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Following months of rumors, the two satellite radio companies, Sirius, and XM, last week confirmed one of the industry’s worst-kept secrets: their only hope of ever making a buck may well be combining their businesses. • Will Howard Stern and Martha Stewart soon be under the same K-Mart comforters as Opie and Anthony and Oprah Winfrey? • Will Major League Baseball and the National Football League both be available to sports fans from the same radio provider? • Will Sirius honcho Mel Karmazin be satisfied being number two to XM chairman Gary Parsons? • Will Mr. Media ever have to listen to “Radar Love” on terrestrial radio again? To address a few of these issues, I have invited B. Eric Rhoads, publisher of Radio Ink magazine, into the Mr. Media podcast and web site this week. Published every other week since 1989, Radio Inkis perhaps best-known for its annual “40 Most Powerful People in Radio” issue. It’s the radio industry version of the Forbes 400. I have known Eric for almost eighteen years, since I wrote for the predecessor to Radio Ink, the Pulse of Radio. Eric’s publications are devoted to the business of radio, so I thought he would be the perfect person to offer perspective on the proposed Sirius/XM merger. Radio Ink • • •