Charlie Sheen and his class one-liners are all the rage these days. With his popular television show being pulled from the air after meltdown, Sheen has been on an all out media blitz which recently included a phone call to Sirius XM’s Howard Stern.

Sirius XM made a bold move early on and announced “Tiger Blood Radio“, a channel dedicated to Sheen news. The channel, which ran for 24 hours, was on and off the air before many even realized it existed, and did not include the Charlie Sheen himself. Howard Stern noted that the company did not utilize him in developing the channel, and it appears that Sirius XM may have lost a big opportunity. Stern wanted a full blown show with Charlie Sheen involved.

Sheen has taken the media by storm. He has set records with Twitter, and now has inked a merchandising deal with a familiar face to Sirius XM investors. Sheen and Live Nation have come to terms on a huge deal that includes T-shirts, mugs and other items that will be retailed at stores like Wal Mart, Target, and Hot Topic. Items could hit the shelves as soon as next week. One of Live nation’s largest investors is Liberty’s John Malone.

In the category of opportunity lost, wouldn’t it be nice if all of this was happening with Sheen hosting a show on Sirius XM? Sure it is easy to second guess what the company did after the fact. This site has been critical of Sirius XM for not keeping pace with pop culture, and now, the second the company does something bold, we are questioning them yet again.

I give Sirius XM credit for acting fast…Tiger Blood Radio was the right idea. I give them grief for doing it without Sheen. Had Sirius XM been able to ink Sheen to even a temporary daily one hour show hosted on the Howard 100/101 channels it would have been a major coup. Now Live Nation has the star and will profit handsomely from it, while Tiger Blood Radio is just a memory.

On a positive note, it is not too late to jump on the bandwagon once again, and the possibilities might be endless. Perhaps Sirius XM can parlay their relationship with Liberty into convincing Sheen that having a radio show platform on Sirius XM could. There are even some that speculate that Malone could package up his interest in both Sirius XM and Live Nation together for a new media giant.

Position – Long Sirius XM