Adelstein: Sat radio needs more for deal

July 17, 2008 The second Democrat FCC commissioner weighed in on the held-up merger of the two satellite radio companies Thursday, signaling he's against the plan unless more concessions are made. FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein is asking that XM and Sirius agree to cap their subscription prices for six years and set aside 25% of their channels for minority and public-interest programming. Sirius and XM already have agreed to about half of what Adelstein wants -- saying they'll dedicate about two dozen channels to minority and public programming and will freeze prices for three years -- and that was enough for the two FCC Republicans, Kevin Martin and Robert McDowell, to voice their approval.

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