Sirius XM compares Howard Stern to two dead guys and a retired basketball player
Sirius XM started running a strange commercial yesterday that seems to imply that Howard Stern is just like Elvis, Richard Prior, and Michael Jordan. Elvis and Richard Prior are dead and Michael Jordan hasn’t played basketball in years. Is this really what Sirius XM wants to do, compare the guy they pay $100 million a year to two dead guys and retired basketball player?
I guess I understand that since they pay Howard Stern so much money, Sirius XM feels an obligation to put him front and center in any national ad campaign. The problem is that his he only works four days a week and has 10 weeks of vacation a year. Getting people to subscribe to Sirius XM because of Howard Stern may backfire when these people realize that Howard has every Friday off and spends a lot of time on vacation.
There is a lot more on Sirius XM than Howard Stern.
My blog posts are dishonest?
I had a few people leave comments on yesterday’s post about World Soccer Daily going off the air that I felt the need to delete. To say that deleting comments here is a rare occurrence is a huge understatement.
I don’t employ comment moderation and I generally allow people to say what they want in the comment section, as long as they are the ones actually saying it. What I don’t appreciate is when someone simply pastes the words of someone else from another blog or website into my comment section.
I usually delete these comments as spam.
This morning I received an email from one of the people who left comments yesterday that I had to delete. In his message to me, he encouraged me to post his email. I’ve decided to do that as well as reply to it.
Horace Steenblatter wrote:
From: Horace Steenblatter (hsteenblatter@yahoo.co.uk)
To: rick@bentcorner.com
Date: Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 7:19 AM
Subject: Your blog posts are dishonestYou are not deleting “something negative someone on another blog wrote concerning Steven Cohen.” You have repeatedly deleted comments that I’ve left under my own name which consisted of nothing but Cohen’s own words and Chelsea FC’s response to Cohen’s words. If you were actually concerned with disseminating factual information, you would let Cohen’s words speak for themselves rather than posting dishonest information which only contain a partial account of his words. How in the world is a post about Steven Cohen’s words “not the place” for Steven Cohen’s words?
Horace, your comments were not the only ones I felt the need to delete yesterday. Not that what you were actually leaving comments. You were simply pasting statements from other blogs and websites dedicated to getting Steven Cohen “fired” from his own radio show because he shared an opinion.
That’s what radio talk show hosts do in this country. They share opinions. Nobody says that you have to agree with it. Nobody says that you have to listen to it. Nobody says you have to like it.
I’ve posted the actual quote that got Steven Cohen in trouble with Liverpool supporters. You or anyone else re-posting it in the comment section is at best, unnecessarily redundant. It’s also not even important. Cohen only voiced his opinion about an historical event. People shouldn’t be shut down or threatened with physical harm because of their opinion.
At least not in the United States of America.
Furthermore, the comment section of my blog is not for you or anyone else to treat as their own personal blog. If you want to re-post content from other blogs or other websites, get your own blog and do it there.
Do not do it here.
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has an epic melt down
I’ve had a unwritten rule here at Bent Corner that I would never post two YouTube videos back to back. What good is a rule (even an unwritten rule) if you cannot break it?
On Thursday afternoon, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo while hosting his Mad Dog Radio show on Sirius XM satellite radio had an epic meltdown, going off on his staff including firing his program director Steve Torre live on the air. As if working for Chris Russo wasn’t bad enough, Torre has to experience the indignity of being fired live on the air.
Luckily for Torre, Mad Dog did it on his show which means nobody heard it.
Russo was signed away from WFAN radio in New York where he co-hosted a show, Mike and the Mad Dog with Mike Francesa to Sirius XM last year to a 5-year, $15 million contract. For some unknown reason, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin thought that Chris Russo would have some sort of national appeal. It’s as if just because something is popular in New York City, it will be popular all over the country.
Supposedly his entire channel is one of the least listened to on Sirius XM satellite radio and he blames not himself for this, but everyone else. In his rant, he talks about needing to travel through America looking for talk show hosts that can talk about the cast from Gone With The Wind (huh?) and the ‘62 Giants.
The problem with the Mad Dog Radio channel begins and ends with Chris Russo. The man is truly an awful radio host. He has some type of speech impediment that makes him sound a lot like Elmer Fudd. He can’t even pronounce the word “radio” correctly. Instead, he pronounces it as “wadio“.
Why would anyone want to work for him, especially after the way he threw everyone that worked for him under the bus?
Sirius XM raising their rates
Remember when the FCC and Congress stepped in and changed the laws that allowed XM Radio and Sirius Radio to merge? Part of the deal included the agreement that the merged company could not raise it’s rates for a predefined amount of time. I don’t remember how long the price freeze was going to be in place, and I’m too lazy to go look it up right now, but I know that it was going to be a while before my rates went up.
That’s about to change. I got an email today from XM Radio telling me that my monthly fee is going up an additional $1.98 a month. From the email:
Music royalty rights were established by the U.S. Congress as part of the Copyright Act. This Act requires payment of copyright music royalties to recording artists, musicians and recording companies who hold copyrights in sound recordings.
These royalties have recently increased dramatically, principally as a result of a decision made by the Copyright Royalty Board, which is designated by the Library of Congress to set royalty rates for sound recordings. Beginning on July 29, 2009, a “U.S. Music Royalty Fee” of $1.98/month* for primary subscriptions and $.97/month* for multi-receiver subscriptions will be effective upon your next renewal. This fee will be used directly to offset increased payments from XM to the recording industry.
The real kicker is that I don’t even listen to music on XM Radio. They canceled the only music channel I ever listened to, the Punk Channel. When I want to listen to recorded music, I listen to my iPod.
I only listen to XM Radio for the live talk. I listen to Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, the Dan Patrick Show, the Steve Czaban Show, CNN, and Howard Stern. I used to listen to World Soccer Daily until they started asking listening for “donations”.
Why should a person like me who only listens to talk radio have to pay royalties to the music industry?
The answer is that I shouldn’t, but I have no way of stopping it. If I want to continue listening to live talk and news on satellite radio, I will have to pay it.
I’m already paying $4.04 more each month to listen to the “Best of Sirius”. Mostly that’s so I can listen to Howard Stern. I’m also paying another $2.99 a month to listen to Sirius XM on the computer and my iPhone. Since he only does a show four days a week, and his show for some reason is not available on the iPhone, I’m going to go ahead and cancel the “Best of Sirius”.
No baseball for Sirius satellite radio subscribers
The Major League Baseball (MLB) season starts tomorrow and it looks like Sirius XM subscribers who subscribe to the satellite radio service with a Sirius radio will not be able to listen to games like their XM counterparts, even if they are paying extra for the “Best of XM” package.
The reason for this is that even though the two satellite radio providers were finally allowed by the Federal government to merge into one company, Sirius XM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin insists on running the merged satellite radio company as though it is really two separate companies. Though he was able to quickly strike a deal with the NFL, the NHL, NASCAR, and the NBA to allow both XM and Sirius to broadcast live games and/or events, he was not able to work something out with MLB.
MLB wanted more money to allow games to be broadcast on Sirius. XM Radio had already pre-paid MLB for the rights to broadcast every game up to March of 2011.
I think this is a problem in that out of all the major sports, baseball is the only one that is actually worth listening to on the radio. When I listen to a baseball game on the radio, I can easily see the game play out in my mind’s eye. I’ve listened to games on the radio and then later watched highlights of these same games on ESPN. The events transpired exactly like what I imagined.
I can’t say the same thing for any other sport.
Sirius XM to roll out iPhone and iPod Touch app
Soon Sirius XM subscribers will be able to listen to Sirius XM content on either their Apple iPhone or their Apple iPod Touch through a free app that will be available in the iTunes store. Apple iPhone users will be able to stream content over the AT&T 3G network. Apple iPod Touch users will be able to stream content over a Wi-Fi Internet network.
Currently Sirius XM has over 19 million subscribers and Apple has over 7 million iPhone users.
I think this signals a shift in strategy for Sirius XM. For a while now it seemed as though they were concentrating their efforts on gaining new subscribers by getting automakers to install their radios in new vehicles. The problem with that of course is that people are not buying new cars. Another problem is that Circuit City is no longer in business. Circuit City sold a lot of satellite radios. In fact, every satellite radio I have ever owned was bought at a Circuit City.
I think this means I will have to break down and buy an iPod Touch.
Howard Stern, consummate company man
I listened to Howard Stern yesterday talk about the format change at his old terrestrial radio station K-Rock. He was taking great pleasure in the fact that Opie and Anthony were let go as a result of the change and how they are “failures”.
Not only was he wrong, it was an extremely inappropriate thing to say. Doesn’t Howard “King of All Media” Stern realize that Opie and Anthony work for the same company that he does? Doesn’t he realize that Sirius XM is trying to get Sirius-only subscribers to sign up for the Best of XM package where one of the main features of the package is the Opie and Anthony Show?
That’s just dumb.
Opie and Anthony are not alone. Howard was dumping on Opera Winfrey on Monday. He said that she should give back some of the money XM paid her when they signed her to an exclusive deal. Is he really in any position to criticize how much anyone else is getting paid by the same company he works for? He makes $100 million a year for a company that is hemorrhaging money. A company that has lost millions of dollars for it’s share holders. On January 9, 2006, the day Howard Stern broadcast his first show on Sirius radio, shares of Sirius stock closed at $6.54.
Today it closed at 16 cents a share.
Maybe Howard Stern shouldn’t be calling anyone else a failure. Maybe instead of trashing the people that work for the same satellite radio company he does, he should be trying to promote them. Contrary to popular belief, just because you enjoy listening to Howard Stern doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy listening to Opie and Anthony and vise versa.
I enjoy listening to both shows. I am far from unique.
Opie and Anthony lose their terrestrial radio gig
Morning radio shock-jocks Opie and Anthony have been let go by CBS radio. The company is doing a complete overhaul to New York City’s K-Rock which as of today, became a Top-40 station.
The two still have their job at Sirius XM. They were doing their K-Rock show from 6am to 9am and they would then trudge over to the XM studios and do a satellite only show till around 11am. Sirius XM was also simulcasting the K-Rock show on satellite.
Though this sucks for Opie and Anthony on a personal financial level, it will make for a better radio show on Sirius XM. Not only will they not have to worry about the FCC, they wont have to adhere to a strict schedule for commercial breaks. That got to be very annoying.
Opie and Anthony were getting good ratings on K-Rock. They weren’t getting Howard Stern ratings, but I doubt Howard Stern would be getting the numbers he got only five years ago on terrestrial radio. It’s a different world today. People buy iPods and they download music online. They buy satellite radios. The people left listening to terrestrial radio are the ones that are too cheap to buy either an iPod or a satellite radio.
I can’t imagine that this demographic is real desirable with advertisers.
20 million Sirius XM customers like their service?
CNN Money has an article about the possibility of Sirius XM filing bankruptcy. It includes a statement from Joe Bonner, an analyst with Argus Research. From the article:
There are assets there. Sirius XM has nearly 20 million customers that seem to like their service. That’s nothing to sniff at.
To just assume that every single Sirius XM subscriber likes their service would be a huge mistake. Tell that to the fans of the Bubba The Love Sponge show that were duped into believing that Sirius XM had re-signed the shock jock to a new contract (because that’s what they were told) only to find out that the show had been replaced with a taped delay rebroadcast of his Tampa terrestrial radio show.
If Sirius XM’s greatest asset is it’s 20 million subscribers, someone needs to tell them. I had to call Sirius XM customer service yesterday and it took me a good 20 minutes to get my question answered. This was after being put on hold twice.
Sirius XM might not last till 2010? UPDATED
Rick Newman at U.S. News and World Report wrote an article listing 15 companies that might not last past 2009. Not surprisingly, Sirius XM made the list.
From the article:
Sirius Satellite Radio. (SIRI – parent company; about 1,000 employees; stock down 96%). The music rocks, but satellite radio has yet to be profitable, and huge contracts for performers like Howard Stern are looking unsustainable. Sirius is one of two satellite-radio services owned by parent company Sirius XM, which was formed when Sirius and XM merged last year. So far, the merger hasn’t generated the savings needed to make the company profitable, and Moody’s thinks there’s a “high likelihood” that Sirius will fail to repay or refinance its debt in 2009. One outcome could be a takeover, at distressed prices, by other firms active in the satellite business.
In my opinion, the whole merger has been a complete disaster. The two services, XM and Sirius, are still run like two separate entities. If you are a Sirius or XM subscriber, the only thing that has really changed is that you can now pay extra to receive a few channels from the “other” company. They refer to this as the “Best Of” package. The fact that you have to pay extra to receive channels from the “other” company seemingly cancels out the notion that Sirius XM is now one single company.
Pretending that the two are still two separate companies is asinine. The FCC allowed the two companies to merge into one. They need to actually do it. They need to ditch the words Sirius and XM from the company’s name and just call this new merged company Satellite Radio.
If you subscribe to Satellite Radio, you should receive all of the content. If you are a Sirius subscriber, you shouldn’t have to pay more to listen to Major League Baseball, The Opie and Anthony Show, or The Ron and Fez Show. If you are an XM subscriber, you shouldn’t have to pay more to listen to The Howard Stern Show or the National Football League.
Update: The New York Times is reporting that Sirius XM is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection.
Earl Douglas is no longer on the Ron and Fez Show
Yesterday on the Ron and Fez Show, Ron Bennington confirmed what most Ron and Fez fans had been fearing. Executive producer Earl Douglas is officially out of a job at Sirius XM radio. Evidently he was informed by someone from the HR department at Sirius XM that his on-air resignation was considered official.
He will be greatly missed.
Some of the most funniest moments on the Ron and Fez Show have involved Earl Douglas. Granted, he was usually the uncomfortable victim of whatever bit they were doing, but it was funny. The time East Side Dave and Lilly got under Earl’s skin by impersonating Earl’s grandmother is probably the single most funniest thing I’ve ever heard on the radio. I never really even cared for Lilly that much. I laughed so hard I cried.
Earl brought out the funny in everyone else.
First Sirius pulls the plug on the Punk channel. Now they let Earl Douglas quit. I just might have to write a letter.
Sirius XM satellite working hard finding new ways to rip off their customers
Starting March 11, Sirius XM will be charging customers an extra $2.99 a month to listen to it’s Internet streaming service. When Sirius and XM struck a deal with the FCC to merge, a rate-freeze was one of the conditions mandated by the FCC.
One of the things not covered by the FCC rate-freeze was the free Internet streaming service. Not that it was every really free. It was part of the basic $12.99 a month subscription.
Not only does Sirius XM want customers to now pay for their Internet streaming service, they want customers to purchase a $200 mono wireless Internet radio from them to do it.
From Sirius:
This stylish tabletop wireless Internet radio makes it easy to enjoy SIRIUS Internet Radio at home. SIRIUS offers the ideal premium Internet radio service, with loads of programming choices and no files, ripping or playlists required. Just turn on, subscribe, tune in and enjoy SIRIUS programming in your home.
View artist and song title on the large display. Easily scroll through SIRIUS Internet Radio channels to discover new music. Set your five favorite stations for easy access.
What Sirius fails to mention is that you can also very easily listen to their streaming service in stereo on any computer with Internet access. In fact, you don’t even need a wireless router to do it. With their $200 mono wireless Internet radio, you do.
Sirius and XM never should have been allowed to merge.
Howard Stern’s terrestrial radio commercial for Sirius XM
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.
Sirius XM is doomed
At 10:00 a.m. today I changed the channel on my Sirius radio to channel 122 to listen to the Dan Patrick Show. It wasn’t on. At first I thought I had selected the wrong channel. Instead of it being the Dan Patrick Show, it was the sports show that’s normally on channel 123. I made sure I was on channel 122 and then switched over to channel 123. It was the same show. Both channels were simulcasting the same sports show.
-
Recent Comments
-
Rick: Hayami: Ryan, so far I’ve seen no evidence that Handley was sexually attracted to real children. Then you haven't been doing e...
-
Hayami: Ryan, so far I've seen no evidence that Handley was sexually attracted to real children. There're quite a few otaku who are more attracted to anime characters than to real people. There're quite a few erotic anime/manga/games fans who are attr...
-
siriunsun: Well, Rick.........you know how it is: John McSame just LOOKS the same as lots of people who were born in the United States. And his name is a lot more in line with certain stereotypes that make lots of sheep in this country feel happy and com...
-
Ryan: Matt Damon? Matt Damon!...
-
-
-
Books I Am Reading
-
Music I Am Listening To
-
- Kucinich caves on health care reform. Will now vote for the non-public option health care reform bill. http://bit.ly/9t4gNI
- Peter Graves has died - http://bit.ly/blfTde #cnn
- Courage? Really? http://is.gd/axTwj
Follow me @rickrottman