Howard Stern bids adieu to free radio

[TexasStooge]

NEW YORK (AP) — The free ride for Howard Stern fans ends Friday.

Stern, a New York radio fixture for 20 years and host of a syndicated show for 12 million daily listeners, bid farewell to his fans with a final show on terrestrial radio. On Jan. 9, Stern makes his move to satellite radio—where his once-free speech will cost listeners $12.95 a month.

"Good morning, and welcome to the last show on terrestrial radio," Stern said to launch his grand finale. The sound of "Taps" played in the background.

The show opened with a Stern-centric remake of the classic "What A Wonderful World," and John Lennon's "Imagine."

Stern later planned a two-hour midtown Manhattan party to say goodbye to any loyal listeners who turned up—and scores already had, despite a driving rainstorm. Stern planned to deliver an address to his radio fans, finishing up a quarter-century on terrestrial radio as arguably its most influential figure.

Stern leaves behind a plethora of imitators spawned in the wake of his success, when his show enjoyed an unprecedented ratings run to hit No. 1 in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Los Angeles.

His move to Sirius Satellite Radio, while somewhat risky, comes with a huge financial reward: Stern signed a five-year, $500 million contract to create two new channels for Sirius. The salaries, overhead and other programming costs come out of his windfall.

During his career, Stern evolved into the center of attention in First Amendment issues and censorship. Infinity Broadcasting paid $1.7 million in 1995 to settle complaints by the Federal Communications Commission against Stern. In April 2004, Clear Channel dumped Stern from six stations because of his show's content.

Sirius is depending on Stern to reverse its money-losing ways. Since the 51-year-old shock jock announced his move last year, the number of Sirius subscribers jumped from 600,000 to more than 2.2 million. That figure is expected to hit 3 million by the end of the year.

[Miss Mary]

And now we need to bid adiau to Jerry Springer. Different medium, however, similar type show - very degrading.

Jerry needs to be on cable.

Mary

[gtalum]

And now let's watch as Howard Stern's career comes crashing down as his audience goes from millions to thousands.

[streetsoldier]

And now let's watch as Howard Stern's career comes crashing down as his audience goes from millions to thousands.

Let the free market do its work...and, good riddance to "Stern warnings".

[angelwing]

Thank goodness he's gone. Good riddance!

[senorpepr]

And now let's watch as Howard Stern's career comes crashing down as his audience goes from millions to thousands.

Oh... you are far from correct there. I, personally, am not a Stern fan, but I do support his cause for freedom of speech. Furthermore, the move to satellite is only increasing his audience--much larger than it was on terrestrial radio.

[TexasStooge]

And now we need to bid adiau to Jerry Springer. Different medium, however, similar type show - very degrading.

Jerry needs to be on cable.

Mary

He's on Pay-Per-View, he just don't wanna move off the local airwaves.

[Brent]

Thank goodness he's gone. Good riddance!

Yes...

Now get Springer off my TV.

[Miss Mary]

Thank goodness he's gone. Good riddance!

Yes...

Now get Springer off my TV.

I second that....well, third it....read my post above! That's who I thought of next - Springer. And I used to have great, sincere respect for him. He was our former Mayor, newsanchorman, beloved local politician. His talk show started right here in Cincinnati and it was very similar to the format Phil Donahue had. Which is what Oprah does now. Quality talk show material. Somewhere along the line Springer came to a fork in the road - and we all know which fork he took!

Mary

[gtalum]

Let the free market do its work...and, good riddance to "Stern warnings".

It's not really the free market when he was driven off the air by ridiculous nanny-state government sanctions.

[gtalum]

Furthermore, the move to satellite is only increasing his audience--much larger than it was on terrestrial radio.

No way. Only a tiny percentage of Americans subscribes to satellite radio.

[angelwing]

I won't be subbing to it, bad enough I have to pay for cable and internet, that's enough (and cable i only got because the hubby kept pestering me, I don't even watch TV)

[fwbbreeze]

Furthermore, the move to satellite is only increasing his audience--much larger than it was on terrestrial radio.

No way. Only a tiny percentage of Americans subscribes to satellite radio.

Sorry but the facts are his new audience will be quite a bit smaller than his old. When Howard was on the airwaves he had 37 affiliates all in major markets with large population centers. Fresno California has a populations of over a million people alone and their are 36 additional markets. Sirius radio as a whole has around 2.1 million subscribers. Stern will have to work hard to keep his career afloat. I am a satellite radio subscriber (XM) and yes I do agree it has a increasing customer base but it has a long way to go to catch up with AM and FM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno,_California
http://www.radiohottalk.com/radiohottalk/stern/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_radio

fwbbreeze

[Terrell]

I'd like to wait and see what happens to Stern. While not a fan hopefully the FCC will leave him alone on Satellite Radio. I am against having things taken off the air just because some find them offensive. We have remote controls and multiple channels for a reason, if one doesn't like what's on the radio or the television, one can always change the channel.

[Brent]

I'd like to wait and see what happens to Stern. While not a fan hopefully the FCC will leave him alone on Satellite Radio. I am against having things taken off the air just because some find them offensive. We have remote controls and multiple channels for a reason, if one doesn't like what's on the radio or the television, one can always change the channel.

I don't think the FCC can mess with him on Satellite Radio, because you have to pay for it.

[gtalum]

That's right. Currently satellite radio, liek cable tv, is free of FCC interference.

If some GOP congressmen get their way, though, the nanny state will go to work protecting us from dirty words and dirty pictures in pay situations too. :rolleyes:

[senorpepr]

Furthermore, the move to satellite is only increasing his audience--much larger than it was on terrestrial radio.

No way. Only a tiny percentage of Americans subscribes to satellite radio.

Sorry but the facts are his new audience will be quite a bit smaller than his old. When Howard was on the airwaves he had 37 affiliates all in major markets with large population centers. Fresno California has a populations of over a million people alone and their are 36 additional markets. Sirius radio as a whole has around 2.1 million subscribers. Stern will have to work hard to keep his career afloat. I am a satellite radio subscriber (XM) and yes I do agree it has a increasing customer base but it has a long way to go to catch up with AM and FM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno,_California
http://www.radiohottalk.com/radiohottalk/stern/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_radio

fwbbreeze

I guess I shouldn't type messages just before going to bed. What I was meaning to say was, A) his fan base isn't in the thousands, but in the millions--even on satellite radio. While SIRI has 2.1m customers, they do have additional listeners that don't account for that 2.1m. Furthermore, those numbers are going to increase like mad. Within a few years (if he is still on SIRI) he'll have a much larger audience than before.

Most credible analysis reports show that SIRI will have 10-20m customers within the end of this decade.

(Now I put on my pro-XM hat) That is if SIRI can stay afloat with Stern on board. So far they have made some really bad moves like paying a large sum of money to a skater to host a radio show. The Stern thing tops it off--why on Earth would SIRI fork over $500m on him? That is just risky and bad business.

[senorpepr]

I'd like to wait and see what happens to Stern. While not a fan hopefully the FCC will leave him alone on Satellite Radio. I am against having things taken off the air just because some find them offensive. We have remote controls and multiple channels for a reason, if one doesn't like what's on the radio or the television, one can always change the channel.

I don't think the FCC can mess with him on Satellite Radio, because you have to pay for it.

That's right. Currently satellite radio, liek cable tv, is free of FCC interference.

If some GOP congressmen get their way, though, the nanny state will go to work protecting us from dirty words and dirty pictures in pay situations too. :rolleyes:

I agree, personally, I don't care for Stern's show. While I am a listener to O&A (who is considered Stern's big enemy), it is much different that Stern's program. However, this is not an issue over pro-Stern or not... it's an issue over censorship. Like Terrell said, it's sad when programs get pulled off the air because some find it offensive. Change the channel. Especially in today's age where we have several AM/FM/TV stations in a given market, excluding premium programs such as cable and satellite.

Brent's right... at this time the FCC can't restrict satellite radio. It's especially harder now because both XM and Sirius broadcast in Canada with XM working on plans to expand even further. Personally, as an XM listener since the early days of satrad (I subscribed to XM when they had around 1/2 to 3/4 million customers, now they are at 5.7m), I'm glad the FCC isn't "ruining" satrad yet.

Then again, I can't blame everything on the FCC. Companies such as Sony and Clear Channel have screwed up radio for years. They shut down stations that play genres that aren't as popular, decreasing our choices as customers. They pay off radio stations to overplay certain songs to boost an artist's earnings. Since I've switched to satrad, life has been so much better. I have choices. I have more songs to listen to. I don't have to subject myself to record companies' agendas. I don't have to listen to horrible DJs and 10-minutes of commericals every time I turn around. I can finally listen to music they way the artist intended without them FCC restrictions.

Finally, gtalum makes an excellent point. Some GOP congressmen are working to restrict satrad. While I am conservative, I am for freedom of speech. It annoys me that people want to censor what I want to enjoy. I am paying for satrad--let me enjoy the content on that media without restrictions. Satrad is a breath of fresh air for millions of people (nearly 8m people subscribe in the US and Canada to satrad--within 10 years it is expected to be near 75m). Don't ruin our radio. If you don't like to... change the channel. It's not hard.

You know... people say AM and FM is "free" radio, but I can't call it that. I perfer to call satrad "free" radio. While it's not free in a monetary sense, it is free of all the socialist-like restrictions.

[coriolis]

It will be interesting to see if H.S. and the satellite business take off. No doubt he will bring listeners with him.

I saw his movie and while it did evoke some sympathy for him in his "struggles," I still think that he's on a crusade that's not so much about free speech as it is about Howard. I don't like people like that.

Of course this is America, and free speech needs protecting. Unfortunately we have to deal with the extreme cases as the battlegrounds. That takes the attention away from the other more subtle ways that our freedoms become compromised.

We waste so much time fighting over buffoons and diversions. We could be so far ahead by putting the energy towards more productive things.

[chadtm80]

Good riddance to him... He has been on a local station here for a while now.. A station I use to love.. I havent listend since the day I put him on there station. I put there competor on my dial Twice Just dont think he belongs on the air at 7 in the morning on free radio...