Howard Stern made his long-awaited debut on Sirius Satellite Radio today. While there were a few technical glitches at the start, once Stern and his crew got rolling, it was business as usual with only a couple noticeable changes in the program. The first is the hiring of George Takei as the announcer for Stern's program. Best known as Star Trek's Sulu, Takei was live in the studio for his debut. The other was the lack of commercials, as Stern's debut went commercial free -- and lasted well into the 11 a.m. hour. Stern said 6 commercial units per hour would show up starting tomorrow with clients including Heineken and Vermont Teddy Bear.

More of Stern's channel line-up kicks off today including a daily wrap-up show with Gary Dell’Abate & Jon Hein (now a fulltime employee) and the debut of Bubba The Love Sponge in afternoon drive.  

Dell'Abate took home the prize for the first curse word uttered during the debut as he suggested playing Ben Folds "Bitches Ain't Shit," though later in the program Stern dropped the first F-bomb, even though he stated, "I've made it a personal rule that I'm not going to curse." Stern also denied during his program that he married longtime girfriend Beth Ostrosky as suggested in reports elsewhere.

Meanwhile, can Stern fans expect a podcast via iTunes?  There is a Stern podcast page currently available at iTunes, but to date only contains a one minute, seventeen second advertisement for his Sirius program.