8:02am -- the conference call starts. While we're going through introductions and disclaimers, read about Siriu's results for Q1 here. Among the results: a 61% increase in revenue to $204 million.

8:05am -- CEO Mel Karmazin takes hold of the call. 556,000 subscribers were added in Q1, with a total of 6.6 million subscribers in total for Sirius.

8:08am -- some other Q1 facts from Sirius's prepared remarks:

• SIRIUS ended first quarter of 2007 with 6,581,045 subscribers, up 61% from 4,077,747 subscribers at the end of the year-ago quarter. During first quarter of 2007, SIRIUS added 556,490 net subscribers consisting of 192,978 from the retail channel and 364,674 from the OEM channel. In first quarter of 2007, SIRIUS captured 66% of satellite radio segment share, marking the sixth consecutive quarter for leadership.
• Total revenue for the first quarter of 2007 increased to $204.0 million, up 61% from $126.7 million for the year-ago quarter. Advertising revenue was $6.7 million during first quarter 2007 and average monthly revenue per subscriber (or "ARPU") was $10.46. Average monthly subscriber churn was 2.3%, and was consistent with previously provided 2007 churn guidance. SAC per gross subscriber addition was $104 for the first quarter of 2007.
• SIRIUS reported a net loss of ($144.7) million, or ($0.10) per share for the first quarter of 2007, a 68% improvement from a net loss of ($458.5) million, or ($0.33) per share for the first quarter of 2006. The adjusted net loss for first quarter 2007 (adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation) improved to ($120.5) million, or ($0.08) per share, a 31% improvement from the adjusted net loss for first quarter 2006 of ($174.0) million, or ($0.13) per share.

8:11am -- Mel reminds the audience that Sirius is the fastest-growing radio company in the U.S. With the company having added more subscribers in Q1 than it did in its entire first year of operation, that is probably true.

8:13am -- churn was 2.3% for the quarter. This figure represents the amount of customers who discontinued service.

8:16am -- Sirius is going over its OEM partnerships, with new agreements with Audi and Mercury (among others). Sirius is ramping up OEM partnerships to a huge degree here. In addition, Sirius' involvement with "beaming" backseat TV (three channels) to Chrysler vehicles via its satellite network is a compelling strategy as well.

8:22am -- the official remarks are about to end...Sirius' CFO takes over to go over the Q1 income statement and other financial instruments.

8:24am -- here's the story on Sirius' loss for Q1 of 2007:

• Net loss (in millions): 2007 ($144,745) and 2006 ($458,544)

8:26am -- CEO Karmazin is talking about the cost of Sirius, and he alludes to a possible increase in monthly price from $12.95 per month to $14.95 per month based on the premium programming Sirius provides, even over rival XM Radio. He doesn't definitively say this is coming.

8:29am -- Mel is now talking about the proposed merger between Sirius and XM. So far, the process to lead to a successful merger is proceeding as expected (no surprises).

8:31am -- the analyst Q&A begins. First question: radio ad sales are slowing in the terrestrial radio segment, so what makes Sirius think that the ad model will continue to work as its business model (or will it need to recruit more subscribers). Answer: Q1's ad revenue for 2007 was down significantly from 2006, and that was due to Howard Stern's debut in January 2006 (which brought in an initial dump of ad revenue).

8:35am -- second question: what is Sirius doing about customer churn to stabilize it (reduce it)? Answer: Sirius uses "best practices" in place to reduce churn as well as "blocking and tackling" procedures at the call center (retention efforts, in other words). Also, looking at reducing churn through prediction of consumer reasons is another thing being looked at. This is standard stuff -- nothing too exciting here.

8:38am -- third question: what has the impact of the NASCAR partnership given to Sirius in terms of subscribers? Answer (from Mel): he groups in the NASCAR coverage with other premium content to explain boosts in subscriber growth (not just tied to a single event). He says radios are usually sold out in cities where NASCAR races happen. That says quite a bit, yes?

8:42am -- next question: what percentage of subscribers right now take the "family" package (multi-receiver)? Answer: 16% of subscribers take the multi-receiver package right now.

8:45am -- next question: what is the mix of Sirius receivers in higher-end cars and lower-end cars? Answer: there is no clear differentiation, but higher-end cars do in fact have higher end conversion rates compared to lower-end cars. Conversion rates are the cars that have receivers where the customers end up ending a free trial period to become subscribers at the conclusion of the subsidized period.

8:46am -- next question: what were the revenue-share royalties for Q1? Answer: 11% for the first quarter. This means that 11% of revenues from Sirius content are given as royalties to content producers (music owners) if I am not mistaken.

8:52am -- last question: what devices stood out at retailers in terms of sales? The models that retail for $79 and $149 are the hottest sellers, while the volume in portable (wearable) receivers has been disappointing so far.

8:54am -- Mel ends the call pretty abruptly say stating that there are no more remarks to be made. That's it! Not much detail given on the XM merger at all except that it is "proceeding as planned." To get a full recap on Q1 numbers for Sirius, see this. Have a good Tuesday folks!