Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) Chief Executive Officer Mel Karmazin seems exasperated that the Federal Communications Commission has yet to rule on his company's merger with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR) which was filed more than a year ago.

"We share the reasonable frustration that many of our investors feel regarding the time it has taken," said the loquacious CEO during yesterday's earnings conference call (via SeekingAlpha). "We also share the outrage that some have expressed to me regarding press reports of opportunistic parties trying to take advantage of the process and extract value for themselves that properly belongs to SIRIUS subscribers and shareholders."

Karmazin has a point. The FCC review of the satellite radio merger has moved at a glacial pace because of the opposition of the terrestrial radio industry which figures that any medium that employs Howard Stern needs to be stopped at all costs. As yesterday's earnings report indicates, the industry is not big enough to support two companies.

Sirius reported a first-quarter net loss of $104.1 million, or 7 cents a share, narrower than $144.7 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 33% to $270.4 million. The results, which matched Wall Street expectations, were helped by a drop in SAC per gross subscriber addition to $91 in the first quarter from $101 a year earlier. The company ended the quarter with 8.64 million subscribers, up 31% from a year earlier. Average revenue per subscriber was little changed at$10.42,