K-Rock drops rock. Opie & Anthony also K-O'd.

Bad news for O&A fans and worse news for rock & roll fans. Longtime NYC rock station K-Rock is switching its format from Rock to Top 40, and has fired Opie & Anthony from its line-up.

Tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, 92.3 WXRK "K-Rock" will shut down and be replaced by CBS Radio WNOW, New York's newest Top 40 station. Tomorrow evening, the only terrestrial source of rock available to New Yorkers will be 101.9 WRXP.

Shock jocks Opie and Anthony have been dropped entirely by the station, and will become XM-only. Before the change, the radio personalities recorded part of their show at WXRK's studios, then recorded additional material at XM Radio's studios. Starting today, the pair will record entirely out of XM Radio.

Opie and Anthony are hardly the first radio crew to switch over to satellite from K-Rock. A few years ago, Howard Stern left the station for Sirius Satellite Radio. Since then, Stern's show has become quite successful on the pay service. Whether Opie and Anthony will follow suit, only time can tell.

— Will Greenwald

Sirius XM Saved by the Bell

Howard Stern can sigh with relief. His home on Sirius XM satellite radio is safe, at least for now. Liberty Media Corp., parent company of DirecTV, has stepped up to the plate to save the floundering radio service.  In a corporate game of Six Degrees, it's interesting to note that XM was started by Hugh Panero, the brains behind DirecTV years ago.

Liberty Media is investing $530 million in the company, first as a $280 million loan to Sirius, then $150 million for XM. In return, Liberty gets 12.5 million shares of preferred stock.

I wonder what this means for my shares in the company?  --Leslie Shapiro

Sirius XM Rate Hike - But What About Those FCC Rules?

Rumors are flying around the web that Sirius XM is about to raise their rates. Normally, you would think that's just business as usual. No problem, except that part of the FCC approval of the merger of XM and Sirius is that there wouldn't be a rate hike for at least three years.

What gives?

Remember that these are just rumors, but it looks like there are ways around the FCC agreement. Here's what are some plausible situations: multiple receiver fees will increase from $6.99/month to $8.99/month. The online listening will, for the first time, have a fee, going from totally free for satellite subscribers to $2.99/month for the basic package to a whopping $8.99/month for Mostly Music and Family Pack subscribers.

The other rumors fly right in the face of the FCC violation, because they're the satellite rate increase that the FCC specifically prohibited. According to the rumors, current subscribers can lock in their current rates. If the rumors are true, notification will be going out on January 26th, and rates can be locked in up until March 11th.

So, what do you think - should the FCC step in, or should they just let Sirius XM do whatever they need to do to stay afloat?--Leslie Shapiro

UPDATE: Customer service confirms that this is NOT a rumor.  So, unless you never listen online or have just the most basic package, expect a price hike. Thanks, SiriusBuzz.

Orbitcast

The Boss Guest DJs on his own Sirius XM Channel

Fans of Bruce Springsteen take note: The Boss is coming to E Street Radio on Sirius XM. E Street Radio is a Sirius channel dedicated, as you could guess, to the music of Springsteen and the E Street Band -- his backup group.

Along with host Dave Marsh, Bruce will be playing favorites from his personal record collection and will talk about how he discovered the songs and what he likes about them. Styles run the gammut from folk to hip hop. Go Bruce.

There are two episodes. The first will begin airing on Monday, January 18th at 4:00pm ET, and rebroadcast throughout the week. The second edition will debut the following week on Monday, January 26 at 4:00pm ET, with seven reairings throughout that week.

Other celebrities have been guest DJs on the station, but it should be fun to hear the Boss on his own channel.  --Leslie Shapiro

E Street Radio

CES 2009: Sirius XM Mirge

It's finally here: the Holy Grail of satellite radio. One box to rule them all. Sirius XM Radio just announced a plug-and-play radio that will be able to access every station offered by Sirius and XM, all in one unit.

The box, the Mirge, (get it?) will retail for $249. Instead of having to purchase the "Best of" whichever service you don't get natively, this device will access a new package called Sirius Everything plus XM Everything.

The Mirge will be fully loaded. You can switch between Sirius and XM with the touch of a button. It will be able to pause, rewind, and replay up to 60 minutes of live programming.

Will the Mirge be enough to save satellite radio? --Leslie Shapiro

Sirius XM Radio's New Channel Lineup for XM

It's the end of the world as we know it. Okay, maybe not. It's the end of the world as I know it. I've been a fan of XM Radio literally from day one, and I'm not taking too kindly to the merger. I'll get over it. What I will not get over is losing my favorite channels.

Tomorrow, Sirius XM Radio launches, complete with a new channel lineup for XM. At first glance, a lot of my presets are disappearing. I'm not thrilled. Flight 26, my go-to channel, took flight and is gone. Grrr. My guilty pleasure, Take 5 and the Broadminded Broads — toast.  (Okay, so this was funny. I was driving to brunch one Sunday listening to Take 5. On the way, they were broadcasting "Steppin Out," a AA-support 12-step show, focusing on alcoholics who prefer wine. On the way home from brunch was "Wine Crush", the show all about wine. Ironic, don't you think?)  The punk channel, Lucy, Fred, Ethyl . . . aghhh, gone!  XM Cafe is gone too? Oh no! [ED NOTE: For serious?!? Oh, crap, I loved those stations!] That's it. I'm giving up driving. There's just no point anymore.

Lots of channels are merging with Sirius channels, for better or worse. Till death . . .

Keep reading — we have a sneak peak at the complete channel lineup. Let us know which ones you're gonna be missing.

XM + Sirius = More Options

Sirius and XM may still have separate web sites, but they're rapidly merging their resources following their announced (and FCC approved) merger. Rather then painfully having to choose one service over another (or even more painfully, having to pay for both) the merger will provide the best of both worlds.

In particular, one of the corporate promises that convinced the FCC to allow the merger was the committment to provide a la carte programming options, where customers can pick and choose the content that's right for them. And lo and behold, that is now becoming available. With the downside of complication and potential customer confusion, the new options look extremely tasty . . .

A Merger Made in Heaven

It's official. You should receive your engraved invitation to the wedding (er, merger) any day now. On Friday, with a 3-2 vote, the FCC blessed the proposed merger of satellite radio companies Sirius and XM. This is the first marriage (er, merger) for each. The pre-nup calls for the smaller Sirius to buy out its larger former competitor, XM, for $3.3 billion. The new company will be called Sirius XM Radio Inc.

The 18.5 million combined subscribers will be able to receive programming from both satellite services. Both companies have struggled financially, and one selling point for the merger was the argument that such a union would provide corporate cost savings (estimated at $400 million in 2009). Critics argued that a monopoly would lead to higher prices for consumers, but the FCC agreed that competition from online music stores, music phones, streaming internet, traditional radio, and other content sources would reign in satellite radio's pricing.

The question is, how long will it take to get interoperable radios to the market, and how much will subscriptions cost?

iPhone Phone Home

Does it get any better?  The clever code jockeys at Millard Software have released a beta version of software that enables an iPhone or iPod Touch to receive XM Radio. Yep, grab your jailbroken phone with firmware version 1.1.4, uXM beta v.53 and an XM Radio subscription, and your iexperience suddenly gets a whole lot better.  Millard admits the code still has some bugs (some channel logos don't load, and sometimes the stream quits after a half hour) but hey — that's the price for being on the bleeding edge. Now, this application doesn't have the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from XM, so if you're understandably timid about this sort of thing, you'll have to wait until July 11th, when XM will release an official iPhone app at the App Store.

XM and Sirius Partisan Politics

It seems we might be one tiny step closer to the FCC approval needed for the merger between XM and Sirius satellite radio companies. We reported last month that it might make a June FCC agenda, and it appears that party politics are playing a role in what's coming down from the satellites.