F. Scott Schafer for Newsweek
from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Today is Howard Stern's last day on terrestrial radio and I have nothing but praise and gratitude. Howard Stern is a brilliant comedian, performance artist and the most innovative, groundbreaking mind in the history of modern broadcasting.
No one on radio in my lifetime has been more popular, more misunderstood and more unfairly scapegoated than Howard Stern. He is the grown-up, real-life embodiment of Holden Caulfield, the fictional protagonist of J.D. Salinger's evergreen coming-of-age novel "The Catcher in the Rye."
The phony adult world -- aided by a complicit media -- sickened Howard Stern to the bottom of his soul. On the air, he used his microphone like a gun and his sense of humor like an endless belt of bullets to decimate the pervasive world of glib happy-talk that reigned on the airwaves across America.
Striking a blow for intelligent, adult listeners everywhere, Howard Stern set about the work of exploding every sacred cow in sight. He went after the mindlessly accepted conventions of modern society with gleeful zeal. He refused to repeat the boring platitudes employed by the lazy, self-satisfied broadcasters who came before him. They were there merely to maintain the status quo for the sake of their public popularity and oversized paychecks.
Howard Stern became a millionaire by refusing to be bought off. He created the world of Howard Stern's Brain, a labyrinthine multiplex of unfiltered, uncensored and unadulterated audio theater. He spoke the Gospel of the First Thought. So we heard Howard on sex. In fact, Howard on sex a lot. But there was also Howard on marriage, Howard on race, on politics, the economy, the people in his office, what he saw on TV last night or had for breakfast that morning. Plus the personal stuff that polite people rarely share with anyone, much less a nation of laughing listeners.
So we drove to work every morning with Howard by our side. We laughed while Howard riffed on all aspects of American life that bummed us out or made us crazy. He railed against every institution that tied us up, held us down or made us feel powerless. Howard made fun of idiot celebrities and pompous politicians. And yes, there was sex. Always more sex.
Before Howard Stern, the famous thrived on personal exclusivity. You could never hang out with icons like the Rolling Stones, Jack Nicholson or David Letterman. They lived in some other world.
But Howard Stern invited all his fans into his personal life to celebrate his own naked dorkiness. We were invited to embrace his lack of self-esteem, his larger-than-life fears and existential dread. While you wanted to be like celebs because they were cool, you liked Howard because he was so honestly uncool.
Then in 2004, the Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show sent the spineless nitwits of the FCC looking for a fall guy. Howard Stern was tailor-made to die for their sins. And to save their own necks they drove him from the rotting corpse of radio. Good riddance to radio. They killed one of the few golden geese left in an ever-shrinking flock.
Come 2006, I see him up there on Sirius Satellite radio like some superhero exploring new galaxies of entertainment. I see Howard pioneering new forms of mirth and laughter. God speed Howard Stern. A grateful nation of your faithful salute you.
Keep telling the truth. Keep making us laugh. See you on the other side.
from msnbc.com
|
|
Ready for Duty: Stern suits up for a new gig F. Scott Schafer for Newsweek |
And the hits keep coming. We come to an enormous poster of oldies DJ Cousin Brucie, another Sirius host. "This guy is a legend," Stern says—another double-edged comment. Hasn't Stern mocked Brucie's singsongy baritone for years? "Yeah," he admits. "I'm gonna bust his balls every single day." We walk a little, past an interview-in-progress with Washington Redskin John Riggins and a visit from CNBC's David Faber, when from around the corner appears rapper 50 Cent. 50—big diamonds, big posse, big smile—gives Stern a hug and asks when he can be on the new program. "I'll bring my own strippers," offers 50. "I'll bring my own whores," says Stern, "and we can really make a show."
And all this can be yours for $12.95 a month. That's the subscription fee for Sirius, which sounds like a lot, considering that you get radio free Howard right now. But you also get the government analyzing every fart joke, which, if you're a Stern fan, is about as noxious as it gets. Across the top of the howardstern.com Web site is a countdown clock surrounded by the words: The revolution begins in ... No more FCC, no more boss, no more interference. We're going to the promised land! Like cable TV, satellite radio isn't subject to federal decency laws, so Stern will be free as the breeze. How far will he go? That's going to be the interesting part. Sirius doesn't have a standards department. "We have executives who have taste and judgment," says Scott Greenstein, president of entertainment at Sirius, "and we have Howard Stern, who clearly knows where the line is." Yes, he does. And he will hurdle over it every chance he gets.
Besides, Stern will have to make a lot of noise just to get noticed in his new digs. Sirius has more than 2.2 million subscribers; Stern's current audience is 12 million. For the self-proclaimed King of All Media—he also takes partial credit for the advent of reality TV, lesbian chic, "The View" and Rush Limbaugh—that plunge is a lot to swallow, though Stern already seems to have lured 1.6 million new subscribers to Sirius. "It's like spending years and years building a building and then losing control to another developer," says Robin Quivers, his longtime sidekick. "Sometimes you wonder: What will happen to us? Do you risk your entire legacy by transferring to this new thing?" On the air in recent weeks, Stern has fretted repeatedly about his audience's not following him to Sirius, of not being loved enough for them to pay for him. "To me—and this is a sickness—my audience will never be big enough," he says.
So what does a king do on a shrunken throne? For one thing, he's bringing back many of his greatest hits from early in his career, before he racked up millions in FCC fines. Bits like "It's Just Wrong," where fathers and daughters undress each other, and "The Bathroom Olympics," where Howard and his guys race to see who can pee first. He's creating a bigger and better bikini rack. "It can drop out of the ceiling, which is nice," Stern says. "I've gotten into a few of those bikinis myself, when I was in better shape." He's also thinking seriously about putting cameras in the bathroom that's being built especially for the Wack Pack—Wendy the Retard, High-Pitched Eric, Jeff the Drunk, Cleft Palate and the others who make up Howard's island of misfit toys. It'll be lewd, crude and totally nude—and also available in living color if you subscribe to the Howard Stern on Demand cable channel. Perhaps the only thing you won't see when Howard goes to satellite: a stripper pole, which, contrary to published reports, will not be a part of the new studio. "When you go to a strip club, you see someone on a pole and it's disgusting," Stern says. So Greenstein is right. Howard does know where to draw the line.
If all this seems like a deep shade of blue even by Howard's standards, perhaps that's because he's making up for lost time. "The show I'm doing now sucks compared to what I was doing 10 years ago," he says, though he is still No. 1 in New York, L.A. and beyond. "I don't have porn stars on anymore. I haven't had lesbians on for six months. There's no point. You can't ask about their lives." Before the Sirius deal came through a year ago, Stern was ready to quit radio after 29 years behind the microphone. "He would come in every day and have to work really hard to think about a word that could get on the air, and even then we were having the button pushed on us," says Quivers. "It was such a compromise. He just hated doing it."
Ironically, some fans believe that the shows in recent years have been among his best because Stern has to fight so hard. There is an undeniable passion and currency to his programs that's unlike anything else on the air. His diatribes against the thought police on both the right and the left come spilling out like soliloquies, and are often backed up with evidence—like the time he wanted to play a tape of Oprah talking about sexual acts, only to be told that not only could he not say the same words Oprah did, he couldn't even play her on tape saying them. "Talk about censorship," Stern says. "I will go to my grave thinking this was all politically motivated, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist." If your mind runs that way, it's fun to hear him still try and tweak the establishment, even the ways he grunts out "Sirius" on his syndicated show because he's under orders not to say the name. As crude as he can be, Stern is a very smart guy, and very quick. On any given morning, he can talk with ease and humor about Google stock, Russell Crowe, Congressman Murtha's antiwar stand and Andrew Lloyd Webber, and wrap it all up with a quip about "Harry Potter." Quivers: "I hear that the new movie is very scary." Stern: "You think that's scary? My kids' father is Howard Stern."
Not surprisingly, Stern thinks the conventional wisdom about him is wrong. He doesn't buy the idea that he'll be less funny on satellite radio because he won't have anyone to fight against. "People have said to me, 'The FCC is such a good foil for you. You need it.' It's such bulls—t," he says. "My act isn't about saying the FCC sucks. It never has been. It's about going out and talking to people in a real way." Shockingly, he doesn't even think of himself as a shock jock. "If I just went on the air and did shocking things, the show would be over in a month," he says. "It's not about someone getting naked in a studio for me. It's about what drives a person to get naked in a studio, who the hell they are and what makes them tick. It's about honesty."
So let's be honest. The freedom, the money, the snazzy studio—isn't life a little too good for Stern? Shock jock or not, he's always been an outsider. "I believe with all my heart that if Howard could redo high school, he'd be a completely different person—a quiet person," Quivers says. "It's a recurrent theme for him: 'I was nothing. Nobody wanted me. I had no friends'." Yet he's happier than he's been in a long time. He's in shape, in therapy and living with a model, Beth Ostrovsky. He even likes his bosses, though it's hard to complain when you're getting paid $100 million a year for five years. "That number's a bit off," Stern complains. "It's high." But still. There's a certain calmness about him in person—smiling, devouring a fruit platter, boasting about his new studio, and barely an expletive in sight. It does make you wonder how much of radio Howard is an act. "I used to say that the guy on the air is a character and the guy off the air is the real me, but then I started to think, well, maybe I'm really me on the air and the guy off the air is a big phony," he says with his glasses off so you can see into his eyes. "Since I've been in therapy, I own who I am. It's all me."
But happy? Hardly. He'll proudly talk about how, after his divorce, he finally got together with a pair of lesbians—and hated it. "I get jealous. I can't even deal with being left out of something. God forbid they shouldn't pay attention to me," he says. Not surprisingly, he's already fighting with Sirius. "We were going to do the High-Pitched Eric Crapathon, where we weigh his bowel movements," he says. "They wouldn't let it in the building. I went berserk." He even seems disappointed to be leaving traditional radio, despite his growing excitement to try something new. "My day in court never came," he says. "If we had gone to court, all of this would have been moot. None of the show would have been found indecent and we could do real broadcasting." Real broadcasting. Does that sound like a man who's at peace? "I'm never happy," Stern says. "I haven't been happy a day in my life." Good news, Stern fans. The angry revolutionary is back.
 |
Ahhhh, the shower. All day, Howard Stern has felt so goddamned pressured. He’s in one of his obsessive funks, so frequent lately, and can’t wait to get under the hot water. And freaking relax. So Howard sneaks off, pads across the whitish bathroom tiles, a towel secured around his waist. Howard’s not one to run around the apartment naked. Not with his very small penis—no need for Beth to see him unaroused.
Howard steps into the shower, a palace of curved, floor-to-ceiling glass, determined to escape the stress that is freaking brutal. Every morning, Howard does four-plus hours of America’s most popular morning-radio show. In a few weeks, he will join Sirius, a satellite-radio company, where he vows to reinvent the medium. Sirius is betting $500 million (and, probably, its future) on Howard; it’s given him two entire channels. That’s 48 hours of dead air to fill every single day. Plus, Beth seems to feel a little ignored right now. No wonder he’s barely sleeping.
In the shower, Howard powers up the hot water. There are nozzles everywhere, like eight of them. His hair, that dense wheel of curls, which, thank God, he still has, flattens against his head. Just stand there, Howard tells himself. Zone out. He’s a Transcendental Meditation guy. Every morning and night, he empties his head, which is what he’d like to do right now. Except the vibe’s not right. Is it the freaking bathroom mirror? From the shower, Howard can catch a glimpse of himself, enough to disturb anyone. “Fat!” is Howard’s reaction to a mirror. “Ugly!”
Just freaking breathe. In TM, you let distracting thoughts float right out of your mind. Some thoughts, though, are like fish bones. Like how about that ad Howard’s boss took out? Good riddance to twenty years of stale fart jokes, as if he couldn’t wait to usher Howard out the door. Infuriating! Reduce Howard to fart jokes! What about his penis and vagina material? He practically invented saying penis and vagina on the radio! And his stripper bits and lesbian gags and his legion of deformed and defective characters? Howard’s boss ought to drop to his knees and thank him. Those fart jokes built an empire! That genius should get testicular cancer!
Which might be about the time that Howard hears the voice. Where the fuck is this coming from? Howard thinks. He hears a series of sharp, percussive notes, like an old Teletype machine. It’s the way WINS, the all-news radio station, introduces its newscast. Then Howard hears a news anchor’s sonorous voice. Except that instead of introducing the WINS newscast, Howard hears the voice intone, It’s “he Howard 100 News.”
It’s like the radio gods are sending Howard a radio show. All the news you want about the universe that is Howard Stern. Everything about the characters in Howard’s world, their fascinating lives, including, yes, the gases they pass. And not just the gases! Howard hears that rich newscaster’s voice say, The Howard Stern Sports Department. But our sports, thinks Howard. Like how about High Pitch Eric, one of his characters, who’s fat and disgusting and speaks like a girl, eats for a whole day. People could bet on his, uh, output. It’ll be the . . . Craptacular! Howard can imagine the hushed, reverent tones of the sportscaster, as if he’s describing Tiger Woods. There in the steamy shower, Howard puts his fist to his mouth, like it’s a microphone: High Pitch approaches the Porta Potti. He appears ready. Concentration is on his face . . . That’s funny! That’s genius!
 |
| (Photo credit: Dan Winters; hair by Toni Coburn; makeup by Eva Scrivo; styling by Ralph Cirella and Marie Blomquist) |
Howard’s so excited about “The Howard 100 News” he’s got to tell Beth. He rushes out of the shower, almost forgetting the towel. Six foot five and hung like an acorn! Where’s the goddamned towel? “Honey?!”
In recent years, Howard Stern claims to have harbored a deep secret. It’s a notion that seems, on the face of it, preposterous. After all, Howard has a confessional urge like no one’s ever heard. Before Howard, radio was mostly comforting, discreet, tasteful. Emotion, if it surfaced at all, was happy (later on, and even worse, it was mellow). “[Radio] was a lot of people who didn’t say shit,” grumbles Howard. To Howard, that was all phony, and Howard despises phonies. “The show is about honesty,” he says earnestly. But Howard’s honesty is not the honesty of, say, Oprah. Howard hates Oprah. Howard’s earliest professional instinct was to erase the line between private and public, which often mirrors the one separating discomfort and comfort. Howard says, “Discomfort is something interesting to explore.” Starting, of course, with his own. His anal fissures? His ex-wife’s miscarriage? Howard wants you to know.
Howard, in his telling, is a person who seldom feels at ease. “He wasn’t the most popular kid, and he didn’t feel like he belonged,” says Robin Quivers, Howard’s radio sidekick and friend of a couple of decades. It was an unhappiness for which Howard took a specific kind of revenge: He recruited others just like himself. That includes his studio crew. (“We’re all damaged,” says Robin.) Then, Howard added a whole other layer of losers, such as Crackhead Bob, Eric the Midget, Wendy the Retard, Howard’s “Wack Pack.” Stir into the mix strippers and porn stars, similarly undesirable in good company, and you’ve got what Robin calls Howard’s “own little club.” Howard, needless to say, anointed himself its king, “king of the dipshits,” as he puts it.
The club’s key rule: Anything is fair game; the more private and embarrassing and hurtful, the better. Howard’s real interest is emotion and not the packaged Hollywood variety. “He doesn’t want you to act mad; he wants you to be mad,” says his producer, Gary Dell’Abate, whose mother once called Howard’s mother to get Howard to stop belittling her son on the air. Racial hatred, sexual offensiveness: Those are real.
Howard tolerates celebrities as long as they enter his world. Recently, for instance, he explained to Robert Downey Jr. that, no, he hadn’t watched his movie that Warner Bros. had sent over especially for that purpose. “How ridiculous that he thinks the most interesting thing he has to talk about is his new movie,” said Howard. Howard wanted to know about Downey’s stretch in prison. “Did you fight?” he asked. Downey, annoyed, nonetheless produced. “I initiated,” he said.
Howard may be arrogant and insecure, a combustible combination; he may be a “miserable prick,” as he sometimes says. “You suck the joy out of everything” is one of his girlfriend Beth’s endearments. His savior has always been the microphone, behind which he feels unusually, some would say unreasonably, free. “I can tell my audience anything,” he says.
Except for a time there was one thing that was too private, too damaging, for even Howard to blurt out: He felt dead inside.
In 2001, Howard signed a five-year deal with Infinity, owner of 178 radio stations, including WXRK, K-Rock, Howard’s home base. Howard earned upwards of $25 million a year. Still, a few years into his deal, Howard was going limp. Says Robin, “I started to see him wither.”
Howard’s agent, Don Buchwald, is a gentlemanly presence who keeps a larger-than-life cardboard cutout of Howard in his office. “Howard couldn’t really function with the current FCC,” Buchwald explains. The Federal Communications Commission, among other duties, polices the airwaves for “indecency.” “I don’t think there’s a fucking thing I ever did that was indecent,” says Howard, whose on-air remarks have led to at least $2.5 million in fines, more than any other radio broadcaster.
The FCC doesn’t initiate complaints, listeners do. Howard has 12 million listeners. In 2004, the FCC sided with one offended listener. Howard had committed indecency by discussing “swamp ass,” a smelly personal-hygiene issue right up Howard’s alley. The FCC specifically didn’t like that the bit included “repeated flatulence sound effects.” The government fined Clear Channel, which carried Howard’s show on six of its stations. (Howard was on in 46 markets.) The fine (which included penalties for other performers) was a whopping $1.75 million. Later, Viacom, Infinity’s parent, would pay the government $3.5 million for a variety of infractions, including at least one by Howard. For Howard, the devastating effect was that Clear Channel tossed him off its stations.
Howard blamed the FCC and Clear Channel, the country’s largest radio company. But later, the grudge spread. He griped about his boss, Infinity, and its corporate parent, Viacom. He would have liked to take “swamp ass” all the way to the Supreme Court. Infinity was sympathetic to Howard’s cause, and in fact added him to nine of its stations a few months later. Still, Infinity instituted a companywide “compliance plan” to appease the FCC. “They”—Infinity and Viacom—“are allowing this to happen,” moaned Howard. He saw an unhappy trend. “I’m losing stations,” he said. “I’m not going to be making more money; I’m going to be making less money. And fuck the money, I’m going to be making shit radio. How am I the outrageous Howard Stern if I can’t talk?”
Howard, naturally, personalized his grievance—one of his gifts. (“Oh, absolutely,” he says jauntily, “I have a chip on my shoulder.”) “You guys have not stood up to the FCC,” Howard told Joel Hollander, COO and then CEO of Infinity. “House Negro,” he later called Hollander.
But the issue was bigger than a supposedly wimpy boss. Howard had lost his mojo. “I’ve been doing subpar material for the last ten years. I didn’t even realize it. I got sucked in,” Howard told his agent. Then he told Buchwald his secret. “I think I’m done.”
“Okay,” Buchwald responded. Though just in case, Buchwald said, he’d listen to offers.
For years, the morning host to strippers and porn stars—he threw lunch meat at their bare asses—tooled home to Long Island, to a big house with a lawn and a pool. There he sometimes imagined he was living an extended episode of Leave It to Beaver. For a couple of schizy decades, the outrageous morning man did nightly duty as suburban husband and father to his college sweetheart and their three daughters. Howard and Alison had met as undergrads at Boston University. She was his first serious girlfriend. They married at age 24. “I got happily married so fucking young,” Howard says.
It wasn’t really a typical household. Howard followed his own early-to-bed, rise-in-the-dark schedule (masturbating himself to sleep every night, he told his audience). And as time went by, he passed a growing fraction of his at-home time in the basement, where he had a 100-inch TV and double locks on the door. There, he labored to turn flatulence into mainstream humor, and to write two best-selling memoirs, as well as to, uh, do research. For instance, he spent time dialing into online sex-chat rooms, including one called the Howard Stern Room. “The pathetic fact is I . . . seldom emerge, except for meals,” Howard said.
Alison wanted a social life. Howard hated to travel. “To tell the truth,” he said, “I hate every fucking place in the world.” He didn’t especially like to dine with Alison’s friends. They told him what was wrong with the show, and not to make fun of Jews. To Howard, it seemed like the garmento husbands inevitably carped about how they too ought to have radio shows since they were as funny as Howard.
Howard was exceedingly devoted to his wife, while simultaneously forlorn—a bind that would prove one of the great inventions of his career. Howard was an id on a leash, which, Howard knew from the start, made him, sexually, an Everyman. “I want new experiences,” he once explained, “where Alison can’t accuse me of cheating.” And so Howard hatched a vibrant fantasy life in which he was . . . single. “I have my whole single life worked out,” Howard once announced. “There aren’t many girls I wouldn’t fuck. I’d be with somebody every night.”
In the meantime, Howard had women—Howard, old-fashioned, called them “broads”—stop by the studio and get naked. He gave them money to do things, like kiss each other. Soon, spectating wasn’t enough. He spanked women on the air. “Butt bongo,” he called it. Then, one day with a naked woman in the studio, Howard announced he too was getting naked. Cue the superego. Alison, magically, was on the phone to the studio.
“I’m really getting offended,” Alison said.
“You’re not happy because I’m a desirable man. Well, how about giving me sex every once in a while?” Howard told her on the air.
She told him he sounded like “a dirty old man.”
“I love you,” he said sweetly.
“I love you too,” Alison said and hung up.
Then Howard plunged back in, returning to the naked girl in the studio.
Of course, both satellite-radio companies—there are only two—wanted Howard. Sirius, though, needed him more.
For satellite radio, the next mass medium, the value proposition starts with this: Terrestrial radio sucks. The technology is out-of-date; it’s not yet digital quality. Plus, because the real audience is not the fan but the advertiser, playlists tighten, less-popular genres disappear. “Radio was a business that focused initially on passion and music and then, instead, decided it was packaging listeners for advertisers,” says Hugh Panero, CEO of XM, which is the larger satellite company. It proved adept at packaging listeners; Howard’s show has as many as 22 minutes of ads per hour.
Satellite technology offers better-quality audio (though digital radio is coming). And it cut the ads on music stations and expanded the offerings. Satellite reaches the entire country with 120 channels (Sirius) or 160 channels (XM). To get it, you must pay a monthly fee.
In the competition for satellite dominance, Sirius was the category’s laggard. Among other things, XM was first to market with an iPod-size portable player; Sirius debuts its version this Christmas season. Both companies made deals with automakers to install satellite radio into new cars. Again XM led, claiming more deals with car manufacturers. Most important, it has outpaced Sirius in subscribers. By year’s end, it will have 6 million, compared with 3 million for Sirius.
Howard, who has more listeners than both satellite companies combined, could be a momentum changer for Sirius. After all, before Howard’s announcement, it had just 700,000 subscribers. Wall Street treated it like a castoff. A share of XM traded for about ten times as much as a share of Sirius.
Howard’s agent negotiated, as is his practice, without consulting Howard. XM’s Panero was prepared to pay Howard close to $30 million a year. But Sirius’s offer was, as Panero put it, “shocking.” At a time when Sirius had not quite $13 million a year in revenue, it offered Howard a hundred million dollars a year, about eighty in cash, the rest in stock, for five years. And that’s mainly for “The Howard Stern Show.” Sirius wanted Howard’s imprint to be larger. The company gave him two channels to program, for which it will pick up most of the tab.
On October 6, 2004, during his regular K-Rock show, Howard made his announcement. Instantly, he’d changed the radio game. Howard’s millions of fans went up for grabs; it was a more profitable audience share than, as Hollander put it, “at any time in my 27 years in the business.” Howard vowed “to bury” Clear Channel, “you sons of bitches.” But the immediate competition pits Howard directly against Infinity.
For Howard, the private moping was over; indeed, the stars seemed to be aligning. The following month, Sirius announced that Mel Karmazin, former COO of Viacom, was coming out of retirement to be its new CEO, its third. Karmazin is a superstar executive whose arrival added its own cachet to Sirius, and to satellite radio generally; also, he may be the only radio exec Howard has ever called a friend.
On September 30, 1985, Howard was marched out of WNBC, fired for, among other offenses, being impossible to manage. (Howard had aired a running fight with his bosses, one of whom he referred to as “Pig Virus.”) That same day, Karmazin, then CEO of Infinity, called to say he had to have Howard. At the time, Infinity was a chain of half-a-dozen stations, and Karmazin was known mainly as a terrific ad salesman. “I don’t think anybody should think in terms of my skill set being involved in creating radio programming,” he says. Yet even Karmazin sensed that Howard was on to something. “Everyone’s boss is an asshole, right?” he says. “That sort of makes for great radio.” As long, Karmazin knew, as he wasn’t the asshole boss. Howard’s contract stipulated that he couldn’t mention Karmazin on the air.
Karmazin turned Howard into Infinity’s franchise player. At Howard’s insistence, Karmazin bucked the wisdom of the time—that radio was a local medium—and put Howard on in Philadelphia, eventually in Los Angeles, and syndicated him. Not that there weren’t tensions. At one point, Howard says, he stormed into Karmazin’s office. “If you guys start inhibiting and editing me, I’m going to lose my audience,” Howard told Karmazin. “How the fuck do I stay No. 1?” Still, when the FCC came after Howard, Karmazin stood behind him, to a point. Eventually, though, Karmazin says that the FCC stopped processing his applications to buy radio stations, and he settled. (That 1995 settlement cost Infinity $1.7 million.)
By 1996, Karmazin had built Infinity into a chain of 44 stations and sold it to Westinghouse, CBS’s then-parent, where he became the largest individual shareholder. When CBS merged with Viacom in a deal worth $37 billion, Karmazin was appointed the company’s No. 2; in the initial bear-hugging, he seemed likely to succeed Sumner Redstone, Viacom’s now 82-year-old CEO and chairman. Redstone made it clear he wouldn’t observe generational niceties and step aside. (“He’s full of shit,” Karmazin says of Redstone now.) And so, in 2004, Karmazin, then 60 years old, exited Viacom, intending to retire.
At least that’s the story Karmazin tells me in Sirius’s glass conference room at Rockefeller Center, situated dangerously close to both Eminem’s and Martha Stewart’s studios. Karmazin has white-gray hair, furry black eyebrows, and large white teeth. He’s a compact man in a good business suit who was once in line to run a vast slice of the country’s media (and, in that capacity, dismissed satellite radio as a nice niche business). Why is he at the helm of an eleven-year-old company that’s never made a profit?
After leaving Viacom, Karmazin tried golf. “I hated that,” he says. He traveled. “I really don’t want to travel anymore,” he says. Karmazin is the poor Queens boy who took an office job for the air-conditioning. He attended college at night and thrived in business, in part because he famously trimmed costs, and also arrived early. (He says, “It wasn’t like I was a visionary or anything.”) To this day, he says, he’s first in the office, at 6:30. “I turn the lights on here,” he says. Even sitting in a conference room, Karmazin constantly pushes himself away from the table, gliding on a wheeled chair, a pantomime of energy-to-burn.
“I really did miss, you know, the business stuff,” explains Karmazin, by which he means being “able to solve problems.”
Also, Howard’s arrival intrigued Karmazin. They don’t socialize. Much of Howard’s show has never been Karmazin’s thing. The Craptacular? “Not my taste,” he says. Still, Karmazin had ridden Howard to the top once before. (“His tombstone could read, MEL ROSE WITH HOWARD,” says one industry insider.) Karmazin did his due diligence in a brisk two weeks.
Among his priorities is to make Howard the company’s flagship offering. “Howard is going to be bigger than he has ever been,” Karmazin says. “And that’s going to help our company significantly.”
Of course, the relationship may not be tension-free. Howard has already gotten resistance to his “Howard 100 News” team, a group of seventeen, including “award-winning professional journalists.” Some Sirius executives have complained. They don’t like to walk out of their offices to find Howard’s news team sticking microphones in their faces. Clearly this delights Howard. “You’re going to have to deal with it,” he’s told the uncomfortable execs.
Even Karmazin?
“He’s got no choice,” says Howard. “He’s in the building. He’s going to have to.” This time, Howard’s not prohibited from mentioning Karmazin on the air.
“It ain’t in this contract,” says Howard gleefully. “He’s fair game.”
Before I met the outrageous Howard Stern, I’d been concerned. With Howard, I knew, vengefulness is sport. He finds a person’s weaknesses, zeroes in. “I can fuck you up your ass six ways till Sunday and pick your corpse clean, and you won’t know what hit you,” he delicately points out. But the first time I meet him, my impression is different. I think, Howard might be in recovery. It’s the end of another week of 5 a.m. wake-up calls. He’s bone-tired. At 51, he seems vulnerable. His systems, most of them, suggest wear and tear. He’s towering, a physically dramatic presence, but it’s kind of a sight gag. He’s imposing and thin as a post (even if he thinks he’s fat). He’s not hardy. There’s his fear of germs—“I’m a germphobe,” he announces as a kind of introduction. He’s apparently sworn off several food groups. I watched him approach a buffet of desserts; delicately, he extracted a thin bit of cantaloupe. And then there’s the insomnia. I’d seen e-mails Howard sent to his staff at 2:58 one morning, at 2:53 another morning. Howard’s rich as a god, of course, but he can’t quite subdue his inner Aerosmith. He’s dressed like an off-duty rocker: jeans, Caterpillar boots, a navy tee under an unbuttoned shirt. He has a couple of small gold hoop earrings and, scrawled on a pinkie, an ex-con’s blue tattoo.
Of course, Howard is in recovery from, he says, years of professional compromise. “They just ruined a goddamned medium,” he says. “They ruined me.” Howard mentions this in his Upper West Side penthouse, which is spacious, open, immaculate. It’s done in tasteful earth tones. Howard flops onto a gold couch. “I think I got kind of dead inside and just kind of accepted this,” he says. He leans back. The couch seems to nearly inhale him. Howard says he needs a nap.
Then the topic changes, and so does Howard. Weariness vanishes. He propels himself across the room, heads to his desk, and returns with a black spiral notebook and a folder containing his plans for satellite radio. He spreads them on the coffee table and suddenly pitches his big birdish body onto the floor, landing on one knee, as if he wants to physically get into the material.
“I’ve got some kind of weird rebirth going on,” he says. “All of a sudden, I’m like the old Howard Stern. This shit just rushes into my head.” He makes it sound like mental illness. He’s obsessed, manic. “I’m like out of my freaking mind,” he says. “I hear radio shows in my dreams. I haven’t been this turned on by radio in so long. I can think about nothing else. This is nuts.”
Howard flips through the spiral notebook. He’s pasted e-mails inside and scribbled notes. They’d tried to stop Howard being Howard. Now, with two channels all his own and no FCC, Howard plans to exact revenge: He’s going to be more Howard than ever. He’ll turn what’s inside his head into a radio world. He’s already got “The Howard 100 News,” the brainstorm delivered to him in the shower. It’ll make the whole thing cohere and, at the same time, mock the coherence of that other, you know, “real” world.
Howard will still have a morning show. “Fuck a show!” says Howard exuberantly. He’s back on the couch, but bent forward, his chest nearly touching his knees. “I’m going to give you real action. I got famous for ‘Lesbian Dating Game’? Now I can really do it. We’ll hear the date, and if they like each other, we’ll have the date right there and the sex right there, and it’ll be done beautifully.”
Howard’s radio world will be a red-light district. “Wouldn’t it be brilliant if my audience could all lie down at night together and come together?” he wonders. “Cum together?” Howard’s idea is “Tissue Time With Heidi Cortez,” a 24-year-old Playboy model and “orgasmer” who will offer phone sex to Howard’s audience. He’s also working on a show called “Confessions From the Bunny Ranch,” a Nevada whorehouse. Howard plans to tape a room 24 hours a day. “You’ve heard of Taxicab Confessions, but that’s bullshit,” he says. “You’ll be right in the prostitute’s room. You’ll hear the negotiation. You’ll hear the screwing. You’ll hear the after-sex conversation. And that fascinates me. I want to be in that room.” Howard hopes to launch a show called “I Want to Fuck a Porn Star,” a send-up of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. “It’s going to be difficult,” cautions Howard. “If you can answer the questions, you will get to fuck a porn star. So many guys from my audience would love that opportunity.”
It’s possible that Howard is just a garden-variety pervert (as he’s sure every guy is). Howard’s instincts, though, are usually satirical. His targets are seriousness, good taste, the other boring virtues of adulthood (including reading books). Howard is a professional adolescent, though in his hands, adolescence is also a devilish send-up of mature, uptight opinion, like that involving bodily functions. “Sometimes flatulence is the funniest thing in the world to me,” Howard says. “It just is.”
Like the Craptacular. “Listen, to me the Craptacular is what I’m all about,” he says, and then, with earnestness, adds, “I really thought this guy was going to outproduce a baby elephant.” When done as a sportscast, it’s also a joke on every pompous sportscaster.
He has other self-serious targets. “You’ve heard of The View,” Howard says. “We’re going to round up four crack whores, and every night, we’re going to take the exact topics that The View talked about. I can’t stand those women on The View, but to hear ‘The Crack-Whore View’ girls talk about those same topics? It will be ten times better.” Howard has an idea for another talk show, the genre of, say, Meet the Press, except with girls from Scores, Howard’s favorite strip club. “One of the things that I love are these Scores girls get drunk about four o’clock in the morning, wasted,” he explains. “We want to have a round table, ‘The Drunken Scores Girls Show.’ I want to throw them topics of the day and just hear them.”
In his apartment, Howard has wound himself up. “It will be like nothing else,” he says. “It will be real.” Real is a favorite Howard word. Real is a retard on the radio for 24 straight hours, which was an idea in one of Howard’s late-night e-mails. Real is a racist with his own show, which Howard threatens. “One of the sitcoms we’re working on—very exciting—‘Meet the Fuckheads,’ ” Howard says. He’s written a synopsis, which reads, “An exciting sitcom starring married couple Jeff the Drunk and Wendy the Retard and their son Elephant Boy. Jeff, a hand-stamper at a local swimming pool, is spiraling downward and his retarded wife is fed up with him when suddenly life changes on a dime. He hits the winning lottery numbers. He moves into an exclusive neighborhood next door to Donald Trump.”
Of course, Howard could fail. Howard has been best when his oppositional disorder is engaged. Without a censor, a wife, or a manager trying to rein him in, who will be his foil? The calculation seems to be that he has good taste, everyone’s internalized arbiter, to screw with. Will fans cough up $12.95 per month for this? “That’s a very risky career move,” says Howard, “but I don’t care.” Maybe it’s the mania talking—or the promotional possibilities of the moment. But Howard acts as if he can’t believe his luck. “I mean, fuck me!” he shouts. “We’ll get the real Donald Trump.”
Howard reels off ideas, which he will also put on TV—he’s got a separate subscription deal with In Demand TV. “It’s crazy! All of a sudden,” he says, “I’m like on fire creatively.” He’s got more. “You’ve heard of Desperate Housewives? We have The Really Desperate Housewives.” It’s a show starring his staff’s significant others. “Each week, these wives desperately try to change their famous husbands into something they’re not: human,” says Howard. Some of the ideas are still incubating. Howard has to tell all. “Face the Shrink”: “Every night you will hear a live psychiatric session with a very famous celebrity,” he says. “It’s going to be a real shrink, real psychotherapy. Also, the shrink is going to analyze some of my Wack Pack guys.”
Stop him, change the subject, and Howard obliges. He’s surprisingly gracious. But his energy drains. The couch reclaims him. He’s laid-back, again in need of a nap.
“What’s in the folder?” I say. It’s like pushing a button. Howard leans forward, his chest bumping those inordinately tall knees, and pours the contents on the coffee table. It’s his new logo, a black-power fist—classic Howard: arrogant, aggrieved, inappropriate (who’s whiter than Howard?), bristling with aggression.
“This is a big black fist up the ass of Clear Channel, the religious right, George Bush, those motherfuckers on the FCC,” says Howard gaily. “That fist will appear everywhere because that inspires me.”
The day Howard announced on K-Rock that he’d signed with Sirius, he still owed fifteen months to Infinity, K-Rock’s owner. “[If it were my decision] he would’ve been gone the first day,” says Karmazin. Easy for him to say. Howard pulls in $100 million in annual revenue. People looked at the numbers, the effect on the market. Infinity decided to hold Howard to his contract, which created a colossally awkward situation. Hollander, Infinity’s CEO, had initially hoped Howard would stay with Infinity—he’d been ready, say industry sources, to offer him an eye-popping $35 million a year. He didn’t even get a chance to make an offer, a professional discourtesy that still smarts. Now he hoped for some understanding from Howard, a gentlemanly accommodation. “We both have a difficult January coming,” he told Howard.
In some ways, Hollander’s looked more challenging. “Somebody in their career was going to be entrusted with replacing Howard Stern,” says Hollander. “I landed on the seat. If I don’t succeed here, that’s what people will remember.”
Howard, inevitably, turned the awkwardness into a radio reality show on K-Rock. Soon, Infinity banned Howard from using the word Sirius. Fine. Howard called it “eh-eh-eh.” I can’t wait to get to eh-eh-eh, he’d tell his listeners, all in on the joke. At Sirius, Howard had begun to preview material a couple of hours each evening. “The Howard 100 News” team interviewed his parents. One of Howard’s characters on K-Rock, a black New Jersey garbageman who calls himself “King of All Blacks,” auditioned for a show on Sirius. Wendy the Retard did 24 hours straight, no callers. The next morning, Howard would review these performances on K-Rock.
If Howard is Sirius’s biggest break, keeping a lame-duck Howard on K-Rock might be its second.
In October, Infinity announced its lineup, five D.J.’s who would replace Howard in various markets. In New York, David Lee Roth, the former Van Halen rocker, will take over Howard’s slot. Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller will do a slot on K-Rock too. Hollander hired Adam Carolla in Los Angeles; Carolla will get help from Jimmy Kimmel. Roth is the wild card. He has little radio experience. “If he doesn’t work, they’ll say that was the dumbest thing,” says Hollander. “If it works, they’ll all call me a genius.”
Clearly, Hollander wants to take Howard’s slot in a different direction—for one thing, K-Rock will now be all talk. He avoided Howard imitators. Toning down the trash talk is a theme. And a popular one. At XM, CEO Panero echoed the sentiments. Let Sirius identify itself with Howard’s young male demo. Panero lately describes XM’s appeal as mainstream, diverse, “known for a lot of different kinds of content.”
Hollander announced his new roster in Advertising Age, tweaking Howard. “We didn’t just replace Howard,” said one ad. “We’re freshening up the airwaves altogether. Twenty years of fart jokes gets old.” Howard, predictably, took offense. “What the fuck is this?” said Howard. “They called me a piece of shit.”
A few days later, Howard had 50 Cent in the studio. Howard wanted to hear about 50 Cent’s “bitches,” as Howard put it. The rapper said a couple were waiting back at the hotel—he even remembered one of the bitches’ names. Howard wanted to call the bitches. Howard clearly enjoyed saying the word bitches, which he thought was funny coming from him.
Tom Chiusano, K-Rock’s general manager, didn’t appreciate the humor.
“They call dogs bitches,” Howard said. “It’s a common word.”
Chiusano entered the studio, a small, dingy, low-ceilinged room where Howard sits behind a large U-shaped console. Chiusano, who favors black tasseled loafers and pinstripes, explained that the repetition of the word bitch made it potentially indecent. Obligingly, he spoke into a microphone. “I’m not wrong,” he said, which didn’t exactly sound bold.
Howard, who wears T-shirts and jeans to work and who constantly reminds listeners that he is reinventing radio at the moment, turned to 50 Cent. When 50 comes on Howard’s satellite show, Howard told him, he can say anything he wants. Then Howard asked Chiusano, why didn’t they just kick him off the air? “Dude, let’s end this already,” said Howard. “Prick,” he added.
50 piled on. “Bitches,” he mentioned.
After the show, Howard was suspended for a day—with pay, he says. The ostensible reason was that later in the program, Howard talked extensively about Sirius. The next day, Hollander called a closed-door meeting at the Beacon restaurant. There, management laid down the law. Again. Tempers flared. That’s when Howard called Hollander a “house Negro.” Hollander wasn’t pleased, but later, he sounded understanding. “Howard’s very nervous,” said Hollander. “It’s like he’s had a fourteen-month honeymoon, and now he’s got to go do it.”
In the living area of his apartment, Howard takes a seat next to his girlfriend, Beth Ostrosky. Outside, it’s a stunning fall day. Through the windows, and the apartment has tons, you can see all of Central Park, every single red-yellow-orange tree.
Beth is almost twenty years younger than Howard and a beauty. White-blonde hair, opalescent eyes, long legs. She’s modeled since she was 9; recently, with a lingerie specialty. Not long ago, she appeared on the cover of FHM magazine in a bikini, a career high point. Beth, though, apparently feels some pressure on her modeling prospects. It’s her ass. She says she can’t stand her ass.
The thought moves Howard. “Honey,” Howard tells her. “You’re my sex object. I want to see your ass. I want you to walk around the apartment naked.”
“Never!” gasps Beth.
Howard grabs Beth’s hand. “Beth doesn’t think she looks good, and I’m like, ‘You’re insane.’ ”
“No,” Beth says. “I can doll myself up and be fine, but, no, I have a really poor self-image—really, it’s bad. Really bad.”
“We’re two insecure people,” Howard says, shrugging.
Howard pulls Beth’s hand onto his lap. It’s an adorable scene. A goofy V-shaped smile settles on his face. It’s like he’s wearing a slice of pie. It softens his features, doubles his chin. Howard might be on his prom night, though, of course, Beth is the type of beauty Howard couldn’t ever have taken to the prom. Howard was an ungainly teen; Beth was homecoming queen. “I can’t believe I’m with the homecoming queen!” Howard sometimes says.
For Howard, his fucking happy marriage, which ended in 1999, was a different kind of relationship. “Alison wanted somebody who was involved with her and did things with her,” Howard says. “And I wasn’t fitting the bill.” He squirreled himself away in the basement. “She kind of confronted the sort of lack of marriage that we had,” says Howard. “What I think ended us . . . we both had problems with that lack of passion. I’m sure it wasn’t often enough, ’cause I was gross.”
Part of Howard hates being divorced. (Alison remarried a year later and is currently a practicing psychoanalyst. “I’m now very happy and leading the life I always wanted to,” she says.) Howard’s life works better now, too. For one thing, that schizy feeling is gone. “I used to think I was two different guys,” Howard says. “I was very sure that I was one way on the air and then when I come home, I’m Ward Cleaver and I don’t have any weird thoughts.”
Howard has come to a different conclusion. “That’s horseshit,” he explains. “That guy on the radio is me. And when I get off the radio, I behave differently, but I’ve got to own the fact that I’m fascinated by strippers. I’m really sexual. I’m curious about everything. That’s a much healthier way to look at who I am, I think.”
Howard had expected to be one of those divorced guys who goes around sleeping with everyone. “You would think,” Howard says. “But I found out that that’s not who I am. It was all fantasy. I didn’t feel right just sleeping with someone. It’s not my thing. I feel like it’s a use: a use of me and use of them,” he says. “There’s too many bad feelings afterwards.”
The evening Howard met Beth at a dinner party, he was feeling particularly lonely, missing his daughters, who range from 12 to college age. He and Beth talked till three or four in the morning. And the next day, they hung out, watching movies at Howard’s.
“We were like, ‘Wow, this is so nice,’ ” Howard explains. “We connected and we hung out and it was great, and I didn’t want to give up that feeling.”
Beth hadn’t listened to Howard’s show much—still doesn’t. But she had an impression. “He was a crazy maniac,” she says. “Like, that was my impression of him.”
They met five and a half years ago. Last year, she moved in with Howard. Howard doesn’t want to ever remarry, which Beth says is fine. “I never had that burning desire to get married,” says Beth. “If he wanted to get married and we decided, he’s the one I would want to marry. But I’m okay. I never had the burning desire to have children . . . yet.”
Howard pushes back into the couch and crosses his fingers out of Beth’s view. A pie-slice smile settles on his face.
“Most of the marriages we know are all fucked up and miserable,” says Howard helpfully. “Out of everyone we know, we’re the happiest. We think, anyway. We believe.”
“Oh, we’re for sure the happiest,” says Beth.
Howard, though, requires a lot of effort on Beth’s part. He’s high maintenance.
“I don’t think I am high maintenance,” Howard protests initially, then adds, “I think therapy’s helping a lot.” Howard goes four times a week. “Beth would be the first one to say it’s all about me . . . ”
“It’s all about him,” says Beth. She wags her head good-naturedly, “but I’m okay with it. We’re good together.”
“I am self-centered, and I don’t know how you change that, but I am really working on trying to be empathetic in my relationship with Beth and understanding where she’s coming from.”
“You’re doing a great job,” says Beth.
“I think we’re on the right path,” says Howard.
Of course, she makes clear, “he needs attention. He’s very needy.”
“I’m a needy person,” says Howard. He nods his head, and the fuzzy circle of hair bounces.
“He’s very sensitive. He needs constant adoration and—”
“I do. I need her to pay attention to me. I feel bad for this woman.”
Howard is truly worried. Howard’s relationship with his fans has often been the most potent in his life. The other evening, Howard listened to a roundtable of his superfans, a competitive category, on Sirius. They talked about their favorite moments of his K-Rock shows.
Beth walked in. Howard says that, in general, “she has taught me not to be so serious and to lighten up a little bit.” That time she couldn’t distract him.
“You sensed a vibe from me that I was upset,” says Beth.
Howard did. But he couldn’t tear himself away. “This,” he says, referring to the plans for Sirius, “is my sex now.” It’s a joke. Sort of. Listening to his superfans talk about the universe that is Howard Stern charges him up. “That connection between me and the audience gets a little too important,” Howard says.
Beth’s rarely seen Howard like this, and she’s thrilled for him. “I feel it’s just the rush of what’s ahead. All the anticipation and all the ideas are flowing,” Beth says. But she misses Howard. “I do miss you lately, but I know that there’s an end.” They’re still holding hands, working out their relationship in real time, like a radio show. Sometimes they talk to each other, sometimes to me. “I hope that it’s not going to be five years of this,” Beth says, no doubt to Howard, though she looks at me.
“No,” says Howard softly. Howard assures her he misses her, too. He’s solicitous, almost pained. This particular complaint strikes home; his work obsession was one reason his marriage dissolved. “Honey, I swear to you, I’m going to balance this out because I miss being with you,” he says. “I mean, we have a great life together and I know how important it is to sort of spend time together and be together, so it’s my selfishness that I want it all. I want the radio thing going and I want, I want this full relationship—”
“We have great chemistry,” says Beth.
“We have a great—that’s the exact word—”
“I answer his sentence—” she says.
“It’s true, we really feel this great connection. I feel it.”
Beth’s not complaining; she’s a good sport. “I think I’m going to get him back,” she says. “I hope.”
“I am not fucking up this relationship,” says Howard grimly. “I don’t want to keep repeating my life.”
For one thing there’s the sex, girlfriend sex, not wife sex, though Alison was a fine sex partner. Still, Beth’s the homecoming queen, the shiksa goddess with a closetful of lingerie.
“I’ve never felt more comfortable with somebody sexually and more excited about, I mean, it’s . . . ”
Howard pauses. He looks at Beth. “Honey, go in the other room.” Then he looks at me. “You got to try her out.”
“Could you imagine?” says Beth, good sport to the end.
from the NY Post
HOWARD Stern's drive to become the "King of All Media" was derived from his dark days as a high-school doormat at Long Island's Roosevelt High.
And in next week's edition of "60 Minutes," Stern talks about how he was punched and choked by other students and how those experiences fueled him to become an "insider" — who millions of listeners have bonded with over the years.
"Some of us are misfits, some are outcasts and we can admit our insecurities and we can laugh about them and have a good time," Stern says in the "60 Minutes" interview, according to a CBS source.
The "60 Minutes" gig is just the latest in a slew of rare media appearances for Stern, who until now had very little reason to grant regular interviews.
But with his impending shift from free radio to subscription-based Sirius satellite radio, it's become important for him to promote the move, even if most people — including Stern — feel that consumers who will follow him to the pay-service have already decided to do so.
Stern also poured his heart out to Katie Couric last week in a pre-taped interview for the "Today" show that's slated to air next Monday.
In that interview, Stern talks about his 2001 divorce from Alison Berns after more than 20 years of marriage.
"I wish that didn't go down like that," he tells Couric. "That's real sad to me. You know I can't believe I'm divorced. It's sad. But, you know, you get married young, and sometimes things change. And in my case, it did."
Among Stern's other appearances was a sit-down interview last week on David Letterman's "Late Show" and a possible walk-on gig on "Saturday Night Live" — either on Dec. 10 or 17.
A spokesman for "SNL" could not confirm if or when Stern will be on the sketch comedy show.
But Stern was hyping the "SNL" gig yesterday on his K-Rock radio show.
Stern announced his departure last year to Sirius, where he received a $500 million contract to begin in January 2006.
Stern has an audience of about 12 million listeners and revenues of about $100 million from his morning radio show.
His final live radio show for Infinity is scheduled for Dec. 16.
from the Toronto Sun
November 16, 2005
Space may be the final frontier for Howard Stern in the U.S., but Canada remains a no-fly zone.
The superstar American shock-jock becomes the king of satellite radio in the U.S. in January, courtesy of a $500-million deal with Sirius Satellite Radio.
But Sirius Canada, which plans to start beaming to your car and home before the end of this year, has no plans to include Stern and his no-holds-barred morning show that includes the likes of Stuttering John, Baba Booey and butt-bongo stunts.
Stern's show might be Sirius' biggest attraction in the U.S. His hardcore fan base is buying the service just to keep on hearing him.
So, Sirius Canada, isn't this like acquiring the Pittsburgh Penguins and deciding you don't need Sidney Crosby?
"Well, what if Sidney Crosby was going to be arrested and put in jail within two weeks?" said Gary Slaight, the CEO of Standard Broadcasting, which co-owns Sirius Canada along with the CBC.
"The CRTC, who we are licensed to, would eventually force us to take Stern down, because we have standards we have to abide by in this country when you own a broadcasting licence."
Conversely, satellite radio providers in the U.S. are not licensed by the American equivalent of the CRTC, the Federal Communications Commission, Slaight said, "so they can do whatever they want.
"When we applied for a licence, the CRTC pushed us about this," he said. "(Stern) was definitely a topic of conversation. We (Standard) are a big broadcaster and have to deal with the CRTC on other issues. And the CBC obviously has a cultural mandate to be concerned with."
The New York-based Stern debuted in Canada on Sept. 2, 1997 on Toronto's Q-107 and Montreal's CHOM-FM, and started things off by blasting the French (calling them "peckerheads" and saying, "the French should bend over for me the way they did for Hitler"). That first broadcast alone inspired more than 1,000 complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
Stern lasted on CHOM until August 1998. Q-107 took flak from the regulators and stuck with the experiment through November 2001.
from MultichannelNews.com
Fans anxious to view Howard Stern’s uncensored broadcasts on Sirius Satellite Radio are going to have to wait a little while longer.
In Demand will launch its Howard Stern On Demand subscription service Nov. 18 for $9.99 per month, featuring archival programming from the shock jock’s radio show on Infinity Broadcasting Corp.
However, those interested in seeing the self-proclaimed “King of All Media’s” shenanigans on his new Sirius gig, which begins Jan. 2, will have to cool their heels for another two months, until the new video content is made available in March, according to In Demand president Rob Jacobson.
He said In Demand is delaying the televised encores of Stern’s Sirius shows for two months because it didn’t want to risk consumer confusion by going out simultaneously with two subscription packages.
In addition to equipment fees, subscribers will have to pay $12.99 per month in order to access Stern’s show as part of Sirius’ lineup, which also includes the rights to the National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League, plus an array of music and entertainment channels.
“Requiring people to pay for Howard’s radio-show broadcast and asking people to now pay for the televised version of Howard are new things for consumers,” Jacobson said. “In order to make sure we communicate the message from a formerly free environment to one where people need to pay, we needed a little separation so we wouldn’t create confusion in the marketplace.”
In Demand, though, will offer the first two months of Stern’s Sirius radio shows once it gains the rights to the satellite package, as well as extant library fare. At that point, subscribers will be able to view Stern’s daily Sirius shows some 36 hours after they premiere on the satellite-radio platform.
On April 1, the network will increase the price of the package to $13.99 per month in order to reflect the new programming, Jacobson said.
In Demand has deals with owners Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable, as well as Adelphia Communications Corp., to air a package of more than 40 uncut and uncensored programs gleaned from Stern’s 11 year-old TV library, much of which has aired in an edited format on E! Entertainment Television. The interim subscription-video-on-demand package will retail at a suggested price of $9.99.
Additionally, In Demand will offer two or three individual shows per month for $7.95 apiece, both during the phase-in stage and after it begins presenting the Sirius fare.
from Yahoo.com
Howard Stern continues his reign as "King of all Media" online for the fifth consecutive year, generating eight times more search activity than any other talk radio personality or team of radio hosts. Searches for Sirius Satellite Radio are also up 1,300 percent due to Stern's scheduled exit from traditional radio at the end of this year. Of total Stern search activity, 50 percent of online interest specifies Sirius Satellite.
"Based on the fact that half of Stern's searches specify Sirius, it's easy to predict that half of Stern's present terrestrial radio audience will follow him to satellite," said Dean Tsouvalas, writer of The Lycos 50. "Over the past year, Stern's popularity with web users has tripled, and if web search activity is any indication, David Lee Roth will pull in bigger audience numbers than Adam Corolla once Stern departs. But right now, Stern is 63 times more popular online than Roth, and Corolla's search activity doesn't even register a blip on the radar with web users."
Another big winner with web users this year is Laura Ingraham, seeing a 2,050 percent rise in search activity, up from number 28 last year. Kim Komando makes her first-ever appearance on this year's list, with a 500 percent bump in online interest.
While Sean Hannity experienced the biggest gain in online popularity last year, he slips 44 percent this year, falling from number five to number 11. But Mancow is the biggest loser this year, with a 109 percent drop in search interest, falling from number nine to number 19 in search activity.
Of the three newcomers to last year's list, only Tom Leykis remains, as Al Franken and Lionel drop off the list completely. Search activity for Franken dropped 95 percent over the past year.
The Top 20 Most-Searched Talk Radio Personalities of 2005 (numbers in parentheses reflect last year's rank):
1) Howard Stern (1) 11) Sean Hannity (5)
2) Rush Limbaugh (2) 12) Janeane Garofalo (-)
3) Tom Joyner (7) 13) Laura Ingraham (28)
4) Bob & Tom (3) 14) David Lee Roth (-)
5) Michael Savage (6) 15) Don & Mike (-)
6) Dr. Laura (8) 16) Paul Harvey (11)
7) Art Bell (4) 17) Tom Leykis (12)
8) Bill O'Reilly (13) 18) Kim Komando (-)
9) Larry King (14) 19) Mancow (9)
10) Opie & Anthony (16) 20) Tavis Smiley (29)
from the Wall St. Journal
THE SMALL SCREEN By JOE FLINT
My friend Rich is a longtime Howard Stern listener. But Rich, a Los Angeles-based television producer, isn't going to follow Mr. Stern to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. when he changes homes next year.
"As much as I like Stern, I can't see myself paying for radio," Rich says, adding that while he expects that "those are words I'm going to eat…right now between the stations already out there and CDs, I'm covered."
Leila, his neighbor and a Stern fanatic herself, is another story: She and her husband have already bought not one but two Sirius satellite radios for their cars.
"We're in for the ride," she says, adding that they will likely get a third Sirius radio for their house.
There you have it. Two hardcore Stern fans going in opposite directions, which is what makes it so difficult to predict what will happen when radio's biggest personality takes his raunchy act to satellite on January 2. To say Sirius is taking a huge risk would be an understatement -- it took a five-year, $500 million deal to land Mr. Stern. The hope is that Mr. Stern can bring in a big chunk of the roughly six million daily listeners he has now and elevate satellite radio from the fringe to the mainstream.
Mr. Stern has certainly been doing his part to get the word out: Since signing his deal with Sirius last year, he has talked up the service practically on a daily basis. On Monday, Mr. Stern's bosses at Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting radio unit finally reached their breaking point, slapping him with a one-day suspension, apparently because he was babbling too much about Sirius.
When it struck its deal with Mr. Stern, Sirius said it would make back its costs if the shock jock brought in one million new subscribers over the life of his contract. At the time Sirius had about 600,000 subscribers; now it has almost 2.2 million and expects to top three million by year's end. But a Sirius spokesman had no comment on whether the Stern deal was profitable, adding that the company won't say how much of its growth can be attributed to Mr. Stern's impending arrival. (Sirius also has other expensive programming, including deals with the NFL, NASCAR and Martha Stewart.)
Stern loyalists who subscribe to Sirius's service (a monthly subscription is $12.95) may be annoyed to discover the show will still have commercials. On the other hand, Sirius has said the show will have fewer ads than Mr. Stern's current broadcast -- today, some fans wait for one of the show's long commercial breaks to end before beginning their morning commutes. But who knows if the number of ads will stay the same? Sirius's ad revenue is on the rise, jumping to $1.5 million in third quarter of this year from $250,000 in the same period a year ago. Of Sirius's roughly 125 channels, a little more than half are commercial-free -- primarily the all-music channels.
Sirius isn't the only one whose fortunes could turn because of Mr. Stern. Infinity, Mr. Stern's home for the past 20 years, needs to replace the $100 million in annual advertising revenue brought in by his show. Besides subtracting 5% of Infinity's total revenue, Mr. Stern's loss could have other ramifications for the slumping radio industry: If Mr. Stern thrives on satellite radio, other radio personalities could follow. And while Infinity is just a small part of Viacom, its financial performance will soon be magnified: Infinity will be crucial to a downsized CBS Corp. after Viacom splits into two separate companies later this year. And what if Stern fans who don't follow him to satellite opt for CDs or iPods over broadcast radio?
Infinity acknowledges it will take a hit when Mr. Stern signs off on December 16. His morning show is currently carried on 27 Infinity stations and 35 stations overall. (Last year, he was on 46 stations, but many affiliates have dropped him early, either in anticipation of his departure or for fear of indecency fines from the Federal Communications Commission.)
Joel Hollander, Infinity's chief executive, says the company "will move on without Howard Stern." To replace him, Mr. Hollander has wisely decided not to go with just one personality, choosing instead to try a variety of hosts and formats. Infinity's biggest gamble is tapping one-time Van Halen singer David Lee Roth as Mr. Stern's replacement in seven markets, including New York. Veteran cable and radio personality Adam Carolla will succeed Mr. Stern in Los Angeles and five other cities; in other markets, Mr. Hollander is relying on a disc jockey known as Rover and a Washington, D.C.-based sports duo.
Mr. Hollander knows none of these people will be an instant success and figures it could take three years for the company to fully recover from Mr. Stern's exit. "They need to create their own identities, it will take some time," he says.
The new personalities won't command anything close to Mr. Stern's annual salary of about $25 million, but whatever savings there are in paychecks will likely be used on promotion. One potential plus for Infinity is that if any of these personalities builds a following and can be syndicated, the radio giant will get most of the bucks: Mr. Stern's show was syndicated by the radio star and his agent Don Buchwald, with the majority of the money flowing to them.
Mr. Stern will also face challenges adjusting to his new anything-goes environment. While he's mused on the air about the new freedoms he'll soon have, not all of his current fans tune in for the scatological humor or the obsession with strippers and lesbians; they prefer Mr. Stern's take on the day-to-day hassles of life, family, employees and employers. Since his new set will include a pole for strippers, it seems safe to say that at least initially, the radio personality will spend lots of time taking advantage of a no-rules world. But if he overdoes it, he may alienate part of his audience.
"He's going to go over the line and he'll find out what people want and don't want," says Leila.
from CNN.com
NEW YORK (AP) -- Howard Stern was pulled off the air for one day Monday after heavily promoting his move to satellite radio.
"We expect him back on Wednesday," said Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for Infinity Broadcasting Corp., which carries Stern's syndicated show in more than 20 markets. Infinity is a unit of media giant Viacom Inc.
She wouldn't call Stern's absence a suspension and declined to comment further. Listeners will hear a compilation of Stern's best shows on Tuesday, she said.
But Stern's spokesman Matt Traub confirmed the shock jock had been suspended, adding: "This is an act of desperation by men who are losing their once-in-a-lifetime franchise."
The action was first reported on the Howard 100 channel carried by Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., where Stern is moving his show next year. The channel said Stern was suspended for talking too much about his impending move to satellite.
Stern announced his departure last year to Sirius, where he received a $500 million contract to begin in January 2006. Stern boasts an audience of about 12 million and revenues of about $100 million from his morning radio show. His last live radio show for Infinity is scheduled for December 16.
Sirius spokesman Patrick Reilly declined to comment Monday.
from howardstern.com
November 7, 2005
Howard Stern Gets Suspended!
Sources tell Howard 100 News that Infinity Broadcasting has issued a one-day suspension to Howard Stern… for talking about Sirius Satellite Radio TOO MUCH! K-rock General Manager Tom Chiusano made the announcement as The Howard Stern Show was ending Monday morning. Stay tuned to Howard 100 News throughout the day… we'll be providing live updates as information becomes available. Then join us at 6:00 eastern time for complete, in-depth coverage of Howard's suspension. Howard 100 News will have all the details on how and why this happened… Howard's history of suspensions… reaction from Sterns fans and the Wack-Packers… and what happens next! Only on HOWARD 100 NEWS can you get all the inside details on Howard's suspension from old-fashioned radio.
October 25, 2005
Jimmy Kimmel To Serve As Creative Consultant And Advisor To Infinity
Penn Jillette To Host One-Hour Daily Talk Show In New York, Chicago, San Francisco And Washington, D.C., Among Other Major Cities Across The Country
Infinity Broadcasting, one of the largest major-market radio operators in the United States, today launched FREE FM, a bold new FM format, on Infinity stations in four of the top five and seven of the top 10 U.S. radio markets, as part of its Howard Stern replacement strategy. Infinity currently broadcasts Stern's program on 27 of its stations across the country. His last live broadcast will be on Friday, December 16.
At the same time, David Lee Roth, the original frontman for the legendary rock band Van Halen, and comedic radio and television personality Adam Carolla have been named as morning drive hosts in New York (WXRK-FM) (weekdays, 6:00-10:00AM, ET) and Los Angeles (KLSX-FM) (weekdays, 6:00-10:00AM, PT), respectively, beginning on Tuesday, January 3, 2006 . Additional markets to broadcast Roth include KLLI-FM Dallas, WYSP-FM Philadelphia, WBCN-FM Boston, WRKZ-FM Pittsburgh, WNCX-FM Cleveland and WPBZ-FM West Palm Beach. Carolla will also be heard on KIFR-FM San Francisco (formerly KEAR-FM), KPLN-FM San Diego, KZON-FM Phoenix, KUFO-FM Portland and KXTE-FM Las Vegas.
Late night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel will serve as creative consultant for THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW, as well as advisor for Infinity. He will assist in the development of new talent and show ideas for the Company, and make guest appearances on the program.
"Infinity's FREE FM stations will feature an eclectic mix of personalities, whose distinct creativity, perspective, sense of humor, intellect and unpredictability do not fall under the guiding principals of any particular narrowcast theme or ideology," said Joel Hollander, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Infinity. "An entertaining hybrid of provocative, political, pop culture, news, music and lifestyle formats, our next generation of FM stations will be personified by their conviction, passion, originality, fearlessness and innovation which is not heard anywhere else on the radio."
Beginning today, KIFR, WYSP and KPLN will convert to FREE FM programming offering listeners a combination of powerhouse local and national personalities (see separate releases for complete lineups). WXRK, the flagship station for the David Lee Roth Show, will debut FREE FM on the station in conjunction with Roth's premiere in January 2006. Current Infinity stations in Los Angeles (KLSX-FM), Chicago (WCKG-FM), Dallas (KLLI-FM), Washington, D.C. (WJFK-FM), Detroit (WKRK-FM) and Baltimore (WHFS-FM) have all been rebranded FREE FM as of today.
Penn Jillette, one-half of the entertainment duo Penn & Teller, has also been named as host of a unique one-hour live radio program that will be featured on stations in New York (WXRK-FM), Chicago (WCKG-FM), San Francisco (KIFR-FM), Washington, D.C. (WJFK-FM), Detroit (WKRK-FM), San Diego (KPLN-FM), Baltimore (WHFS-FM) and Las Vegas (KSFN-AM), beginning in January 2006 (check local listings for broadcast time).
In addition, a variety of morning drive programming options have been developed for the remaining Stern stations such as syndication of Infinity personalities, format changes and the creation of live local programs. Following are several highlights (complete list attached):
Rover, currently heard on Infinity's WXTM-FM Cleveland and WAZU-FM Columbus, adds WCKG-FM in Chicago, WKRK-FM Detroit, WAQZ-FM Cincinnati, WMFS-FM Memphis and WZNE-FM Rochester to his roster of stations. WCKG will serve as the flagship station for Rover's MORNING GLORY heard weekdays 5:00-10:00AM, CT/6:00-10:00AM, ET. A 10-year veteran of radio, Rover joined WXTM in 2003 and has consistently been a ratings leader among Adults and Men 18-34. His first job in radio came at age 20 when he applied for, and was hired as, a host for Xtreme Radio in Las Vegas despite having no prior experience.
WJFK-FM's The Junkies will expand their lineup to include WHFS. J.P., John, Eric and Jason began their career in broadcasting as hosts of a cable access show in 1995, and were hired by WJFK-FM shortly thereafter where they hosted weekend, and later, weeknight programs. In 2002, the foursome began hosting morning drive on WHFS (Washington, D.C.) until the station changed its format and call letters in January 2005. They rejoined WJFK for middays, and the Junkies program has been rated No.1 in its timeperiod among Adults 25-34, Men 18-49 and Men 25-54 ever since.
KITS-FM in San Francisco will launch the MORNING MUSIC CO-OP, an entertainment-based program featuring alternative music with unprecedented listener involvement/interaction and minimal commercial interruption. The station's on-air programming attributes will include music-oriented town halls, sponsorship of "locals-only" concerts, monthly music and movie listener correspondents, frequent auditions for permanent positions on the show, listener advisory reports, and Q&A sessions with station executives.
Added Hollander, "When we set out to find a replacement for Howard Stern we took the opportunity to cultivate a wide array of talent, from both in and out of the radio industry. With Roth, we've found someone who continues to evolve his career and deliver for his legion of fans. Adam's depth of entertainment experience is unmatched in radio. And Jimmy has a proven track record of creating winning shows for both radio and television. Couple that with an impressive roster of emerging talent and formats and we have all the necessary elements for Infinity to continue as the major player in morning drive."
Best known to countless rock fans as the frontman of legendary band Van Halen, "Diamond" David Lee Roth is also a successful solo artist, music video pioneer and best selling author. Born in Bloomington, Ind., Roth spent his early childhood shuttling between the great outdoors and living with his famous uncle, Manny Roth, in New York's Greenwich Village during the early 60s. Roth's musical education began with the likes of Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce.
By the time he reached his mid-20s, Roth was a world-class frontman with platinum albums from his work with his high school buddies, Van Halen. Mixing heavy metal riffs with punk's fury, Van Halen became the most popular American rock & roll band of the late '70s and early '80s releasing a string of classic mega-selling albums (1979's Van Halen II, 1980's Women & Children First, 1981's Fair Warning, 1982's Diver Down, and two years later, 1984), while also becoming a major arena-headlining concert draw.
His subsequent solo career also yielded a truckload of hits, including "Yankee Rose," "Goin' Crazy," "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody," "California Girls,"and "A Little Ain't Enough," as he veered from the arena hard rock he was known for to smoky blues, Las Vegas show tunes and dance floor rhythms, touring countless countries in the process.
Roth penned a tell-all autobiography, Crazy From The Heat, in 1997. He has also appeared on VH1's "The David Lee Roth Fourth of July Christmas Special" and "I Love the 70s," as well as "The Sopranos."
Presently, Roth resides in New York City, where he became a certified emergency medical technician in 2004.
Carolla is one of the most versatile men in Hollywood. He currently hosts Comedy Central's "Too Late with Adam Carolla" and additionally stars in TLC's "The Adam Carolla Project," which chronicles the renovation and subsequent sale of his boyhood home.
Following brief stints as a skilled carpenter and boxing trainer, he began his career in radio after answering an ad seeking a boxing instructor to train then radio personality Jimmy Kimmel of KROQ's KEVIN AND BEAN SHOW in Los Angeles. He eventually joined the show's repertoire as Mr. Birchum, a woodshop teacher. Carolla's success on KROQ led to a hosting job on the nationally syndicated radio program "Loveline," with Dr. Drew Pinsky. MTV developed a television version of the show, which was co-hosted by Carolla and Pinsky for five seasons (1996-2000). The duo also authored The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide to Life and Love.
With their partner Daniel Kellison, Carolla and Kimmel are the heads of Jackhole Industries and have created and starred in two hit Comedy Central shows, "The Man Show" (1999-2003) and "Crank Yankers" (2002-present). Jackhole Industries also executive produced "Gerhard Reinke's Wanderlust," a comedy travel show which aired on Comedy Central, and a reality-based feature film, Windy City Heat, which won The Comedia Award for Best Film at the 2004 Montreal Just For Laughs comedy festival.
A native of Southern California, Carolla currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Lynette.
Kimmel is the host and Executive Producer of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live." He also appears weekly on Monday Night Football with his "60 Seconds with Jimmy Kimmel" feature that airs during halftime. Additionally, he executive produces the hit MTV series "The Andy Milonakis Show," an absurd comedy centered on young Andy and his antics.
Kimmel was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and raised in Las Vegas, Nev., and began his career in morning radio. It was as "Jimmy The Sports Guy" on KROQ-FM's KEVIN AND BEAN SHOW that Kimmel started to breakthrough. In 1997, he became co-host of Comedy Central's long-running and popular game show "Win Ben Stein's Money." Kimmel has twice been nominated for an Emmy and won "Best Game Show Host" in 1999.
Kimmel currently resides in Los Angeles. He has two children.
Penn Jillette has been the larger, louder half of comedy-magic team Penn & Teller for over 30 years. Jillette, along with partner Teller, created an entertainment success story that went from the streets of Philadelphia to small clubs to Broadway and now to a current, multi-year engagement at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Along the way Jillette has authored five books, two that made the New York Times best-sellers list, won an Emmy, co-hosted four television series, including the current hit Showtime series "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" (2003-present) and executive produced and co-created the most talked about film of 2005, The Aristocrats.
Penn's skeptical, outspoken, tell-it like-it is opinions have made him a favorite pundit of the cable news talk shows.
He resides in Las Vegas with his wife and daughter.
Infinity is one of the largest major-market radio operators in the United States, with stations covering news, alternative rock, country, talk, classic rock, oldies, JACK and urban formats, among others. A division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), Infinity operates 178 radio stations, the majority of which are in the nation's top 50 markets. Additionally, Infinity is home to 30 of the country's leading sports franchises amongst MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the WNBA, and the NHL. For more information, log on to www.infinitybroadcasting.com .
* * *
Complete list of Howard Stern markets, replacement talent and station format:
WXRK-FM New York David Lee Roth/FREE FM*
KLLI-FM Dallas David Lee Roth/FREE FM
WYSP-FM Philadelphia David Lee Roth/FREE FM*
WBCN-FM Boston David Lee Roth/Active Rock
WRKZ-FM Pittsburgh David Lee Roth/Active Rock
WNCX-FM Cleveland David Lee Roth/Classic Rock
WPBZ-FM West Palm Beach David Lee Roth/Alternative Rock
KLSX-FM Los Angeles Adam Carolla/FREE FM
KPLN-FM San Diego Adam Carolla/FREE FM*
KZON-FM Phoenix Adam Carolla/Alternative Rock
KUFO-FM Portland Adam Carolla/Active Rock
KXTE-FM Las Vegas Adam Carolla/Alternative Rock
WCKG-FM Chicago Rover/FREE FM
WKRK-FM Detroit Rover/FREE FM
WAQZ-FM Cincinnati Rover/Alternative Rock
WMFS-FM Memphis Rover/Alternative Rock
WZNE-FM Rochester Rover/Alternative Rock
WJFK-FM Washington, D.C. The Junkies/FREE FM
WHFS-FM Baltimore The Junkies/FREE FM/Alternative Rock
KITS-FM San Francisco Morning Music Co-Op/Alternative Rock
KIKK-AM Houston CNN Radio News
WBZZ-AM Tampa Talk*
KHWD-FM Sacramento JACK-FM*
WBUF-FM Buffalo JACK-FM
KKDG-FM Fresno JACK-FM
WOCL-FM Orlando Drew and Mel/Alternative Rock
KXBT-FM Austin Star & Buc Wild/Rhythmic CHR [Ed.-they're already running promos for starting on Dec. 19 when Howard goes on Christmas break]
*Format Change
from fmqb.com
Putting the rumor mill to rest, Infinity Broadcasting has launched "Free FM" and made clear its plans for replacing Howard Stern. Here's how it breaks down:
"Free FM," which Infinity is calling "a bold new FM format," will take root in four of the top five and seven of the top 10 U.S. radio markets. Infinity currently broadcasts Stern’s program on 27 of its stations across the country and a complete list of his replacements can be found here. His last live broadcast will be on Friday, December 16.
It is now official that David Lee Roth and Adam Carolla have been named as morning drive hosts on WXRK (K-Rock)/New York and KLSX/Los Angeles, respectively, beginning on Tuesday, January 3, 2006. Additional markets to broadcast Roth include KLLI/Dallas, WYSP/Philadelphia, WBCN/Boston, WRKZ/Pittsburgh, WNCX/Cleveland and WPBZ/West Palm Beach. Carolla will be heard on KIFR/San Francisco, KPLN/San Diego, KZON/Phoenix, KUFO/Portland and KXTE/Las Vegas.
Jimmy Kimmel will serve as creative consultant for The Adam Carolla Show, as well as advisor for Infinity. He will assist in the development of new talent and show ideas, along with making guest appearances on the program.
“Infinity’s Free FM stations will feature an eclectic mix of personalities, whose distinct creativity, perspective, sense of humor, intellect and unpredictability do not fall under the guiding principals of any particular narrowcast theme or ideology,” said Infinity chairman/CEO Joel Hollander. “An entertaining hybrid of provocative, political, pop culture, news, music and lifestyle formats, our next generation of FM stations will be personified by their conviction, passion, originality, fearlessness and innovation which is not heard anywhere else on the radio.”
KIFR, WYSP and KPLN will convert to Free FM programming as of today. WXRK, the flagship station for the David Lee Roth Show, will debut Free FM on the station in conjunction with Roth’s premiere in January 2006. Current Infinity stations in Los Angeles (KLSX), Chicago (WCKG), Dallas (KLLI), Washington, D.C. (WJFK), Detroit (WKRK) and Baltimore (WHFS) have all been rebranded Free FM as of today.
Penn Jillette, one-half of the entertainment duo Penn & Teller, has also been named as host of a unique one-hour live radio program that will be featured on WXRK, WCKG, KIFR, WJFK, WKRK, KPLN, WHFS and KSFN beginning in January 2006.
“When we set out to find a replacement for Howard Stern we took the opportunity to cultivate a wide array of talent, from both in and out of the radio industry," added Hollander. "With Roth, we’ve found someone who continues to evolve his career and deliver for his legion of fans. Adam’s depth of entertainment experience is unmatched in radio. And Jimmy has a proven track record of creating winning shows for both radio and television. Couple that with an impressive roster of emerging talent and formats and we have all the necessary elements for Infinity to continue as the major player in morning drive.”
A variety of morning drive programming options have been developed for the remaining Stern stations.
Rover, currently heard on Infinity’s WXTM/Cleveland and WAZU/Columbus, adds WCKG/Chicago, WKRK/Detroit, WAQZ/Cincinnati, WMFS/Memphis and WZNE/Rochester to his roster of stations. WCKG will serve as the flagship station for Rover’s Morning Glory. WJFK/Washington, D.C.'s The Junkies will expand their lineup to include WHFS.
KITS/San Francisco will launch the Morning Music Co-Op, an entertainment-based program featuring alternative music with unprecedented listener involvement/interaction and minimal commercial interruption. The station’s on-air programming attributes will include music-oriented town halls, sponsorship of “locals-only” concerts, monthly music and movie listener correspondents, frequent auditions for permanent positions on the show, listener advisory reports, and Q&A sessions with station executives.
from fmqb.com
Another round of Jack-FM stations could be installed by Infinity Broadcasting tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., according to a statement made by Howard Stern on his syndicated morning program today.
"Tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., during our show, there will be a few small markets that we are presently on that will switch to the Jack-FM format and take us off the air," said Stern, who was not pleased with the prospect. "I guess it's the F.U. to Howard," he added. Later in the program, WXRK/New York GM Tom Chiusano was discussing the rumor with Stern and insinuated that the flips might be a Stern/Jack-FM combo.
Where might The King Of All Media feel Jack-FM's boot? Looking down the list of his remaining Infinity affiliates, there are a few markets that lack a Jack-FM style station and are potential targets, but don't necessarily fit the "small market" criteria that Stern suggested. Among the stations are WMFS/Memphis, WNCX/Cleveland, WRKZ/Pittsburgh, WPBZ/West Palm Beach, and WOCL/Orlando.
WJFK/ Washington, D.C. is another option, but it is one of the rumored "Free FM" stations and The Washington Post is reporting that The Junkies -- John "Cakes" Auville, Eric Bickel, Jason Bishop and J.P. Flaim -- will be taking over for Stern after his departure. The Junkies currently occupy the timeslot on WJFK that follows Stern.
If Infinity decides to flip a Stern station in a market where a Jack-style station already exists, other targets could be WZNE/Rochester (where Entercom's WFKL "Fickle" is filling the Jack-FM space) and KUFO/Portland (where Entercom's KYCH "Charlie" is filling the Jack-FM space).
A reflective and sentimental tone has been creeping into Stern's program recently and the prospects of being Jack-ed off a few more radio stations prompted a mini-farewell speech. " For those of you who listen to us and won't be hearing us tomorrow, I want to say farewell," said Stern. "I want to tell you it has been a spectacular 20 years here with the company. I'm not leaving radio, I'm going to a whole new form of radio. I do not want you to think ever that I don't appreciate your support and your sticking with me through all the FCC stuff and everything the religious right is doing to us. My intention in all of this has always been to entertain you."
from The Hollywood Reported
Oct. 21, 2005
The whopping $500 million Sirius Satellite Radio is paying Howard Stern to join the No. 2 celestial radio service might be starting to pay off. According to data from NPD Group, Sirius has been taking away retail-level market share from XM Satellite Radio for three consecutive months, and analysts primarily give credit to Stern.
NPD said that in September, Sirius captured 56% of the satellite radio sales, the best it has done since launching its service in July 2002. That's an improvement over 47% in August and 40% in July.
While CEO Mel Karmazin said the improved sales can be attributed to Martha Stewart joining Sirius and the start of the NFL season as well as the impending arrival of Stern, analysts focused mostly on the latter.
"We have consistently indicated that the arrival of Ho-ward Stern would be a major catalyst," Merrill Lynch analysts wrote after the NPD data was made public this week.
Taking the lead at retail was "not a surprise," the analysts said. "We expect Sirius' lead in retail sales will continue throughout (the year) and early 2006, largely driven by the addition of Howard Stern fans."
Analysts at Sanford Bernstein noted that Sirius' share at retail has risen from 11% in 2002 to 44% last year and 48% in the first half of this year.
Retail sales do not include radios sold already installed in cars -- original equipment manufacturers -- where XM maintains a healthy lead, having launched its service 10 months earlier than Sirius.
Sirius said that it sold 82,000 units at retail last month, a 52% surge over August and a 93% increase from September 2004.
"Since Sirius has a slight disadvantage to XM in the OEM channel, retail channel must be the greater driver for share gains for Sirius," the Sanford Bernstein analysts said.
Observers estimate that retail sales are amounting to about 65% of Sirius sales, while they are representing about 50% at XM.
On Thursday, XM said that it will give a free satellite radio to everyone attending Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday in Chicago, while Sirius said that it hired a new senior vp marketing.
from the NYTimes
October 20, 2005
When Howard Stern crosses over in January to satellite radio and his own pay-per-view cable channel, he will do so from a new Midtown Manhattan studio loaded with the kinds of accessories that one would expect to find if the Playboy Mansion were given an extreme makeover.
At the touch of a button, a rack will drop from the studio's two-story ceiling to reveal a selection of bikinis, for those guests who can be cajoled out of their street clothes.
A corner of the studio - which is located not at a gentleman's club but on the 36th floor of the McGraw-Hill Building at Rockefeller Center - has been outfitted with water-resistant walls and floors, for any gags that might involve whipped cream.
 A computer rendering of Howard Stern's new satellite radio studio. |
 Gary Dell'Abate, Howard Stern's producer, at Sirius Satellite Radio. |
While Mr. Stern will also be taking plenty of gadgets with him from his syndicated terrestrial radio talk show - including the Tickle Chair, which is not to be confused with the Tickle Post - he will be leaving one noticeable piece of baggage behind: the increasingly tough restrictions imposed on him in recent years by his bosses (at Infinity Broadcasting) and the F.C.C.
Indeed, executives at Sirius Satellite Radio - which is paying Mr. Stern $100 million a year over five years to produce his own morning show and to program two radio channels - and In Demand Networks, which will package excerpts for pay-per-view, said they had placed no limits on what he could do.
Like a teenage boy suddenly set loose in a school patrolled by neither a principal nor teachers, Mr. Stern said in an interview on Tuesday that he had yet to rule anything out - including the use of his microphones and cameras to record a sex act in his brand-new 4,100-square-foot studio.
"I don't know where we're going to go with this thing," he said. "It's going to be kind of fun to figure that out with the audience. I'll ask them, 'Do we want to go there or not? Are we going to cross this line or that line?' "
Still, the possibility that Mr. Stern, 51, might go from R-rated fare - his current show features interviews with topless guests - to soft-core pornography could just be a tease. He has long been a master barker who can lure listeners under his tent for the sheer thrill of wondering how far he might go.
To that end, Mr. Stern simultaneously dampened such expectations, saying that while none of his new bosses had drawn any boundaries for his new show, he expected to do so.
"I have my own personal lines where I won't go," he said. "It's funny, the people hear 'satellite,' they hear 'on demand,' they think, 'Oh good, there's going to be a beheading every week.' That's not it at all.
"This wasn't about getting on the air and having the freedom to have sex with a woman, necessarily," he said of his move to satellite. Instead, he suggested, "To talk about human sexuality in a way that's adult, or maybe even really super childish, is my prerogative as a comedian."
Scott Greenstein, president of entertainment and sports for Sirius, said, "Howard has a history of knowing where the lines are, and we're confident he'll continue to retain that perspective at Sirius."
Mr. Greenstein added, however, "We want to make sure he gets to do the show he wants."
Which actually could pose a creative challenge for Mr. Stern. To many listeners, he was best when railing against Michael Powell - the former chairman of the F.C.C., which over the years has levied decency fines of more than $2 million on Infinity and the stations that carry his program - and his own squeamish bosses. Just this week, Mr. Stern was reprimanded on the air by Tom Chiusano, general manager of WXRK-FM, his home station, for going too far with a bit that involved the weighing of bodily waste.
Mr. Stern, who signs off WXRK in mid-December, promised an uncensored version on Sirius, which is not subject to FCC regulation.
Asked if he was worried that he might lose his edge without having a foil in a position of authority, Mr. Stern said he was not.
"If you know me, there's nothing that will make me completely happy," he said. "I will find the thorn on the rose every time."
"Come on," he continued. "I'm having this whole love affair with Sirius. Then the other day I started screaming on the air about some of the guys who work there, just because I was blowing off steam."
For Mr. Stern's fans - a national radio audience estimated at about 12 million - the transition toward opening their wallets to listen and watch him (as well as his sidekick, Robin Quivers) will be a gradual one.
Beginning Nov. 18, viewers in 20 million homes in nearly 300 markets (including New York and Los Angeles) will be able to buy access to a channel called Howard Stern on Demand. The introductory price will be $9.99 a month.
What they will see initially will not be from the Sirius show, but instead will be drawn from the 44,000 hours taped during the 11 years that Mr. Stern's program was repackaged for the E! cable channel. Mr. Stern said he retained the rights to that material, much of it originally shown with strategically placed pixilation, if it was ever shown on television at all.
That material will now be shown uncensored by In Demand, a venture of Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner.
Rob Jacobson, president and chief executive of In Demand, said the company would give Sirius three months to broadcast Mr. Stern's new shows exclusively. But beginning April 1, subscribers to the pay-per-view package will have access to those shows, as well as each new show, which will be available the day after Sirius listeners have heard it.
Beginning in January (the exact date has not been announced), Mr. Stern's two Sirius channels will be available to those willing to pay for a receiver (models start at $50) and a monthly fee of $12.95. The same flat fee provides access to dozens of other channels, including those featuring Martha Stewart and Eminem.
Sirius executives have been circumspect about the content of the two Stern channels. But the host, showing he had not lost his knack for tweaking his bosses, provided the most detailed description yet of his plans.
He said that one channel would showcase various free-form spinoffs of his morning show, featuring not only his regular cast (including Gary Dell'Abate, his longtime producer) but also prominent listeners with nicknames like High-Pitched Eric.
The other channel, he said, would be modeled on the "Good Guys" - the lineup of disc jockeys from WMCA, the legendary New York pop station of the late 1960's and 70's - though rather than being "good," Mr. Stern said, the hosts he would hire (some established, some new) would push the bounds of decency in a manner not unlike his.
There will, for example, be plenty of cursing.
"From the absurd basement humor, whatever you call it, locker-room humor, to just riffing about human experiences," he said. "I can't think of a better utopia for me."
"I thanked God today I made this deal a year ago," he said. "I really did. I would have quit radio for good if it hadn't been for this deal."
from fmqb.com
October 19, 2005
Howard 100 News precedes Thursday (10/20) morning’s debut of Wendy The Retard on Stern’s channel. Howard 100 News reporter Erica Phillips filed updates on the progress of Wendy the Retard’s travel from Florida to New York City for her appearance, which starts at 6 a.m. and runs for the next 28 or so hours.
The most interesting portions of Howard 100 News are segments of Bubba The Love Sponge interviewing Jackie “The Jokeman” Martling. The interview runs the gamut from how Martling met and ended up on Stern’s show to if he would ever go back to working with Howard again in the future. “It would depend on the situation,” said The Jokeman in a vague answer, adding he doesn’t relish the prospect of returning to a 4 a.m. wake-up call, although Howard 100 News reports that "high-level negotiations" are in progress for The Jokeman to return to Stern's “old fashioned radio” program on WXRK (K-Rock)/New York.
Other segments running are an exploration into the gayness between Richard Christy and Sal The Stockbroker, along with Howard 100 GM Mojo Nixon filing different editorial reports. This is the first mention of Nixon being named as GM of Stern’s channel.
Segments involving other Wack Pack members including Daniel Carver, Gary The Retard, Joey Boots and a confrontation between Angry Black and King Of All Blacks are also being rotated on the channel.
from HowardStern.com
Oct. 17, 2005
Upcoming shows on Howard's Sirius Channel 100:
- Every Day at 6p.m.: The Howard 100 News - Live!
- Thursday, October 20th – Wendy the Retard (all day)
- Monday, October 24th – Double A's interview with Beth at 6 p.m.
- Monday, October 24nd – Ronnie's birthday party from Scores, after Double A's show
- Tuesday, October 25th – Angry Black and King of All Blacks (Time TBD)
- Thursday, October 27th – High Pitch Eric all day, how much crap is really in High Pitch?
(All times Eastern)
from PRNewswire.com
Howard Stern and the launch of his channels are highly anticipated by Stern's massive audience, and Sabean, as program director, will oversee the development of the Stern channels. For more than a dozen years, Sabean programmed many of the stations that carried The Howard Stern Show. Stern will launch the next phase of his extraordinary broadcasting career on SIRIUS in January, and channels 100 and 101 have been designated as the new home for Howard Stern.
"No one is more suited to support Howard's vision for the channels than Tim Sabean," said SIRIUS's Greenstein. "He has demonstrated exceptional abilities in developing talent and achieving great success in multiple markets. And given his history with Howard, we're confident that Howard's radio revolution is on its way."
Tim Sabean's extensive radio career includes managing both AM and FM rock, oldies, news/talk and sports formats, in multiple US markets. As Vice President, Active Rock Programming at Infinity Broadcasting, the company he has served since 1991, Sabean supervised the programming for Infinity's rock stations WYSP-FM/Philadelphia, WBCN-FM/Boston, WRKZ-FM/Pittsburgh, KUFO-FM/Portland, KRSX-FM/San Antonio, WAZU-FM/Columbus, and WXRK-FM/New York.
Sabean simultaneously served as Vice President of Programming for Infinity's Philadelphia cluster: WYSP, WPHT-AM, WIP-AM, KYW-AM and WOGL-FM, as well as Operations Manager for WYSP. He was also involved with operations for Infinity stations WJFK-FM/Washington, DC, WXRK-FM/New York, WKRK-FM/Detroit and WCKG-FM/Chicago, and previously held programming positions at WCKG-FM, WLUP-FM and WLS-AM/FM in Chicago, and KLOS-FM/Los Angeles.
Sabean will begin with SIRIUS on October 17, 2005. For more about SIRIUS, visit http://www.sirius.com.
from FoxNews.com
Official: Diamond Dave Gets Howard's Job
The rumors were true.
I can tell you exclusively that sometime next month, Infinity Broadcasting will announce that David Lee Roth is taking over for Howard Stern.
The one-time lead singer of Van Halen will assume the microphone in New York and several other markets where Stern's radio show is heard.
Still not set is where Adam Carolla, former co-host of "The Man Show," will be in the lineup, but sources close to the action tell me that Roth and Carolla will not be together.
Roth is represented by the all-knowing, all-seeing Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood, so you know he has an ironclad contract.
The president of programming for Infinity Broadcasting, which owns Stern's show, said last winter that there wouldn't be one person replacing the notorious shock jock.
He was right. Roth and Carolla will divide up the territories so that no one person can regain Stern's monopoly of the airwaves. Carolla will likely have the West Coast.
Now comes the interesting part: So far, Roth has no on-air team assembled. He doesn't have a sidekick like Robin Quivers or any of the other necessary cast members to pull off a three- or four-hour comedy show. But I was assured that's all being finalized right now, and that by the time of the announcement, Roth will be ready.
Last July, there were rumors around concerning Roth replacing Stern when one of the regulars on Stern's show blabbed it in an online column.
According to Billboard, that same regular — Chaunce Hayden — was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission because he'd been in Stern's studio on Oct. 6, 2004, the day Stern announced he was leaving his show to go to Sirius Satellite Radio.
What's not happening is any relinquishing by Stern of his powerful mount until the end of the year, and it's not only because Roth and Carolla don't have their acts ready.
Stern's contract doesn't run out until December, and Infinity isn't about to let him go early.
On the other hand, DirecTV — which, ironically, has a deal with Sirius' competitor, XM — should be offering Stern's show soon, if it isn't already.
And Stern already has a presence at Sirius, where he's launching a couple of "channels" under his own banner soon.
Don't expect it to be Stern all the time. He's too smart for that.
My guess is there will be lots of interesting, thought-provoking stuff, at a much cooler level than you might expect.
from the NYTimes.com
 Mario Tama/Getty Images |
free satellite radios in Union Square in 2004. |
October 6, 2005
By Jeff Leeds
With less than three months to go before Mr. Stern is expected to shift his show - belching, porn stars and all - to the subscription-based Sirius Satellite Radio service, dozens of competitors are making a less than subtle play for his listeners.
Since only a fraction of Mr. Stern's estimated six million current listeners are expected to pay the $12.95 monthly fee to hear him via satellite, his exit is sure to set off a free-for-all for Arbitron audience ratings in the three dozen cities where his show is now broadcast.
"When his audience scatters, it's hard to say where they're all going to go," said Preston Elliot, who appears on WMMR-FM in Philadelphia with his partner, Steve Morrison. "We hope that we're the logical choice."
In case listeners miss the point, WMMR has posted "Preston & Steve" billboards with the tagline, "No subscription required."
While Mr. Stern prepares to make the lucrative leap to paid radio - Sirius has agreed to pay $500 million over five years for his show - his competitors in the traditional radio business are moving to counter whoever replaces him on 27 stations owned by his current employer, the Infinity Broadcasting division of Viacom, and a smattering of affiliates. Local radio D.J.'s, who in some cases have trailed Mr. Stern for years, are waiting for a chance to shine. And syndicated personalities regard his departure as a golden opportunity to expand.
"The competitors are frothing at the mouth," said Mark Masters, chief executive of Talk Radio Network, an Oregon corporation that syndicates the Chicago-based program of Mancow Muller, which typically features rapid-fire interviews with celebrities and on-air pranks. In the last two weeks, a station that competes with Mr. Stern in Fresno, Calif., has added Mr. Muller's show.
Yet as Mr. Stern's audience appears up for grabs, none of the radio personalities jockeying for his title as the biggest name in morning radio seem eager to pursue the most risqué elements of his program. Mr. Muller, for instance, whose home station, WKQX, was fined $7,000 by the Federal Communications Commission in 2002 for his broadcasting of a sexually explicit parody song, has since shied away from such fare.
Even if the on-air talent is willing, however, many programmers say that since last year, when Janet Jackson's notorious Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" touched off a political firestorm over indecency on television, their radio stations have become less willing to broadcast the raunchy content that became the stock-in-trade for many of Mr. Stern's imitators.
Sexual jokes and bathroom humor may remain common on morning radio, but many of the personalities considered the most extreme have already been silenced. One of them is Bubba the Love Sponge, a radio host based in Tampa, Fla., who was fired by Clear Channel Communications last year after the Federal Communications Commission imposed a record $755,000 fine against the company for his show's graphic discussion of sex. (Bubba recently signed on to appear on one of Mr. Stern's two channels on Sirius.)
Federal regulations governing indecency do not extend to subscription-based services like Sirius, and the F.C.C. last year declined a petition from a traditional broadcaster to revise the rules. The commission has said it does not apply indecency rules to subscription-based services where children do not have the "indiscriminate access" they do to traditional broadcasts.
"It's very hard to have a broadcast property and risk your license over somebody that's going over the line," said Mimi Griswold, vice president for programming at Galaxy Communications, a radio company based in upstate New York. "The culture has changed. The F.C.C. makes it very difficult to be raunchy on terrestrial radio. Maybe people are going to be more creative."
It is too soon to tell if anyone will be able to create programming that can hold listeners' interest after the departure of Mr. Stern, whose contract with Infinity runs through December.
But shakeups are already under way in markets where broadcasters are dropping Mr. Stern from their schedules early. In Syracuse, one of four cities where Citadel Broadcasting dropped Mr. Stern's program last January for trumpeting his move to Sirius too loudly, rivals quickly pounced.
Coinciding with Mr. Stern's exit from Citadel's WAQX, for instance, WTKW, a rival rock station owned by Galaxy, hired back a former D.J. to help reassemble its long-running morning "Gomez & Dave" team. The station also paid for television commercials in which a chimpanzee outfitted with a long wig and glasses to resemble Mr. Stern - and a voice actor mimicking his voice - applaud the "Gomez & Dave" program.
As of this spring, WTKW had surged to first place in the market among 25-to-54-year-old men - Mr. Stern's core audience - while WAQX slid to third, according to Arbitron.
"I know that we have converted some people," said Ms. Griswold of Galaxy. "These people that have been tuning in to Howard Stern, they're out there floating, and you've got to get there and market and entice them to come to you. You can't just sit here."
Last year, Clear Channel, the nation's biggest broadcaster, dropped Mr. Stern in six markets amid indecency complaints, and found that its stations fell in the rankings.
In July, Bridge Ratings, a research company, said a survey of 2,650 Howard Stern listeners in seven major markets found that 23 percent planned to subscribe to Sirius. Another 41 percent said they would try other radio stations; only 5 percent said they would keep listening to the station where they now hear Mr. Stern. (The rest were undecided.)
Joel Hollander, chief executive of Infinity, said last week that the company had hired five or six hosts to replace Mr. Stern in various markets, though he declined to identify any of them. Mr. Hollander said Infinity had approached the comedian Jon Stewart and the television reporter Geraldo Rivera, though neither is among the final group.
In markets like Philadelphia, local disc jockeys who have long tried to gain ground on Mr. Stern are suddenly relishing their role as underdog.
"We're moving up the hill and they've got to protect their fortress," said Mr. Morrison of "Preston & Steve." "As far as battles go, I'd always rather be on this end."
from BillboardRadioMonitor.com
When Howard Stern's Sirius channel, Douche 100, signed on with silence one week ago (Sept. 29), one of the lines of text displayed "Farters Coming Soon." Today, they came.
Following up on last week's suggestion from a listener that Stern fill the silence with the sound of flatulence from past guests known for such skills, Stern named the listener, Nuno, as program director for Douche 100. Today, at 6.30 a.m. EST, Junior the farter kicked off a one-day "experiment" in gas. Stern had Debbie lined up for middays, and Will was scheduled to take afternoon duties. All three had been on his show in the past, but Stern had lamented that they weren't allowed on his terrestrial show anymore.
Much of Stern's show was devoted to the goings-on at Sirius, with Stern interviewing the talent, and taking calls from listeners commenting on the new sounds at Douche 100. The channel also had pre-produced sweepers and jingles poking fun at radio, such as "you're in the middle of a commercial free fart block," and "all farts all the time." The station was expected to return to silence at the end of the day.
from Forbes.com
Bear Stearns maintained an "outperform" rating on Sirius Satellite Radio after the satellite radio provider announced third-quarter net subscribers of 359,000, a 97% rise from the year-ago period.
The company ended the quarter with more than 2.17 million subscribers, according to a Sirius release. Bear Stearns said as of Sept. 15, Sirius had 262,000 net added subscribers for the quarter, a daily run rate of 3,400, but accelerated the run rate to 6,500 in the back half of the month.
"We think the approximate 90% increase in the daily net add run rate, was driven by the start of the NFL season, as well as the strategic placing of marketing dollars," said Bear Stearns. "Further, we point out to investors, that looking at the daily run rate through Sept. 15 skews the true daily run rate at the point in time of Sept. 15, due to the seasonality of the business."
Sirius also reiterated guidance of 3 million subscribers by the end of the year. Bear Stearns said this implies about 830,000 net adds, or a run rate of 9,200, which reflects seasonal strength in the fourth quarter due to the holidays, the addition of Howard Stern and a new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) model.
The research firm reiterated a price target of $9 on the stock. "We are leaving our numbers unchanged at this point as we await more information on the company's third-quarter earnings call later the month," it said. "Of particular focus for us will be: OEM split of net adds, SAC [subscriber acquisition costs] and CPGA [cost per gross addition] levels, fourth-quarter marketing plans, and Stern expectations. We think the fourth quarter will prove positive for Sirius and maintain our outperform rating with a $9 target."
Bear Stearns rates competitor XM Satellite Radio Holdings at "outperform" with a $45 price target.
from MarketWatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. said Tuesday that it gained more than 359,000 net subscribers in the third quarter, ending the period with 2.17 million customers.
The New York-based company (SIRI: news, chart, profile) also reiterated that it expects to have 3 million subscribers by the end of 2005.
"We continued to experience strong subscriber growth during the third quarter, which was the best third quarter in our history, and increased our market share from the year-ago quarter by more than 20%," said Mel Karmazin, Sirius' chief executive, in a statement.
Karmazin also reaffirmed the company's belief that fourth-quarter sales will be partially driven by the run-up to popular Howard Stern's Sirius debut in January.
The stock rose 36 cents, or 5.5%, to $6.98 on volume of 48.1 million shares.
from the American Library Assoc.
See also Challenges by Initiator, Institution, Type, and Year.
For comparison, see also The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999.
“[I]t’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read.
And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
1Out of 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, as compiled by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association. (See Background Information: 1990–2000 under The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000.) The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges. Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.
from the LA Times
September 27, 2005
Viacom Inc.'s Infinity radio division will hire five or six morning show hosts to replace Howard Stern when he moves his program to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. next year, Infinity Chairman Joel Hollander said.
Infinity has approached television stars such as Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and television reporter Geraldo Rivera, although neither is slotted to be among Stern's replacements, Hollander said.
Hollander, who declined to identify the new hosts, said the radio division would increase marketing costs for promoting the new programs.
Shares of New York-based Viacom fell 12 cents to $33.24.
from RadioAndRecords.com
Sep. 16, 2005
Since fall 2004 Bridge Ratings & Research has been asking Howard Stern listeners whether they'd be interested in following the syndicated morning host to Sirius next year, and now it's making some firm projections: Bridge President Dave Van Dyke says, "It would appear now that Sirius Satellite Radio will boost its subscriber base by over three-quarters of a million in the fourth quarter" in anticipation of Stern's January 2006 arrival.
"Our panels indicated not only a high passion index for Stern's show and want it for themselves, they also intend to give Howard for the holidays," Van Dyke continues. "This quarter will be the tipping point as Sirius surpasses XM in quarterly subscriber count." In Q2, Sirius added about 245,000 new subscribers, while XM brought in 647,000.
Sirius projects that Sirius will add 200,000 subscribers in October, 300,000 in November, 480,000 in December. Add in 504,400 in January 2006, and that's 1.48 million new Sirius customers.
Bridge based its survey on listeners who spend at least an hour a week with The Howard Stern Show — or who would if they could; the survey included people who can no longer hear Stern in their markets.
from BridgeRatings.com
Bridge Ratings Industry Essay : Howard Stern Conversions - Adult Trending |