National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President/CEO David Rehr has sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, urging the commission to investigate satellite radio's offering of free listenership. The NAB is concerned about free trial subscriptions that have become standard with new XM and Sirius receivers installed in cars, thus allowing listeners to hear potentially offensive and indecent material without having paid for it, as well as recent reports of radios being able to pick up satcaster signals that are overmodulating.

Rehr says that the NAB is "concerned about the unequal regulatory treatment between free over-the-air and satellite radio." He cites recent articles about satellite broadcasting "bleeding through" so they can be picked up on FM radios, and notes that people listening to NPR and Christian radio on non-comm stations at the end of the radio band "have been particularly subject to the receipt of unwelcome satellite programming that could clearly fall within the FCC’s definition of indecent material." The NAB has passed along complaints to the FCC that stations have received over such incidents.

Rehr also discusses free trials of satellite radio in new cars and in rental cars, and says that "To the extent that satellite radio service is now received free by nonsubscribers, this undermines the frequently-made argument that satellite radio should be regulated very differently than traditional broadcast radio simply because satellite is a subscription service."

His entire letter to the FCC can be read here (PDF format).