NAB President/CEO David Rehr has sent a pair of letters to the FCC, calling for investigations into XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. Rehr asks for a probe into the satcasters' troubles with ground repeater regulations, as well as the companies' recent free trial offerings of their programming.

In the first letter, Rehr asked the FCC to "immediately commence a full investigation into both the actual and reported operations of Sirius and XM's terrestrial repeater networks." Both companies recently asked for a window of time to continue operating terrestrial repeaters that did not meet FCC regulations, allowing them time to correct the issue. "These latest disclosures reveal a persistent corporate (if not industry) circumvention of the FCC's regulations," Rehr wrote.

In his second letter, Rehr says that XM and Sirius currently have a "privileged regulatory position" because of "the expanding delivery of complimentary satellite radio services to nonsubscribers." Rehr mentions a recent XM deal with Acura as well as this week's free online trial of Howard Stern's Howard 100 channel on Sirius. He adds that "drawing a regulatory distinction between satellite and traditional broadcast radio simply because satellite radio content is available on a subscription basis may no longer be justified."

Rehr's first letter can be read here, with the second one found here (both in PDF format).