Stern being Slandered???

Alexa Stats:

Sirius versus XM


Alexa stats:

Howard Stern.com versus Opie and Anthony.com


I thought it was about time to give my .02 regarding the recent Howard Stern to terrestrial radio bru-ha-ha that has erupted this past week. As it has been said in the past, I'm a hardcore listener from his first night in Boston back around 1990, I'm also a SIRI stockholder (I bought before Howard even signed on as that was my hunch on where he was going), Member of SternFanNetwork since '01, and I listen to the whole show daily, the wrap up show also etc, and then switch to Bubba at 3pm. So I do get my moneys worth out of Sirius and I'm a huge fan.

So with that said, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, but I can totally understand where Howard is coming from regarding this whole Inside Radio/ NY Post "story" about Howard Stern returning to the regular FM airwaves via a hookup with Citadel Broadcasting. There was an article from Hitwise that was linked by James Altucher of www.thestreet.com a couple weeks back. I was going to call shenanigans on the numbers quoted by Hitwise when it was initally posted on 9/8, but I never got around to it. I send myself links and ideas home daily from work, but I will freely admit that alot of that stuff falls by the wayside since I don't update daily.

But I guess I am getting off topic. Basically like a bad phone call from Captain Janks television news shows show they will pick up any old story and run with it with little information. This morning Howard played clips of many of the cable tv talking heads quoting the Inside Radio/ NY Post piece basically insinuating that Howard has been crashing and burning at Sirius, that he hasen't brought over as many subs as expected, andthat he has been "unhappy" as of late. The news was quoting the phantom numbers from Hitwise that Howard's search results were down over 91% and plenty of other misinformation.

Well it has since come to light that John Manelli the author of the NY Post article is also an FM radio consultant. Hmmmm, would an FM radio consultant have any reason to spread rumors that Howard Stern is heading back to regular radio? Trying to start a campaign through the holiday season. "No need to buy Sirius, Howard is coming to FM". Just because FREE-FM had to pick up Opie and Anthony and dilute the exclusivity that Opie And Anthony had certainly does not mean that the same would be done by Stern. There is one big factor in the equation. There are MILLIONS of people who are willing to pay $12.95 a month for Stern. This is a proven fact. The same can not be said for O&A. So bedfellows Clear Channel and XM forged a deal that brought the unfunny duo of O&A back over the airwaves.

Below is a chart from google trends that shows Stern's stats for the past 3 years. I don't see this extreme drop that was mentioned all over the news.

And I have linked below a post from Yahoo buzz that states, "Howard's dip in searches was nowhere near as precipitous as sited in the Post, and he still holds the crown in influencing buzz, he outranks all radio performers in search"

  Stern Yahoo Buzz