Posted on 09/20/2006 10:58:04 PM PDT by DuxFan4ever
Despite a Tuesday morning (Sept. 19) rant by America’s shock jock Howard Stern that he was not the subject of reported talks between his boss, Mel Karmazin, and Citadel Broadcasting chief Farid Suleman, shares of Sirius Satellite Radio continued to erode in late afternoon trading. Shares of the fledging satcaster dipped nearly 5% or 19 cents to $3.92 as more than 45 million shares traded hands.
The turmoil began with a report in the Tuesday morning editions of the New York Post that said Sirius CEO Karmazin has been negotiating with Citadel’s Suleman about putting Stern on Citadel-ABC stations once Citadel closes on its acquisition of the ABC chain. Interest in the rumors continued through the day as cable news network CNBC repeated the Post story on a variety of financial segments.
The so-called deal, which has been the source of industry speculation for days, would mirror the one CBS cut with XM Satellite Radio for the Opie & Anthony Show. Rumors of the satellite-to-terrestrial bridge began after an Internet study of Web use showed that hits on the Sirius and Stern sites, and overall internet interest in Stern recently had fallen off dramatically.
But whether Stern could actually rekindle an existence under FCC’s indecency scrutiny remains to be seen. Based on the extra bawdy path Stern and his crew have taken since his arrival at Sirius in January, it would require a monumental behavioral and programming turnaround.
Shares of XM Satellite Radio – XMSR – were also down nearly 5% or 63 cents to $13.25 as nearly 12.6 million shares traded hands in late-day selling.
"becoming????"
The weird thing about XM and Sirius is that they don't seem to go out of their way to program for the redneck/hillbilly/middle America demographic. (I gotta believe Stern has more appeal to the big city urban type people than he does to middle America) Yet, this makes no sense because if you live in a big city, you can pick up a good hundred stations on any car stereo. Those who live in the middle of nowhere may only pick up a few stations. Obviously, the people out in the sticks are much more likely to pay for radio because they have limited options on regular am/fm.
The day Stern first announced this move years ago, Michael Savage predicted that Stern would rue the day he switched. Yet another prediction come to pass by Dr. Savage.
stern hasn't been funny since jackie the joke man left!!!!
I have a six month trial of siruis in my new car - ain't worth it. the technology just isn't quite there - more cutouts than AM.
I had the same problem with Sirius, but the folks at Circuit City worked some magic and now it's fine.
I think that Sirius and, I assume XM, are great for people who do a lot of driving or who want to hear a particular personality or sports teams who's not avaiable to you on terrestrial (sp?) radio. They have a ton of formats including 3 country stations on Sirius, and I think that, given their ability to narrowcast, the music selection is much better.
If you have a 10 minute commute to and from work it's not worth the expense.
However, I consider my Sirius radio and subscription the best Christmas present my wife ever gave me and that's pre-Howard.
I think Howard actually has some talent, but he brings himself down in the pursuit of raunch radio and surrounding himself with a bunch of low class dirtbags.
He seems to have lost popularity with his continued downward spiral into the FCC toilet.
Even though we live in a fairly large market (Hampton Roads, VA), the state of terrestrial radio here is pathetic. My wife is an artist and works in her studio all day, so XM has saved her sanity. Right now she's listening mostly to their Christian music offering, but she also switches between Fox News Channel, Top Tracks, and Sonic Theater.
And I do use it for my 10-minute commute.
They compared stats from the spike in Google searches when Stern announced he was leaving nanny radio back in 2004, to today's numbers. Actual numbers of searches are the same when normalized to take that spike into account.
Howard who?
The guy who wrote the original BS article works for Clear Channel. And then Sirius stock drops. SEC investigation anybody?
It indicates Stern's Q Score is dropping. He's losing his marketing power. It means Sirius made a real bad deal in hiring him.
If a bear Stern's in the woods,
and no one is there to witness it,
Did it really occur??
Hoo-hoo Robin, I invented going back to terrestrial radio.
Howard is just trying to get press. He's not coming back to "regular" radio any time soon.
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