In another life, Mel Karmazin was President/COO of Viacom. At Viacom and (especially) at his previous post at Infinity Broadcasting, he was responsible for the rise of two previously little-known talk show hosts you may have heard of: Don Imus and Howard Stern.

Now, Karmazin is the CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio. He’s the kind of guy who, when it was announced he was joining Sirius, saw Sirius’ stock price rise 36% in a week.

Sirius itself is offering a fun little promotion right now that caught our eye: a three-day free online trial of Sirius’ 65 radio stations. Content over at Sirius is all over the spectrum: Not only do they broadcast BBC Radio stateside, but entire stations are devoted to New Orleans jazz, show tunes, Jimmy Buffett, governmental proceedings and left-wing talk radio. As for the radio show hosts themselves, they include everyone from Republican gadfly G. Gordon Liddy to 1980s college rocker Mojo Nixon. The best part? No credit cards or financial information are required for the free trial. No wonder Don Imus calls Karmazin “the Zen Master.”

Mel Karmazin will be discussing his legendary career and future plans on Thursday, September 22 with Stephen Adler of BusinessWeek.