Bent Corner

I heard that some CBS radio stations are running spots for Sirius XM featuring Howard Stern. Since it’s now up on YouTube, I guess it’s true. And 35 million people listen to Sirius XM? Who’s he kidding? If they have 69 commercial-free music channels, why can’t they have just one punk rock music channel?

Like they used to.

Howard Stern has been complaining the last couple of days about an article written about him in the Los Angeles Times. The article states that his audience has shrunk since moving over to Sirius satellite radio and because of that, he has lost the clout and influence he enjoyed when he was on terrestrial radio. Because his audience is smaller, he no longer attracts the same level of top-tier guests.

His audience is certainly smaller.  When he was on terrestrial radio, he averaged 12 million listeners a day.  On Sirius satellite radio, his audience is somewhere between 1 and 2 million listeners.  The merger between Sirius and XM has not resulted in a huge audience gain.  XM subscribers that want to listen to Howard Stern have to pay an extra $4 a month.  Not only do they get to listen to Howard Stern, they get the NFL, NASCAR, and the Martha Stewart channel.

As a Sirius satellite radio subscriber, I can attest to the fact that his guest list has taken a downgrade since his days on regular radio. He doesn’t get the same level of guests that he once did.  I’m sure part of the reason for this is because he has less of an audience, but I don’t think that’s the only reason.  I think part of the reason is because he doesn’t do a show on Fridays.  His show runs Monday through Thursday.  Friday’s show is a best-of montage from the rest of the week.

Not having a live show on Friday means Hollywood celebrities wishing to promote their movies opening that weekend go and do it elsewhere.

He would probably get better guests if he went back to working on Fridays.

I don’t know what Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu has been doing during the off-season, but he needs to stop doing it.  Though I commend him for finally getting a haircut, he has really let himself go.

I’m not sure what took so long, but the FCC has finally agreed to allow Sirius and XM to merge into one satellite company.

I used to have XM, but I got rid of both my radios and switched to Sirius a few months ago.  I decided that I would rather listen to Howard Stern in the mornings then Opie & Anthony.  I felt like their show had gone down the tubes since they made the jump back to regular radio.  When they weren’t going to commercial, they were complaining about other radio shows getting better ratings then them.  It got boring.

Howard Stern on the other hand has been Howard Stern.  He’s as great as he has ever been.  In fact, he’s actually better then ever.

The music channels on Sirius are better then the music channels on XM.  I find myself listening to a lot of channel 22 First Wave.  They play a lot of classic alternative and new wave.  I also enjoy channel 29 Punk Rock.  They play nothing but new and vintage puck rock.

One of the things I don’t understand about this merger is one of the stipulations forced on Sirius and XM by the FCC.  The two companies had to agree that after they merge, they will not raise prices for three years. If the government can do that with satellite radio, why can’t they do that with gas?