Monday, April 03, 2006

Poor Howard

Poor Howard Stern. His listeners number only in the millions. His listeners on the Sirius Satellite Radio Network. His listeners who pay the Sirius Satellite Radio Network $12.95 a month for the privilege of listening to all of Howard's broadcast antics. That's less than fifty cents a day, but right now only four million people are taking advantage of this opportunity. "I was just at my psychiatrist and I said, `I just got great news: We hit the 4 million mark. And I'm angry. It should be 20 million,'" Stern says in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Here comes my disclaimer: I was never a big fan of Howard Stern. I appreciate him in that Lenny Bruce/George Carlin kind of way where he exists after a point simply to stir things up, morality-wise. I can't say that I was ever particularly offended by what he did or said, it just never quite struck me as funny. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the radio station out here that used to carry Howard's program bumped a local guy in favor of playing his show (based in New York) out here (in the Bay Area) on tape. That "local guy" was (is) Alex Bennett, who can now be found gracing the satellite airwaves on - ready? - Sirius Satellite Radio. I was fond of Alex's show. He was a bit of a curmudgeon, and he regularly had A-list comedians on to riff mightily into the morning drive-time slot.
Okay, I'm happy to embrace a new technology. I've even considered satellite radio as a window into commercial-free music and talk. I pay for Tivo. I pay for digital cable. Why not pay for satellite radio? Here's how Howard Stern is pitching his show to his audience: "I want to say to my audience ... `You haven't come with me yet? How dare you? We're up to wild, crazy stuff, the show has never sounded better. You cheap bastard!'"
Sorry Howard, if that's your pitch, I'll be dialing up my FM dial for a while longer. I hope he gets to feeling better soon.

2 comments:

Kristen Caven said...

I'm actually grateful not to have to pull over my car once in a while, uncross my eyes and try to simultaneously grok and wipe away images of mother-in-laws seducing daughter-in-laws in the bathtub while I'm on my way to get my grocery shopping done. Glad Howard's gone to sattellite heaven and I bet there are a lot more like me among the 16 million who aren't showing up. Howard was a can't-listen-but-can't-turn-away problem I didn't really need and I'm glad not to have anymore.

Anonymous said...

Did you actually listen or read the whole transcript? I state this because if you had you would not have posted what you did. Howard in no way said he was angry at his fans, but angry that he had not done more to help Sirius and increase his fan base. Any true person who has passion for their job will be angry at themselves for not doing more. This is what he was saying. He has no reason to be angry at his fans! Sirius has even had a shortage of radios so how could his 20+ million fans actually buy radios when they are not available. He states this as well in other briefings.