Howard Stern, no dummy he, will take about 3/4 of his audience to satellite (referred to as "uh ah" on his show after he found out that some of his affiliates were hitting the kill button when he mentioned it on his show). His move, in my opinion, is the end of free radio as we know it and I, for one, have already bought a Sirius subscription and the equipment. I've bought into the logic that I want to hear what I want to hear without the interjection of inane commercials, listless music, blathering know-nothing "talent" and, most importantly, censorship.
nothing "talent"
This was the initial promise of cable television. Cable television now resembles network television.
There is no way Sirius can make enough money from subscriber revenue only, especially to pay "on the air" personalities such as Howard Stern, millions and millions of dollars.
Advertising will slowly but surely creep into the "broadcast" over time.
I will not be suckered again.
My car, which I bought in April, came with XM. I can't remember the last time I listened to local FM stations since XM gives you far more choices, with little or no commercial interruption. I still do tune into AM for local sports, news, weather, etc., but commercial FM radio is going to get killed by satellite.
Your estimate of how much of his audience Stern will take with him may be open to debate. You have to buy the hardware to get satellite radio and then $13.00 a month to subscribe, the hardware costs between $150.00 and $200.00 bucks. So how many people are really going to shell out that much money to listen to Howard? That will be the big question. I just got satellite radio today for XMAS and I am excited only because I don't have to listen to local crummy radio any more.
You mean free radio as YOU know it.
Stern at one time was funny, but his show seem to have morphed into a littany of lesbian-butthole jokes.
Quite frankly, once in a while a lesbo joke might be kinda funny. But he has become so intent on being "cutting edge" that he can't do anything else.
When he goes to Sirius, he will be unable to bring along his main audience of young horny males aged 13-28 because most of them are too poor or too young to have a credit card with which to sign up for fee-based radio.
I predict that Stern will slowly disappear into the annals (ahem) of American radio history. Most current listeners will get along just fine without him, and might in fact even turn their attention to other whacky type of DJs, even if they are not promoting lesbian-orgy type shows.
I feel the same way. I subscribed to Sirius in August and blissfully haven't listened to the wasteland that is FM since. Not that it matters to me about Howard Stern. I subscribe for the music. Just knowing the title and artist of who you are listening to is pretty cool. That way if I like the music, I can purchase it online and have it on my MP3 player.
Like it or not, satellite radio is going to put broadcast radio out of business. The constant blitz of advertisements, the inane DJ/shock jock chatter, the useless traffic and weather reports and the hopelessly limited and lame music playlists that are found on FM radio are going to kill their business model. Satellite radio utterly and absolutely blows away broadcast radio. Within 5 minutes of Sirius, I was hooked. It costs me $9.95 but I would pay $100 a month for it before going back to broadcast.
More power to you. I like Stern, but I don't want kids exposed to his crap.
Bull cookies. It is the end of on air personalities using the public airwaves as their own theatre for playing class clown for 4 hours per day. There will ALWAYS be stations willing to play great music to a devoted demographic of listeners who don't mind programming interspersed with advertisements.
Personally, I will never go to a pay radio service. I welcome the expurgation of those elements on radio that make listening almost painful....the morning 'Zoos' for example. Good riddance to them. Now, queue up some Vivaldi or Clapton , crank it up and let the good times roll.