I’ll start this blog entry with an honest admission. I love listening to the Howard Stern Show. I’ve listened to it most days for the past 15 years. Listening to Howard Stern’s conversational, real approach to radio is the best way for me to start my day. And millions of people agree with me, even if his “shock jock” style isn’t for most people.
For the past five years I have been willing to pay around $12 per month (plus hardware costs) for the opportunity to listen to my favorite show on SIRIUS. Before Howard Stern announced he was headed to the satellite radio company back in 2004 for a five-year contract that would begin on Jan. 1, 2006, I never gave much serious thought paying money for radio, something that had always been free.
But the idea of uncensored content on two 24-hour-a-day channels programmed by Stern made the $12 per month seem like a very small expense, especially compared to the cost of cable TV or high-speed Internet. So I, like millions of others, decided to pay good money to continue to hear the show I loved.
The end of that five-year contract with SIRIUS is approaching, and for the 56-year-old Stern, retirement has always seemed possible. Stern’s recent complaints about the early start time of the show have caused many to think this would be his last year on radio.
Adding to that, Stern’s reported $100 million per year salary may be too much to renew for SIRIUS, a company that has struggled to avoid penny stock status in recent years, despite a merger with its one-time larger competitor, XM.
On this morning’s show, Stern said definitively for the first time that he’s not ready to retire. What’s more interesting was the doubt he expressed that he and SIRIUS will be able to reach a new deal.
It’s very possible all of this is just one elaborate negotiating ploy by Stern (he’s done this before), but I don’t think that’s the case this time around. The money Stern thinks he is worth is a very high expense for a company in SIRIUS’s financial situation. More importantly, there are now other options for Stern, beyond going back to the restrictions of FM and AM radio.
So let the speculation begin. Is it possible that the most popular and financially successful radio show of the past 20 years is headed to its third technology platform in five years? Will it be a podcast, Internet broadcast or a Smartphone app? Or maybe a combination of all three?
The promise of these technologies is very appealing for Stern: There would be no content restrictions and all subscription and advertising profits would go to him. Another technology change would again make him a pioneer, and it would lend credibility to people who already have been relatively successful in podcast and Internet broadcasting. Of course it would open new doors for other radio personalities too.
The real questions that matter are these: Will Howard Stern’s sizable fan base be willing to come along with him again to a new medium? Will he be able to convince them that online broadcasting can work in their cars? And, will advertisers follow?
So is this another negotiating ploy, or are we perhaps at the precipice of online/mobile broadcasting going mainstream? Only time will tell, and that time is coming soon.
