Howard's last day
Today is Howard Stern's last day on terrestrial radio. He goes to Sirius satellite radio if you haven't heard.
I like listening to him but I think his move to Sirius is a bad one. It is great for his wallet, he gets 100mil over five years, but unless Sirius adds another 3 mil subscribers they aren't covering his paycheck. They almost quadrupled their subscriber rate since the Stern move announcement, but they still have only about 1/2 the audience of XM. (6 mil vs 3 mil) I don't see them doubling subscriptions. Maybe 1 mill more from holiday gifts, but that is a high estimate. Satellite radio has to fight free radio so the market is only so big.
Not that I am sad. Howard moves to a place where his power can be challenged for a change. Since he no longer works for a company that owns most of the radio stations, he can't use his power to shut down opposing dj's. Yah, the guy who always says he hates to see someone in radio not be able to work, there's no way he actually uses his leverage to keep other dj's out of radio. Fact is he does unfortunately.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I see Sirius as the overall loser in this move. Howard is close to retirement, he'll do satellite radio as his last hurrah, his swan song, then say goodbye to radio.
I just hope for Sirius' sake he goes the whole five years.
Your thoughts...
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