Howard Stern Howls Defense of Sirius XM

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Sirius XM Radio(SIRI) star Howard Stern has something of a martyr complex when it comes to the Federal Communications Commission.

Stern's martyr complex found a new road to victimhood on Monday, when Stern noted on his show a satellite radio industry news report that his old nemesis, the FCC, was considering a new proposal to allow wireless services to encroach on the wireless frequencies that satellite radio paid to build.

A livid Stern -- though not quite as well-informed as the www.satwaves.com reporter who wrote the piece from which Stern quoted -- started off his anti-FCC rant by saying, "It seems that wherever I go the FCC gets up my ass."

The FCC issue is related to the wireless spectrum within which satellite radio operates. Stern explained to his faithful flock of listeners that satellite radio operates between 2320 megahertz and 2345 megahertz, and for that privilege, satellite radio spent $170 million to build the bandwidth.

However, that $170 million spent by satellite radio may now benefit wireless services that will interfere with the broadcast of satellite radio like Sirius XM. Stern told his listeners that the FCC is considering allowing services that use the space on the wireless spectrum close to satellite's range to encroach on the satellite virtual territory. Stern said "it would destroy our ability to broadcast."

What's more, Stern said that Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin indicated that the FCC deliberations were "extremely disturbing."

Stern's latest focus of his long-time hatred of the FCC -- which led him to satellite radio in the first place -- led into a long digression on the FCC's attempts to block the merger of satellite radio providers Sirius and XM.