In addition to all of his obvious talents, Mel Karmazin now proves his skills as a Master Illusionist.

I have known the "Zen Master" since the mid-70's when I was working Morning Drive at the original Disco 92 WKTU (NYC) and Mel was at MetroMedia's WNEW-AM. Later, I joined MetroMedia in Baltimore and shortly thereafter was approached by MetroMedia's former CFO Jerry Karas, who with his Boston-based venture partner Mike Weiner had just negotiated their very first acquisition for fledgling Infinity Broadcasting to manage their Jacksonville stations. As President of Infinity, Mel later negotiated the purchase of WKTU and the majority of the other stations then owned by a company called SJR Broadcasting (San Juan Racing).

Mel's brilliance as a businessman always stemmed from his realization that he has absolutely no knowledge of or concern with what constitutes great "programming content." Recall that he once remarked very publicly that programming was just "arts and crafts" from his perspective. For Mel, it always was all about "hitting the number"

Consider that in all the debate over the proposed Sirius/XM merger, Karmazin has managed to divert all discussion away from the real issues and instead focus the regulators, the politicians and even the press on "More for Less."

Opponents of the merger (like the National Association of Broadcasters) are playing right into Mel's Times Square-like shell game. As WSJ Portals Columnist Lee Gomes wrote last week: "It is said that one test of how much competition will exist after a merger is the extent to which a competitor squawks; the more complaining; the more there will be a thriving market. Judging by the decibels from the broadcasters, satellite and broadcast radio would soon be at each others' throats."

This debate is not about finding ways to offer satellite radio subscribers greater choice and programming diversity for less. This is really about bandwidth capacity; controlling the chain of distribution. This is about becoming Master of the Dashboard!

You heard right. Mel aspires to be the Gatekeeper for all of the audio and video content that eventually will reach you in your automobile wirelessly. Who can blame him?

Need more convincing? How about this press release from last week: "SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and Chrysler Group announce that Chrysler Group will be the exclusive automaker to offer SIRIUS Backseat TV(tm) in its 2008 model-year vehicle lineup. SIRIUS Backseat TV(tm) is a dynamic and pioneering TV service that delivers live TV from the best family TV programmers directly to the vehicles."

Now, are you ready for this? I say Sirius and XM should be allowed to merge.

However, in exchange the combined entity should be required to divest of capacity to allow for creation of at least one other competitor. Moreover the FCC should immediately revoke the Special Temporary Authority granted to XM and Sirius that enables them to have a nation-wide terrestrial antenna system to fill in nulls where a line-of-sight signal from their satellites is impeded (like in Urban environments). This concession would underscore the FCC's original mandate that satellite radio should be strictly a national (not local) service.

Finally, the FCC should impose the same kind of must-carry and retransmission rules for satellite radio that are currently in place for cable systems and satellite TV providers. Local radio stations could benefit significantly from the signal re-transmission fees as a new income stream in the same way that local TV station owners are just now beginning to. The added distribution pipe for local radio station produced content could also be just the catalyst for stemming the recent tide of audience share attrition and pumping annual industry revenue CAGR's beyond the current low single digit consensus forecasts.

Along with higher industry revenues asset values will stabilize and begin to appreciate, just as they have done in the last few months for both public and private TV companies.

A Sirius/XM merger could be key to stabilizing radio's wobbly three-legged stool.

Am I way off base here?

Paul W. Robinson

Emerald City Radio Partners

Baltimore, MD