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brdgtThey will be reairing the show this evening. I listened to it this morning before hubby took the radio off to work, but George Takai was the first guest - what a good sport, he's not even promoting anything.
As His Sirius Show Begins, Radio Ponders the Stern Effect
By ERIC A. TAUB, The New York Times, January 9, 2006
When Howard Stern begins his first broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio this morning, he may be playing to a diminished audience, but his impact on the future of satellite radio has already been substantial.
The next question is whether Mr. Stern's extraordinary compensation will have any effect on the way on-air talent is paid.
Last week, Sirius announced that it had granted Mr. Stern and his manager more than 34 million shares of common stock, currently worth about $225 million, because certain subscriber levels had been reached. That is on top of the $500 million that Sirius had already agreed to pay Mr. Stern for his salary and production costs. Mr. Stern now holds more shares than any other single investor, according to David J. Frear, Sirius's executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Whether or not Mr. Stern's show, which begins at 6 a.m., is a success, his decision to jump from free broadcast to subscription radio has bestowed legitimacy to a medium that many had regarded with skepticism. Sirius's number of subscribers has jumped from 660,000 at the time Mr. Stern's deal was announced in October 2004, to 3.3 million today.
"Clearly a lot of that is attributable to Howard Stern," said Jim Collins, a vice president at Sirius. As a result of its growth, the company's initial $500 million investment in Mr. Stern will be covered by the subscriber increase, Mr. Collins said. Still, XM Satellite Radio remains the leader in the industry. While Sirius added more listeners in the final quarter of 2005, XM ended the year with more than six million subscribers.
The decision by Mr. Stern to move to satellite radio may also encourage other talent to migrate to the fledgling medium.
"Actors never wanted to be on cable until some of them started to win awards," said Agnes Lukasewych, a vice president at MPG, a media planning company.
XM previously announced that both Bob Dylan and the hosts of ABC's "Good Morning America" would create shows for the company. Sirius has plans for programming from Martha Stewart and Bill Bradley.
With broadcast radio losing the large audiences attracted by Mr. Stern, Ms. Lukasewych says she expects that advertisers will need to buy more spots to reach the same number of listeners. "Terrestrial radio has to step up to the plate" and work to attract new talent, she said.
The problem will deepen over the next several years, as MP3 players and new Internet-based music ventures, such as Motorola's iRadio service, strive to grab consumers' attention.
"XM and Sirius got to their current subscriber levels fairly easily, but at what point do they reach some level of saturation due to increased competition?" said Danielle Levitas, a senior analyst with IDC. "There is value in having some sort of cachet with unique programming."
While Mr. Stern's agreement with Sirius helped put the company on the map, performers giving a second thought to satellite radio should not anticipate the lucrative arrangement that Mr. Stern was able to negotiate.
"There isn't anybody else in Howard's class. If Sirius had not done something they would have been totally in the dust," said Paul Kagan, chairman of PK Worldmedia, a Carmel, Calif., research firm. "You don't often see a network mortgaging itself to bring in a star."
XM said it did not have plans to mix up its programming because of Mr. Stern's new show.
"Our content has not changed," said Eric Logan, XM's executive vice president of programming. "We have a platform targeted at mainstream America. There are more and more people who find Howard Stern repulsive and offensive and will go away from anywhere he is."
Nor does XM expect Mr. Stern's salary to have much of an impact on the broader industry. Mr. Logan noted that a number of performers had asked to do shows without compensation, simply to be on XM. Mr. Stern's salary "is so far out of whack that it does not do anything to the economics of the business," Mr. Logan said.
Sirius has given Mr. Stern two channels to program. His four-hour show airs at 6 a.m. on both coasts, live in the East and tape-delayed in the West. In addition to the live show, programming will include Howard 100 News, a news operation "reporting on the world of Howard."
"Howard will be doing a show that he hasn't done for 15 years, because he's been held back" by the Federal Communications Commission, said Patrick Reilly, senior vice president of communications for Sirius. "It's not about swearing, it's about being candid, doing creative performance work for radio."
As His Sirius Show Begins, Radio Ponders the Stern Effect
By ERIC A. TAUB, The New York Times, January 9, 2006
When Howard Stern begins his first broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio this morning, he may be playing to a diminished audience, but his impact on the future of satellite radio has already been substantial.
The next question is whether Mr. Stern's extraordinary compensation will have any effect on the way on-air talent is paid.
Last week, Sirius announced that it had granted Mr. Stern and his manager more than 34 million shares of common stock, currently worth about $225 million, because certain subscriber levels had been reached. That is on top of the $500 million that Sirius had already agreed to pay Mr. Stern for his salary and production costs. Mr. Stern now holds more shares than any other single investor, according to David J. Frear, Sirius's executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Whether or not Mr. Stern's show, which begins at 6 a.m., is a success, his decision to jump from free broadcast to subscription radio has bestowed legitimacy to a medium that many had regarded with skepticism. Sirius's number of subscribers has jumped from 660,000 at the time Mr. Stern's deal was announced in October 2004, to 3.3 million today.
"Clearly a lot of that is attributable to Howard Stern," said Jim Collins, a vice president at Sirius. As a result of its growth, the company's initial $500 million investment in Mr. Stern will be covered by the subscriber increase, Mr. Collins said. Still, XM Satellite Radio remains the leader in the industry. While Sirius added more listeners in the final quarter of 2005, XM ended the year with more than six million subscribers.
The decision by Mr. Stern to move to satellite radio may also encourage other talent to migrate to the fledgling medium.
"Actors never wanted to be on cable until some of them started to win awards," said Agnes Lukasewych, a vice president at MPG, a media planning company.
XM previously announced that both Bob Dylan and the hosts of ABC's "Good Morning America" would create shows for the company. Sirius has plans for programming from Martha Stewart and Bill Bradley.
With broadcast radio losing the large audiences attracted by Mr. Stern, Ms. Lukasewych says she expects that advertisers will need to buy more spots to reach the same number of listeners. "Terrestrial radio has to step up to the plate" and work to attract new talent, she said.
The problem will deepen over the next several years, as MP3 players and new Internet-based music ventures, such as Motorola's iRadio service, strive to grab consumers' attention.
"XM and Sirius got to their current subscriber levels fairly easily, but at what point do they reach some level of saturation due to increased competition?" said Danielle Levitas, a senior analyst with IDC. "There is value in having some sort of cachet with unique programming."
While Mr. Stern's agreement with Sirius helped put the company on the map, performers giving a second thought to satellite radio should not anticipate the lucrative arrangement that Mr. Stern was able to negotiate.
"There isn't anybody else in Howard's class. If Sirius had not done something they would have been totally in the dust," said Paul Kagan, chairman of PK Worldmedia, a Carmel, Calif., research firm. "You don't often see a network mortgaging itself to bring in a star."
XM said it did not have plans to mix up its programming because of Mr. Stern's new show.
"Our content has not changed," said Eric Logan, XM's executive vice president of programming. "We have a platform targeted at mainstream America. There are more and more people who find Howard Stern repulsive and offensive and will go away from anywhere he is."
Nor does XM expect Mr. Stern's salary to have much of an impact on the broader industry. Mr. Logan noted that a number of performers had asked to do shows without compensation, simply to be on XM. Mr. Stern's salary "is so far out of whack that it does not do anything to the economics of the business," Mr. Logan said.
Sirius has given Mr. Stern two channels to program. His four-hour show airs at 6 a.m. on both coasts, live in the East and tape-delayed in the West. In addition to the live show, programming will include Howard 100 News, a news operation "reporting on the world of Howard."
"Howard will be doing a show that he hasn't done for 15 years, because he's been held back" by the Federal Communications Commission, said Patrick Reilly, senior vice president of communications for Sirius. "It's not about swearing, it's about being candid, doing creative performance work for radio."
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 05:17 pm (UTC)to paraphrase Artie: "waaah, waaah, waaah! he signed with our competitor and now we have to downplay it—waaah!"
you don't know how sad i am. i wanted to get eh-eh-eh this summer, but i told myself to wait. now i have no unit, and i didn't get to hear it. my sister got one for Christmas, and she was going to save the first show for me. i called her this morning, and she said that she was in her car at 1 am in her pajamas with the telephone, talking to customer service to try and get it to work.
once she found out that the only way to save it was to have the unit on and plugged into the car, she decided to go exchange her unit for the home model.
what time are they re-airing it?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-09 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 04:40 am (UTC)i'm feenin' over here!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 08:56 pm (UTC)It will be streaming soon, which should make it more recordable. Apparently, this is what you need if you want to record the show.