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 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.”