside for this condition (i.e., two channels simulcast on both Sirius and XM, two channels on Sirius and two channels on XM (not simulcast), or four channels on one platform) are allotted to any single lessee, including any entity with an attributable interest in the lessee.”

So who has put themselves in the running for this opportunity? Here’s a partial list of the candidates who have filed in the Sirius XM Qualified Entity proceeding (you can peruse through the whole list here):

Radio One. The black oriented radio station network has been talking to the FCC on this matter since the getgo. The Commission’s percentage rules are more or less in sync with what the company asked for, although the dropping of specific minority groups from the Qualified Entity list opens the candidate pool to a lot more companies.

Entravision. The Spanish language media company suggested a plan that would make it possible for a single entity to take all the channels.

Howard University. The Washington, D.C. based historically black college has been very interested in these channels for quite a while, and has expressed concerns that the Commission’s rules not exclude an educational institution from the game.

Hispanic Information and Telecommunications, Inc. Describes itself as an organization “whose mission is to promote educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans through multiple media outlets and telecommunications services.” HITn has its own online TV service, not surprisingly dubbed HITn Online TV.

Mosaic Communications. A venture spoken for by Gloria Penn Easton, former owner of WWSI-TV in Philadelphia.

NY Metro Korea Inc. The company describes itself as “wholly owned by Young Kwon, a Korean-American. KRB currently provides programming 24/7 on WWRU(AM), Jersey City, New Jersey – the only Korean-language station in the New York area. Over 90% of KRB programming is original locally-produced programming, including news, music, talk, entertainment, and informative tips for new Korean immigrants to the United States.”

Other (and frankly more mysterious) contenders include the RSS Network Corp, Flute Radio (“the largest holder of FCC licenses in the 72-76 MHz band”), and iClick2Media and Alpha Star International.

“We require Sirius XM to enter into leasing agreements with its selected Qualified Entities on the implementation deadline of April 17, 2011,” the FCC says. Good luck to all candidates!

The Order “reversed long-standing protections that the Commission found necessary to prevent interference to satellite radio consumers by allowing, for the first time, mobile operations in the 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service,” Sirius insists. “The FCC must revise its new rules in order to adequately protect satellite radio’s nearly 35 million existing listeners.”

As we reported back in May, the Commission set up permanent non-interference regulations for Sirius’s terrestrial repeaters and power level limits for Wireless Communications Services band mobile and portable stations. This unleashed 25 MHz in the WCS zone for wireless broadband. The Order also put the WCS license holders on a service schedule:

“For mobile and point-to-multipoint services, WCS licensees must serve 40 percent of a license area’s population within 42 months, and 75 percent within 72 months. For fixed point-to-point services, WCS licensees must construct and operate 15 point-to-point links per million persons in a license area within 42 months, and 30 links within 72 months, together with a minimum payload capacity to ensure that the spectrum is used intensively. Licensees will not be required to satisfy submarket construction requirements.”

But Sirius XM, which has long opposed these new guidelines, insists that they’re based on faulty data.

“In setting OOBE [out of band emissions] limits for WCS transmitters,” the company warns, “the FCC ignored, discounted, or misconstrued technical data submitted by Sirius XM demonstrating a high potential for interference even when the victim receiver and the interfering transmitter are separated by significant distances. At minimum, the Commission should have adopted more stringent OOBE limits for mobile and portable WCS devices to minimize the potential and extent of interference.”

The Sirius XM filing asks for new maximum transmitter power limits and bigger guard bands between WCS transmitters and Sirius XM receivers. “The Commission has adopted technical and operational service rules that elevate the WCS licensees’ commercial convenience above the rights of satellite radio consumers to enjoy interference-free service,” Sirius charges.

The  coverage will be hosted by Sirius XM Raw Dog Comedy’s Mark Says Hi and Cinemagic’s Dave Ziemer. The festivities will begin on August 12 and go through August 15 on Sirius channel 108 and XM channel 139.