StarandBucwild.com Is now Live

Check out Star and Bucwild every mornings on Pulse 87.7 on your FM dial in the NYC area 6 - 10 am M-F or listen to the show on the net @ pulse87.com

Losses are narrower-than-expected loss on Thursday as it added more than 1 million subscribers during the quarter that included the holiday season.

But the results failed to excite investors who have been waiting more than a year for regulators to approve XM’s plan to be acquired by rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc (SIRI.O: Quote, Profile, Research). The proposed deal was first announced in February 2007.

XM reported a fourth-quarter loss of $238.8 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a loss of $263.2 million, or 90 cents a share, a year earlier.

The loss includes 25 cents a share in merger and settlement related charges, XM said. Excluding those charges, its loss was 53 cents a share, better than the average analyst expectation of 63 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

U.S. regulators have yet to decide whether to approve the XM-Sirius deal. They include the Federal Communications Commission as well as the Department of Justice, which will decide if combining the two U.S. satellite radio companies would be anti-competitive, as some critics have charged.

Analysts’ opinions about the potential success of the deal have been mixed. Several have recently said they are now more optimistic, while other remain skeptical.

“Since the one-year anniversary of the deal has passed with no word from the DOJ, risk continues to exist that the deal will not happen,” Barrington Research analyst James Goss said in a client note earlier this week.

On a conference call with analysts, XM Chief Executive Nate Davis said the company does “continue to look forward to a positive resolution to this matter soon.”

The return of the controversial Star to the air Tuesday on WNYZ (87.7 FM, Pulse-87) proves again that radio will eventually welcome back almost any exile it thinks can still draw listeners and make money.

But radio also hasn’t been afraid to get rid of people who can do that - Star, Imus, Bob Grant, Opie & Anthony - if they say something perceived as offensive.

In the long term, says one critic, this cycle could last until “corporations that own media live up to their own standards.”

John Liu, a city councilman from Queens, lit into Clear Channel after the company fired Star in May 2006 for rude remarks on Clear Channel’s WWPR.

Earlier, in January 2005, Liu had blasted Emmis over WQHT’s infamous “Tsunami Song.”

While Liu criticized the hosts in each case, he said yesterday the core issue remains “corporate responsibility.

“No one pickets Howard Stern, because he says up front he’s going to insult and offend people. But Clear Channel promotes itself as a fair-minded company that aims to serve families and the community.”

Ironically, Liu and Star are on the same page here. In a pending lawsuit against Clear Channel, Star contends he was told to do the things for which he was fired.

“Star has some personal responsibility,” said Liu. “But he was acting at the behest of the company. This is not about censorship. It’s about companies being held accountable for doing what they say.”

And have recent firings and sanctions, which many folks in media think have cast a deep shadow of uncertainty over on-air content, cleaned things up?

“We’re not in the clear,” said Liu. “But hopefully we’re addressing the issue.”

Joel Salkowitz admits 87.7 FM isn’t a place most New Yorkers are used to turning for contemporary hit radio. But he thinks that once “The Pulse” (WNYZ) kicks into gear on that frequency Monday, listeners will seek it out.

Right now, WNYZ is playing Russian music, as it has for the several years since it signed on. Come Monday, says Salkowitz, it will be playing “a kind of top 40 with a rhythmic leaning.”

He declines to be more specific, but promises “it will fill a hole. I think it will be a station that people will make a point of finding. It’s like satellite radio - you don’t buy it because you want to pay money for radio, but because it has unique content.”

But the music is only part of what Pulse-87 will be selling. On Monday, Feb. 18, it will bring back Star and Buc Wild as its morning team.

That was supposed to happen a month ago, but Star had a liver transplant. Now, Salkowitz says, all systems are go.

“I can’t believe the energy this guy has after major surgery,” says Salkowitz. “He can’t wait to get back in the game.”

Pulse is happy to have him, Salkowitz adds. “He moved the ratings needle in the morning at two different New York stations - and I think this time you’ll see a side of Star you haven’t seen before.”

Star has said he often had to play a character in his previous gigs at WQHT and WWPR, and that now “I’ll be myself. There will be less hip-hop nonsense.”

Salkowitz says Monday’s sign-on will be relatively low-key. “We’ll establish the music, then probably have a bigger production when Star goes on the air.”

Salkowitz says he’s also talking with other deejays and expects a lineup “soon.”

WNYZ transmits its signal from a low-power TV station, Ch. 6 on Long Island - which has raised some questions about whether it can compete against the likes of powerful WHTZ (100.3 FM).

Salkowitz says the Pulse signal will cover “80%” of the New York market and will be available online for anyone else.

There has also been concern that Arbitron doesn’t measure WNYZ listening, which would make it difficult to sell advertising. But Salkowitz says the station has been talking with Arbitron “and you might hear something in a week or so.”

The Star of the show on the new radio station Pulse 87 (WNYZ, 87.7 FM) says he can’t wait to get on the air - though it could be a little later than he had hoped.

Troi (Star) Torain, the successful and sometimes controversial former morning host at WQHT (97.1 FM) and WWPR (105.1 FM), is scheduled to start Monday on Pulse 87, which debuted this week with a dance-oriented top-40 format.

That debut will be widely watched, since he’s been off the air since being loudly fired from Power-105 in May 2006 over offensive remarks about the child of a rival host.

He said Tuesday, however, that his start date could be pushed back to Feb. 25, giving him more time to recover from recent surgery that included a liver transplant and other work.

“I’m going to see how I feel later this week,” he said. “I just want to be sure I’m ready.”

Transplants, which must be done when a donor becomes available, are debilitating.

Star said he has been back to the hospital three times over complications, which isn’t unusual, and that he lost 59 pounds.

“None of my clothes fit,” he said. “And there are a lot of foods I can’t eat anymore. Right now I’m having a meal of Beech-Nut baby food. Everything is mushy.”

At first, he said, he will probably play more music than he used to, and he may have a mix deejay.

“I’ll give exposure to people who can’t get a shot on corporate-controlled radio,” he said.

His team will also include the original Buc Wild (”cleaned up”), White Trash Helene (”she has been such a trooper … she turned down other radio jobs because she wanted to work with me”) and DX21, who has created a lot of his show materials.

Star says he turned down another radio offer because Pulse 87 gave more creative control and a voice in the station. So he’s happy that, for starters, he was able to help the station hire program director Joel Salkowitz.

“Joel’s a master,” he said. “The music sounds great and it’s getting the response we want. We didn’t do this from corporate research. We did it from our gut.”

As for his place in this setting, Star said he’ll be himself.

“I don’t have anything more to prove,” he said. “So we’re just going to have fun. Remember, this isn’t just a different world for radio today, it’s a different country. Everyone’s held hostage by pressure groups.

“When I came to New York in 1981, my goal was for people to know my name. Now my goal is to be remembered.”

So he hopes to resume that pursuit as soon as possible.

“I feel a lot stronger than I did two weeks ago,” he said. “When I come back, I want to be ready to do five days a week, four hours a day. If I have to have Buc Wild push me in a wheelchair and hook up an IV, I’ll be ready.”