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Here are some selected notes from Sirius Satellite Radio’s third quarter financial report, which saw the network post a smaller loss on bigger revenues and solid subscriber growth. Comments — ranging from the benefit of paying Howard Stern $500 million over 5 years to the notion of a merger with rival XM Satellite Radio — are from Sirius chief executive Mel Karmazin on a conference call with analysts, and a Reuters interview with Sirius chief financial officer David Freer:       Reuters: Can you quantify Howard Stern effect on Sirius’s financial health, in terms of subscriber growth or revenue? Sirius CFO David Freer: The best way to look at that is in terms of where are we now compared to where were we the day before we announced him. That gets you your cleanest look at things. While we have added a lot of things since…(but) he was the last major piece that will affect this year. On Oct. 4 2004 we announced Howard Stern was coming. (the Stern channels launched in Jan. 2006) The day before we announced Howard, Wall Street expected us to finish this year with 3.5 million subscribers, and about $400 million in revenue. We in fact will finish this year with 6.3 million subscribers and $615 in revenue. When you look at it that way for 2006 alone, in essence “the Howard Effect” has added $215 million to the revenue base, for a collection of programming that costs about $80 million a year in cash costs.      Analyst: What do you make of talk of a potential merger between XM and SIRIUS. Is it even feasible?Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin: I really don’t have very much to say about any hypothetical, you know, combination that could or could not exist. There clearly would be a good amount of value creation that would be there. But regarding whether or not such a combination would take place, I really have nothing that I could say about it. And you shouldn’t take that to mean that it’s possible or you shouldn’t take that to mean it’s not possible. You should just assume that I have, or we have nothing really to talk about. You should assume that we will be looking to kick their ass in the fourth quarter. We do that, and they are looking to do the same to us and we are competitors. We feel very good about our company in the stand-alone mode and if in fact the opportunity ever came to create more shareholder value, it’s something that obviously we would be interested in.   Reuters: So does that mean a yes or nay to a merger?Sirius CFO David Freer: There is no part of our business plan that contemplates a merger of the two companies. We are busy implementing our strategies in the marketplace and aggressively looking to win subscribers.    ,