Back in March, there was a Howard Stern post here at barnson.org in which our gracious blog host, El Matt, wrote:
“I think Howard’s time is just about done. He’s going to join Limbaugh on the dung heap of radio history, and he doesn’t like it.”
Well, according to the news reports, Howard received $100M in salary and bonuses to begin broadcasting his show over Sirius satellite radio airwaves in 2006. Sirius felt this deal was justified because Howard still retains the #1 spot with males 18 to 49. So, Matt, it looks like not only has Howard survived your projection, but he’s still retaining his top ratings.
Because satellite radio is paid for by subscribers, the FCC can’t impose indecency limitations like they can over “traditional” airwaves. Howard stated that his goal is to reduce the value of all Clear Channel radio properties to $0.50.
My thoughts: I think his show is awful. But I’m glad he’s been fighting the FCC for all these years because worse than his programming is the government’s censor control. I’m equally glad that there’s a major media outlet that is free from FCC censorship.
Prediction #1: Given the general makeup of his audience, Howard’s show will not result in the 1 million new subscribers needed to recoup Sirius’s Stern signing cost.
Prediction #2: XM will not retaliate and will stay out of trying to land an equally big talent to match Sirius.
Dying…
Well, maybe I’ll just have to wait for Stern to die before my prediction comes true. But it will come true… eventually!
As far as XM vs. Sirius, I’ve been considering XM for several months. Mainly because XM carries Air America Radio while Sirius doesn’t. The only talk radio I can receive well near Salt Lake is conservative — the usual Rush, Dr. Laura, Michael Reagan lineup — and I’d really like a little progressive perspective.
Well, there are some non-conservative broadcasters in town, but they are the same kooks that believe in spirit readings, alien abduction, and that kind of crap 🙂 Listening to their shows, despite that they have a goodly chunk which I agree with, falls into the “accepting advice from a known idiot” category…
Anyway, good for Stern for going somewhere he can be as dirty as he likes. I think the FCC is overreaching in their mandate, personally. The Broadcast Flag on HDTV is past the limit, I think. Here’s hoping Stern’s move can curb some enthusiasm for legislating the airwaves.
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Matthew P. Barnson
Stern remarks
Guys, don’t you see? The FCC sees this as a major victory. They successfully drove Stern right off the air. I promise you, they don’t give a crap what XM and Sirius are doing. They are a government agency with a clear mandate, manage public airwaves. They are not interested in “the competition”. They simply don’t care as long as their job is done. In this case, it is.
Since you wrote this
Since you wrote this comment, Sirius has gone from 700,000 subs to 1,500,000 subs. So much for your theory on not getting 1 million subs to pay for Howard. People want a choice and Sirius gives the consumer just that. It has nothing to do with Howard and has everything to do with choice, just like your cable or satellite TV provider with a huge plethora of channels and content. People said that pay TV would never make it either. Take a poll of who has pay TV sometime. You’ll be suprised how many subs the cable and Sat TV providers have. It’s huge!
Not Wrong Yet
That’s 800,000 new subs, not 1 million …yet… 🙂
Also, I’m not sure I agree with you about “choice” as the reason for the recent surge. A 100+% increase in paid subs in less than one year (given that your #s are right) doesn’t have anything to do with choice.
Stating that Sirius’ recent success is due to some new type of choice doesn’t make sense, given that XM Radio launched their service something like five years ago. The basic choice to move to satellite radio has been available for some time. The growth in Sirius is likely due to differentation in programming and package offer — that’s the only real “choice” aspect today.
You mentioned pay TV. People don’t pay for cable TV because there’s choice — people get cable because without it they won’t be able to watch “Sex In The City” or ESPN. The majority of subscribers pay for cable TV because of specific channels they want. How many people want cable TV just because they want to have 300 or more channels?
In the absence of any type of major price promotion or package offer, it would seem that differentation in programming is the likely reason that Sirius surged. And it’s a pretty big surge.
Sirius..
It is likely that when Stern leaves, I’ll get sirius
Sirius Subscriber..
I signed up for Sirius about a year ago. I take alot of road trips with friends and family. Sad as it may sound, one of the big factors was that I hate trying to find a good station when I’m in some small town. The reason I picked Sirius over XM was Sirius was all included while XM was more like cable. If you wanted Opie and Anthoy, Playboy or some of the other stations you had to pay an extra couple of bucks a month. Plus I like the sports, espn and comedy stations.
I did hear that XM is trying to make a break more into talk radio. Since Stern is going to Sirius, they picked up Opie and Anthony and later Ron and Fez. Supposedly they are going for a total of 5 new DJs like that. — Bryan
O&A
Opie & Anthony are on free radio now on XM, which means there’s only like 3 premium channels. Just food for thought… and boy, are they funny.
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Matthew P. Barnson
Jim Norton..
Jim norton changed my life.
I never imagined
I never imagined, until I heard Jim Norton, the many and varied uses of the vulgar, slang synonym for “rooster”. I’m glad he’s a regular on the show, because O&A without him? Well, I’ll just say that if Jim’s out-of-town doing another show, I’ll tune into something else for the day.
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Matthew P. Barnson
Jim Norton..
If you ever wonder why I sometimes say over the top mean things.. it is his influence.
Thanks, jim, Eat a Bullet.
Stern vs O&A
They just need combine both of the networks(yes I know this wont happen).. I like the fact that Stern is coming to Sirius. And alot of the DJs on the Maxium station are the same style as O&A. But still not quite as good. So until Jan, I’d say that XM has the better talk(for people like us). As far as the sports networks, I think Sirius is the better network… NFL, NBA, NHL, and several college football. Too bad XM got ACC, now i cant listen to the MD games that I’m not at. — Bryan
Sirius Review
Okay bloggers, I’ve got a personal review for Sirius radio!
For my birthday my in-laws got me Sirius radio. Spent an hour getting it unpacked and adjusted. Spent 30 minutes out in 10 degree weather trying to run the cord from the roof into the car. Loads o’ fun. One month later, I feel that I’ve had enough time running the dial to make an informed review…
I found some things shocking with Sirius. First, there are TONS of commercials. These are not just Sirius commercials, but commercials for all kinds of products. I’m not sure how DARS branders can justify “commercial free” radio because the talk/news channels have got ads running non-stop. It’s just like the frequency of ads that are run on cable TV news channels.
Second, when it comes to said talk/news channels, it’s hard to get the news in the morning. I get in the car and spend the first five minutes of my morning drive trolling through the various stations to get some news. It’s not automatic.
Third, the audio quality isn’t great. Granted, this could be because of my physical installation and manual gear arrangement in the car. I think my positioning the receiver near the gear shift is reducing the sound quality. The quality is great for music stations, but lousy for spoken word stations.
Cool stuff: -I get to listen to my Washington Capitals while driving around town -I get to listen to any NHL game while driving around town -One of the music channels, Chill 35, is chill
Overall, if you’re interested in getting Sirius for the music or for specific programming (NHL, NFL, Howard Stern) then it may be worth it. If you’re someone that spends the majority of your day in a car, then it may be worth it. Otherwise, I don’t feel this is a lifestyle consumer electronic device that will change your life or the way you listen to radio.
I’ve had a very different experience..
I tried the FM transmitter and it sucked, so I got the thing professionally installed, and its a beauty now. I like Stern.. and he runs commercials, but a lot fewer than his old show.
CNN and FOX (among others) seem to run the same commercials as cable tv because they are, in fact, the same – they’re just the audio feed from those channels.. same goes for E! Radio and, I think, ABC news.
NPR is just NPR broadcast ofver SIRIUS, as well, I think.. and you’r eright.. not a lot of good local news, and some problems getting just a basic newscast in the AM.
On the other hand.. I enjoy the three comedy channels and the Stern show running 24hrs a day (alas, Don and Mike, you get me a lot less now) – the Music Variety is great – and while I have some quality issues too.. I did buy the cheapest radio and get the cheapest installation.
Then again, I do spand a lot of car time.. so that may be related.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
Quality issues…
The sound quality issues are not your radio or your installation (unless you’re going the FM route, in which case you really need a direct hookup). Low quality is an endemic problem to the lossy compression used by this medium. They can allocate the bandwidth on a per-station basis, making some stations much better than others.
The net effect of this kind of decision-making is that the very popular stations with the bubble-gum music tend to have really good sound quality, while the talk stations are bottom-of-the-barrel for sound quality. Low enough that sometimes people sound computerized.
We enjoy the heck out of our XM radio (now permanently stationed in our front room, not the car), but have come to accept that the comedy and news stations sound as bad, or sometimes worse, than AM radio.
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Matthew P. Barnson