Stern Will Jump To Sirius In 2006

UnanimousCoward writes "Howard Stern announced it on his current radio show, and several feeds including this CNET article are reporting that Stern has signed a multi-million dollar multi-year contract with Sirius Satellite Radio starting in January, 2006. As I've watched technology grow from the time I was listening to Stern in the eighties, I can't wait to hook into a shockjock-timeshifted-podcast..."

Comments

Already predicted in this Wired Mag article:

[wdavies]

On XM Radio and its founder. Very interesting discussion of how they are gonna kill the Clear Channel republican monopoly. I for one am almost about ready to go out and buy one even though I cant stand Stern...

Free Now. Pay Later

[troutster]

Swansong for Stern. I doubt as many of Stern listeners as predicted will plunk down their hard earned cash to listen to him. He is definetly #1 now, but that is sure to disappear once you have to pay to listen.

But will Stern fans follow him to satellite?

[MtViewGuy]

There are a couple of issues that have to be considered now that Howard Stern will become a Sirius satellite-only show:

1. Will fans pony up the big bucks for a Sirius satellite radio receiver and pay the monthly fee just to hear Stern? Remember, unlike XM satellite radio, Sirius is still quite rare as pre-installed on new cars.

2. Will Stern be unfettered by censorship and take the show to extremely raunchy levels of sexual descriptions and use of raunchy language?

Despite Sirius getting NFL broadcasts, they're still way behind XM in terms of public recognition.

How I See It

[MBCook]

Let me start off by saying I don't support shock jocks and I've never listened to Stern.

OK, that out of the way, here is how I see it. First of all, it's a very novel solution to this whole "FCC is censoring people" stuff (which I don't believe, but that's a matter of opinon). I never would have thought of that. I wonder if any other shock jocks follow suit. Makes sense though. XM has a Playboy channel (I have no idea what's on it), so obviously they aren't subject to those kinds of fines. I wonder how substantially his program will change now that he's free to say and do whatever he wants. And I wonder if Sirrius will have any kind of limits or leash on what he can do.

As for moving to Sirrus, they've got to love that. As the article says, their stock jumped 15%. While I've never listened to Stern, the fact that I know who he is without having to read an article or something like that says he's popular (or contravertial, but in this case both). I bet this will do some great things for Sirrus's membership (although it might drive a few away on idological grounds, but I doubt more than a handfull). I have to wonder if there was any kind of bidding war between Sirrus and XM (which my family has a subscription to). I would think having a radio celeb go sat-radio only would be something XM would have liked to be a part of. This should also lend an air of credibility to the idea of sat-radio, if a big star did this.

On a side note, YRO never seems to have anything to do with Online any more. Why not just rename it "Your Rights"? Just a thought. Don't bother commenting on this part.

Re:YRO?

[malchus842]

The "Online" might be wrong, but"rights" are surely involved.

The fact that Stern's show is a major problem for the current nannies in Washington, getting a show on a medium that is subscription only is a big deal. Does it affect my rights? Sure does. My right to listen to what I want to listen to, without government censorship. I don't like Howard Stern, but I like the idea of the government controlling what he can and can't say on the radio a lot less.

The current rush by the government to "protect us" is just another link in the chain of despotism.

Re:Regulations?

[pauls2272]

Currently they cannot regulate Sirius (or cable). This is actually due to a court decision (Playboy vs US Government).

However, republicans in congress have been saying that profanity/indecency should not be allowed just because it occurs on cable and that the FCC should have the power to regulate cable (this would also apply to satelite radio).

Since the republicans control congress, expect to see "child protection" legislation in the next year or so to give the FCC the power to regulate cable.

Re:I don't get it...

[Pii]

The way I read your post, it sounded to me like you were agreeing with the original poster that he'd been fired, which is silly. (If that's not the case, my apologies... Lot of Stern bashing in this thread, and I thought you were piling on.)

But here's the interesting thing... Now that he's announced that he won't be renewing, he'll essentially have the next 15 months to promote his Sirius gig, and encourage people to buy the hardware and subscriptions.

CBS/Viacom, and terrestrial radio in general, can't afford to give their competitor that kind of free ride.

Even though Stern has a contract, I don't think they'll keep him on the air. They'll have to pay him out (or he'll take them to court, and win, just like he's doing with Clear Channel over the 6 markets they kicked him out of), and they'll have to put a replacement show on, even though it'll hurt their ratings and advertising revenue.

Stern will not be on regular Radio for the entire period between now and his Satellite debut. (He hasn't publically predicted this, but if you look at how he's finally gotten his website together this year (He had no website up until this year) I'm sure he knows this to be true.)