On this morning’s Howard Stern show Howard talked about how the last three quarters Sirius has dominated XM radio. The tables appear to be turning on XM leading Sirius. XM still advertises that it is #1 and that might be the case, but Stern talks — understandably biased — like Sirius is #1.

I don’t really want to get into the which satellite is better — XM or Sirius — since I only have direct experience with Sirius and can’t compare the two beyond the published channel lineup. It feels like it’s going to take me months before I get through the 125+ Sirius channels. Sirius has the NFL which is a major bonus for me, but XM has Major League Baseball which is a nice bump for them. Howard Stern is the major talk radio draw on Sirius and XM has shows hosted by Bob Dylan, Bob Costas and others. I might actually consider getting an XM radio next year when baseball season fires up.

Stern said during this morning’s show that he believes there will be 30-40 million satellite subscribers in a couple years. This might seem far fetched to those who have never checked out satellite radio and have heard that both XM and Sirius have over 10 million paid subscribers now. I’m getting hooked on this stuff. It’s really interesting radio. Not only Stern’s show which I’m still wrapping my mind around, but the commercial free music stations like Buzzsaw (channel 19), Hair Nation (channel 23) and the 80s channel.

Regarding the Stern show for those who haven’t heard it before the cast of characters include Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Artie the comedian (who wrote and starred in the movie Beer League), Fred who stays mostly silent and does the sound effects and music and Gary “Baba Booey” the producer. Just to give you an idea of the shows I’ve listened to over the last week have included: an on air battle between a guy missing many teeth named Beetlejuice and Artie with Mr. T in the middle trying to be the pacifier, George Takei best known as Sulu on Star Trek as a guest announcer and an admitted gay man involved in various gay-related voice skits, various phone pranks, an in studio performance by Bruce Hornsby of the song “The Way it Is”, Gilbert Gottfried the comedian and voice of the “Aflac!” character and much, much more. At howardstern.com they have a daily, detailed breakdown of each show that appears anywhere from 4-6 hours after the conclusion of each show and has pictures.

I can see why Howard’s show has such a huge following and while it might range from offensive to extremely offensive to non-fans, if the show is listened like a hardcore standup comedy act, it is entertaining. Expect to hear a considerable amount of profanity-laced jokes and sexual banter plus some revealing interviews. It’s not unusual for Howard to ask people he’s interviewing how their penis or breasts are, for example.

The Howard Stern show runs weekdays at 6am EST on Howard 100 on Sirius and Howard 101 at 6am PST with a wrap-up show that follows. There is some other programming on Howard 101 including Bubba the Love Sponge, Scott Ferrell and a collection of hourly shows at 7pm EST. There is a lot of introspection on what makes the Howard 100 and 101 channels run and the people behind the shows.

Sirius costs $12.95/month with a minimum of a quarterly committment as best as I can tell. There is an internet-only option available too which radio subscribers can pay an additional $2/month for the higher quality internet stream, but can get a lower quality stream as part of the package.

• Uncensored Howard Stern coming to Sirius in 2006
• $82.9 million bonus for Sirius subscriber growth awarded to Howard Stern
• Martha Stewart uses the Thumper, has no close friends
• Joined the satellite radio movement, finally
• Find a clear channel at Sirius
• Sirius to release portable unit that stores music