does stern owe the fcc?

while catching up on my reading, i saw that ana marie cox wrote on howard stern's move to satellite radio in wired online. her claim that the fcc made stern who he is surprised me:

For all Stern's complaints about the FCC, the truth is that government policies made him what he is today. When the government lifted regulations on radio station ownership in the mid-'90s, communications giants like Clear Channel muscled their way into local markets - so no more Dave in the Morning or Billy the Wonder Weasel. Larger-than-life national personalities like Stern and Rush Limbaugh replaced quirky local hosts. Stern can now be heard on 40 stations nationwide. He may be pissed at the FCC for telling him what not to say, but he should send them a thank-you note for allowing him to spray himself across such a big audience.

is it just me, or does anyone else think that stern should not have to thank an agency for "allowing him" to be successful? the fcc didn't do anything positive for him; their action was negative in lifting an unnecessary ban. thanking the fcc for howard stern would be kind of like thanking an attacker for allowing you to live. that's not just inaccurate; it's downright silly.

then she states that:

Stern has to be defended on the precarious ground of the slippery slope: You may not like what he says, but if the government shuts him up, who will they silence next?

the slippery slope always seems an odd way to defend constitutional rights, but considering the political climate it's probably the most pragmatic. i am not a legal or constitutional scholar, as my (very willful) ignorance of why "congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" is disregarded makes clear.

but satellite radio has a disparate war to wage with the boys and girls downtown. congress, for some mysterious reason, has been trying hard to take down the operation, mainly by preventing satellite radio from broadcasting local programming.

while we're on the subject of content regulation, be careful what you say on those cell phones, also regulated by our friendly fcc.