7/25/2005

The King Of All Meeeeedia...


I few things that I uncovered today about my favorite man behind the microphone, Howard Stern.

There are a few internet articles out there today stating that since the E! show has ended, Howard may not resurface on Spike TV as suspected or end up on HBO, Showtime or Cinemax for that matter. Sources are stating at this point that Howard is in discussions to bring his show to a Video On Demand service through your cable provider.

Using VOD service Howard would be able to be completely uncensored, which is something that would not be possible with Spike TV. The Spike TV version wouldn't be much more than the old E! show on a new channel in my opinion. If this deal were to come to fruition Howard would be the first big name player to use the VOD TV system to present a new show on VOD each and every weeknight. I wonder if there would be some sort of monthly pass reduced fee program, or if it would be a one-off that you would have to order at full price each and every night.

I know that I would watch the show on occasion, depending what went on in studio that morning. And I could possibly be swayed to pay a monthly rate. Although I would expect these shows to be pirated and made available for download here and there, so if they could be watched online for free I would be crazy not to go that route.

If this does come true Stern shows once again that he is a pioneer who is not afraid to take on a new format for his show and do something that has not been done before. And that is why he is The King Of All Meeeeeeedia!!!

On another note, there was a poll conducted of 2,650 Stern listeners in 7 metro areas. Of those who responded 23% said they were following him to Sirius. Another 31% were undecided at this point, and only 5% said that they would continue to listen to the station that Stern is on now in the morning.

Doing some match on the back of a napkin the 23% who are going would account for about 2.5 million SIRI subs. And I would expect a large chunk of those who are "on the fence" to make the switch. Even if they do not make the switch by 1/1/06 I'm sure there will be plenty of signups through the first few months of 2006 as people wake up to the sounds of Adam Carolla, or David Lee or something as bad as Imus!!

SIRI announces earnings on August 2, 2005, some of the recent subscriber numbers that will be released then will foreshadow where we are headed.



Stern VOD Article

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was growing up in winchester I would always listen to WBCN. Duane Glasscock was cutting edge for his time. But not as radical as stern. Did you ever get a chance to listen to him?

4rilla said...

IS Duane Glasscock another name that Charles Lacquidara used?

I remember when Stern first came to Boston (around 1990) he was on from 8 to midnite because Lacquidara had the morning gig on lockdown.

Then when Lacquidara left 'BCN is when Howard slipped into the morning slot.

Anonymous said...

yeah, duane (a.k.a charles lacquidara). I have these old cassette tapes that I listen to where duane would make prank phone calls to (linda robin) and buckingham palace and diana. They are the funniest fuckin tapes I have. MIT has an awesome radio station too.