Izumi Sakai, the singer of the JPOP group Zard died of a brain contusion at the age of 40. Zard was popular in the 1990s and this decade and was originally planning a new release later this year. During the time Hardcore J has been on the air, we had released 9 tracks from Zard as well as brought back some of Zard's older tracks through our hourly "memory box" segment.

For the rest of today, Hardcore J will memorialize Zard by playing a Zard song at the bottom of the hour.

In a brief on-air statement, REC's Michelle Eyre simply said "Thank you for the beautiful music and may you rest in peace."

REC is deeply concerned about the full Commission's decision this week to proceed with the full implementation with the IBiquity in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting (DAB) system. We are mainly concerned about information in the FCC press release that suggests that nighttime AM operation will be authorized. Not only will this create problems to the rural nighttime AM service in many areas of the country but it will give the NAB more leverage to push for FM translators to be used for AM stations, especially those that have now been obliterated by adjacent channel out of town stations with a digital signal. This will bring more translators on the air thus preventing the growth of the LPFM service.

We have received word today that Dean Spratt, host of W0KIE's "Thursday Night Potpourri" has passed away due to a relapse from a massive stroke he suffered last week, he was 54.

Dean has had a long involvement in TVRO radio as well as a professional career including doing traffic at one time for WCCO, Minneapolis, MN. Dean, who was blind, did his traffic broadcasts from his home using a leased line.

Spratt's death is the second one in the W0KIE family in the past 6 months. In early October, Dishnut Gerry passed on after a long term illness.

REC extends our condolences to Dean's family as well as to Dean's family on W0KIE.

REC Networks has reached a technology transfer agreement with SIRIUS Satellite Radio. As a part of the transaction, REC will transfer the rights to use the REC FM Broadcast Channel Search algorithms used for finding suitable frequencies for SIRIUS Satellite Radio receivers with built in very low power FM transmitters.

REC Networks will still own the domain name FMFIND.info and will provide direct links to the new SIRIUS FM Channel Search application. REC will no longer engage in consumer Part 15 FM channel searches but instead will refer all requests to SIRIUS. REC Networks will continue to maintain weekly updates of the SIRIUS FM database, which will be coincide with REC's standard FCC database update schedule.

REC is not disclosing any other terms of the agreement.