Tag: Sirius XM Radio

I guess nobody at the Chicago Tribune listens to Sirius XM on the iPhone

The Chicago Tribune has an article concerning Howard Stern and his chances of resigning with Sirius XM radio. His five year, $500 million, four-days-a-week contract is set to expire at the end of the next year. That means now is the time for Howard Stern and Sirius XM to begin negotiating a new contract.

About the only thing that is clear at this point is that there is no way he will get another $500 million contract.

Back when he scored the original $500 million contract, Sirius and XM were locked into a satellite radio war. Sirius needed Stern because they needed a big name to add to their lineup. Now Sirius and XM are the same company. At least they are supposed to be. They are still run as though they are two separate entities.

The point is, Sirius and XM aren’t about to get into a bidding war for the services of Howard Stern. So what does this mean for Howard Stern? According to the Chicago Tribune, maybe he will become a podcaster:

Stern could leave to start a new venture, perhaps a subscription service that sends his show to PCs and mobile devices. Sirius already streams Stern’s shows online and through the iPhone. Or he could explore more options in cable TV, where his first pay-per-view special, “Howard Stern’s Negligee and Underpants Party,” was offered in 1988.

Contrary to the Chicago Tribune, Howard Stern is not available on the iPhone. His show is about the only things you cannot listen to via the Sirius XM iPhone app. What’s funny about this is that he was pushing for a Sirius XM iPhone app for some time. Evidently his $500 million contract did not allow Sirius XM to stream his show over the iPhone. You can listen to his show on the computer, just not the iPhone.

Sharon Osbourne is a hypocrite

Sharon Osbourne, a woman famous for being the wife of Ozzy Osbourne, got some attention last week after she went on The Opie and Anthony Show on Sirius XM Radio and made cracks about Susan Boyle, the Scottish woman made famous for singing on I Dreamed a Dream on Britain’s Got Talent.

Susan Boyle is not what you would call a beautiful woman. Perhaps that’s an understatement.

Sharon Osbourne couldn’t resist the low hanging fruit when it came to Susan Boyle’s appearance. This was after Osbourne gave Boyle a standing ovation after she sang on America’s Got Talent, where Osbourne serves as a judge, a position her earned, well, because she’s married to the man that sang Crazy Train some 29 years ago.

Sharon Osbourne is a hypocrite. She can dish it out, but she cannot take it. She made news earlier this year after she threw a drink in Megan Hauserman’s face, a former Playboy Playmate. They were both on MTV discussing Rock Of Love Charm School, a reality show they both had been on. Evidently Sharon Osbourne was the host of the show and Hauserman was a contestant.

When Megan Hauserman talked about having her dog spayed so that it couldn’t have puppies, Sharon Osbourne interjected that she too should go have a similar operation so she would not be able to reproduce. Hauserman responded to this by saying that Sharon Osbourne was only famous because she was married to a brain dead rock star.

Not only did Sharon Osbourne throw the drink, she grabbed and pulled at Hauserman’s hair. Once again, Sharon Osbourne can dish it out, she just cannot take it.

‘World Soccer Daily’ to return

Only a week after announcing that World Daily Soccer was coming to an immediate end, show co-hosts Steven Cohen and Kenny Hassan announced in a 15-minute teaser show that the show is returning as World Football Daily.

The new show will not appear on Sirius XM radio as World Soccer Daily did. This new show will be a subscription-based show. To listen to the show, you will have to pay $9.95 a month and listen to it either live on Ustream or on a delayed basis through the podcast.

I don’t think they’ve thought this through.

They also have the same exact problem they had with the old show. Cohen made comments about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster that enraged Liverpool FC supporters which prompted them to organize boycotts against World Soccer Daily advertisers. Some Liverpool FC supporters also made threatening statements towards Steven Cohen and reportedly even towards his step-children on Facebook. It was latter that prompted Cohen to cancel the show last week.

What changed?

Not that I understand what motivates someone to threaten someone’s step-child on Facebook, but I don’t see how simply renaming the show and going over to the subscription-base format is going to stop these people. Canceling the show last week only encouraged them and others that would use similar tactics. Steven Cohen flinched. What’s to make these people thing he won’t do it again?

I also have a problem with the name. They’re audience is overwhelmingly American. In America, the beautiful game is referred to as soccer. Now I realize that the rest of the world refers to it as football, but when you say football in America, you are referring to a game where the players wear helmets and shoulder pads and the play is continuously interrupted with commercials. That’s just the way it is. Compounding this problem is that they are starting this new show with a different name at the same time the NFL is about to begin it’s regular season. The new name will only create confusion.

With the current economic crisis, I’m not sure this is the best time to switch over to a format where listeners will have to fork over $9.95 a month to download the show. With the old show, they could download it for free. I know that I wont be paying $9.95 a month to listen to the show and I’m sure most people wont either.

Once again, I don’t think they’ve thought this through. Then again, that seems to be a running theme with the show for the past six months. It’s one thing for Steven Cohen to have his opinions about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, it’s quite another to voice those opinions knowing how Liverpool FC supporters would react to those opinions.

Ian Halperin on The Opie and Anthony Show

Link: Ian Halperin on 'Opie and Anthony'

Canadian investigative journalist Ian Halperin appeared on The Opie and Anthony Show today on Sirius XM to discuss his new unauthorized biography on Michael Jackson, Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson. The interview quickly turns into an out of control shouting match between Halperin and Opie, Anthony, and regular show contributor comedian Jimmy Norton.

Mostly Ian Halperin and Jimmy Norton shouted back and forth, not allowing each other to get their point across. A written transcript of the show would just be a series of broken sentences and quite confusing to read.

Not that it wasn’t confusing to listen to at times.

The true gem of the interview was when Halperin asked if anyone in the studio knew what the capital of Canada was. I was surprised that nobody knew the answer. I thought it was funny because I once had a similar experience in Australia. At a bar in Darwin, a drunk man who claimed to be a citizen of Yugoslavia challenged me to identify his nation’s capital. I didn’t know the answer. I still don’t know the answer, but the joke’s on him because Yugoslavia isn’t even a country anymore.

Jimmy Norton also made a comment about filmmaker Michael Moore being from Canada. At least I think he did. It’s begins right around the 35 minute mark. With all the shouting going on, it was kind of hard to really tell. That point is, he’s not. Michael Moore is from Michigan. I thought everyone knew that. I guess not.

I thought Ian Halperin came off sounding like a real douche, but then again, he wrote an biography on Michael Jackson, detailing the late pop star’s addiction to prescription drugs and closet homosexuality.

Writing a book like that would require him to be a douche.

Is Howard Stern going back to regular radio?

There’s currently a rumor going around the World Wide Internet Web involving Howard Stern.  Rumor has it that the King of All Media will be leaving Sirius XM Radio at the end of his current contract (December 18, 2010) and returning to good old fashioned regular terrestrial radio.

I’m not buying it.

I don’t think he wants to do regular radio any more than he wants to do satellite radio. I fully expect him to leave radio entirely, both terrestrial and satellite, when his current contract is over.

When he left CBS Radio for Sirius at the end of 2005, he signed a five year contract for $500 million. With that kind of money, he never has work ever again. If he ever were to do radio again, it would be solely because he wanted to do it. It would be because he loved his craft so much, he just had to do it.

If Howard Stern loves radio so much, why does he take each and every Friday off?

Part of his original contract with Sirius stipulated that not only did he get ten (10) weeks of vacation a year, he only has to work four (4) days a week. He only does a live radio show Monday through Thursday. On Friday, the show is a montage of segments from that week.

Howard Stern doesn’t have to take every Friday off. Sirius XM is not forcing him to take three-days off every week. He doesn’t do a live show on Fridays because he doesn’t have to.

Once his contract his up at the end of 2010, I don’t see him doing any more radio, terrestrial or satellite.

World Soccer Daily asks listeners for donations

Though I earlier defended Steven Cohen for comments he made about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, I cannot defend what he is doing now. He is asking listeners of World Soccer Daily to give him money in the form of donations.

From the Help World Soccer Daily page on Fundable:

WSD is the only daily football/soccer show in America. The 7 year old caller-driven show deals with football around the world, especially the Premier League, MLS, and the US national team. WSD also has daily guests from around the globe, and correspondents in the major countries or continents of the game.

Recently a small group of people who disagree with some of the opinions stated by WSD hosts have decided to launch a smear campaign against the sponsors and public in order to get the show shut down. While they are welcome to decide for themselves whether to listen to the show or not, they are attempting to decide for everyone else by targeting advertisers of WSD. This is America; we do not approve of people who elect themselves as the moral voice for everyone else, especially when said people who aren’t even members of this country. If you don’t like what is said, you are always welcome to change the channel, but you’re not allowed to mute the voice.

World Soccer Daily is the fans [sic] show, and the fans can play a part beyond their welcome participation. A donation to WSD goes directly to keeping WSD on the air, and a percentage also goes to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.

I pay to listen to World Soccer Daily. The show is on Sirius XM Radio every week day from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sirius XM Radio is a paid, subscriber based radio service. I pay a monthly fee to listen to shows on XM Sirius Radio, including World Soccer Daily. Asking me to donate money to a sports talk show I already pay for is more than a little crass.

It’s embarrassing.

Steven Cohen needs to figure out how to get his advertisers back, not hit the listeners up for a handout. It’s not like these advertisers really have a lot of options when it comes to advertising to an American audience for soccer related products. If they want to advertise to American soccer fans, where are they going to go?

The last thing he needs to be doing is asking listeners for a handout.

Did Earl Douglas get knocked out or did he faint again?

earlThe end of Friday’s episode of the Opie and Anthony Show and then the Ron and Fez Show on Sirius XM radio made for some very uncomfortable radio. It all started when Earl Douglas, the executive producer of the Ron and Fez Show, and Fez made a visit to the Opie and Anthony show to promote a stupid bit they were doing involving Fez not communicating for a whole week.

Opie wanted to try to get Fez to say something. Earl told Opie that he wouldn’t allow that to happen. While Opie was distracting Earl, some of the Opie and Anthony producers (they have at least 15 producers) were doing their best to get Fez to crack. I think they were spraying some type of foul smelling substance on him.  When Earl turned around and saw what was going on, he attempted to come to Fez’s aid.

It was at this point that something happened.  What actually happened is hard to say.  Earl either fainted or he was knocked down and he hit his head on the ground, causing him to black out.

When Earl came to, he claimed to not remember what happened.  At this point someone called for the EMTs.  They quickly arrived and decided to take Earl to the hospital.  They placed him in a wheelchair and took him downstairs to an awaiting ambulance.

When the Ron and Fez Show began at noon, Fez was still keeping the lame silent bit going.  This required Ron to do all the talking which mostly revolved around how Earl was faking the whole thing.  According to Ron, the EMTs knew that Earl was faking his injury when they carted him off in the wheelchair.

Ron then talked about the meetings that Sirius XM management was having with members of the Opie and Anthony show.  He told listeners how he barged into the meeting and explained to management that Earl was faking the whole thing.  That he had done this before.  That he had simply fainted and was too embarrassed to admit it.

Earl is kind of famous for his fainting.  He once fainted because of the smell of Febreze.

Two hours later, Earl was back from the hospital.  The fact that he was released so quickly from the hospital seemed to infuriate Ron.  It seemed to confirm his opinion that Earl was faking.  Ron argued that if the doctor thought there was even a chance that Earl sustained a head injury, they wouldn’t have released him so quickly.

Earl still claimed to not remember what happened.  This just made Ron even more angry.  Fez then broke his silence to back up Ron’s assertion that Earl was faking the whole thing.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard Fez sound so angry.

The show ended with nothing being resolved. Earl still claimed to not remember anything and Ron and Fez insisted that Earl was faking.  At least it brought an end to the whole Fez being silent bit.

The La La Christmas Song

If you’ve ever listened to The Ron and Fez Show on satellite radio (XM channel 202 and Sirius 197) you are probably familiar with the artist known as Sleeves. His real name is Sean Hurley. Actually, Sean Hurley is the writer-performer that plays the part of Sleeves. He makes the most fantastic and incredible music, much of it based on things that have transpired on the Ron and Fez Show.

I can’t adequately describe the stuff he creates. You’ve got to listen to it.

He recently submitted a Christmas song, The La La Christmas Song, to Ron and Fez for consideration to a contest they are running. As soon as they played Sleeves’ submission, it stopped being a contest. The rest of the contestants can now only hope for second place.

The La La Christmas Song

I was feeling pretty good fa la la la la
Taking my time on the la la la la
Snow falling down in the la la la la
Everybody singing like la la la la
Decking all the halls with the la la la la
Making my way to the la la la la la la la

I like to drink a little beer
At the ending of the day
And go walking into town
Feels like a million miles away
The snow is like a sea
Like the sand above the beach
The lights walking in the trees
The people shining in the street
And the people in the light
All the children in the light
Singing holy holy night

I was feeling pretty good fa la la la la
Taking my time on the la la la la
Snow falling down in the la la la la
Everybody singing like la la la la
Decking all the halls with the la la la la
Making my way to the la la la la la la la

I like to sit out on the pier
And look across the bay
I don’t think about a thing
And feel a million miles away
Like I’m floating from the sky
Like a storm of falling snow
Then I’m spinning through the trees
Then I’m shining in the road
For the people in the light
And all the children in the light
Singing holy holy night

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