I wasn't always a fan of Howard Stern. I knew who he was and I saw him on Lettermen a few times, but I never listened in the early days. I was in college from '87-'91 and my drive to work was short and sweet until about 1996. I listened on and off for two years and then I started listening regularly when I started commuting longer in 1998. I never
had to listen and I would turn the channel if I wasn't laughing, but I would say I listened most days, even though it was only for 45 minutes a day. When I heard Howard was going to Sirius, I decided to buy one. There were no commercials for the first week, but there are 2 breaks an hour now with a few commercials. I thought when I got my Sirius before Christmas that one of Howard's 2 channels would play the morning show on a continous loop. I really assumed I would be able to listen in the morning
and on the afternoon drive. Well, I got pimped there also because we now have Bubba The LoveSponge on the afternoon drive. Howard signed him so he doesn't want to compete against him. I only bought one radio but I knew you could stream Sirius over the net if you are a subscriber. I thought I would get to the office and continue to listen over the web. Wrong again! The Stern show is not streamed on the web and there is no reason online for that decision in the FAQ. I've been putting up with all of this pretty patiently - hoping things would change sooner or later - but now Howard has announced he will be taking Fridays off! Now I'm paying $13 a month for far less than what I thought I was getting. Let's do the math! I thought I was getting two drives worth of Stern and I'm really only getting one. Let's let S=Stern. Right now I have S/2 or 50% of what I thought I was getting. Howard is now only on 4 days a week. Thats 4/5 or 80% of what I thought I was getting. Combine that with half the drives and you get 40%. Add in the 2 commercial breaks I get on my way to work and it's really about 35% of what I thought I was getting. What would be the harm in allowing the website to stream the show? Better yet - why not have the show available for download as soon as the show ends in real time around 11:00 AM? Most content providers are moving in the direction of allowing consumers to watch or listen whenever they want to. The cable show created from this daily show is available "On Demand". Why can't the radio show be the same way? I have 2 small conspiracy theories to go along with my rant. I have nothing to base either of these claims on, except my usually dead-on gut feelings. First - I think Howard trumped up the FCC pressure in order to move and get P-A-I-D while creating an "Us against Them" atmosphere with his fans against the FCC. He couldn't move to "pay for" without criticism unless he created a good reason to leave. Second - he HAD to know when he signed the deal that he would be taking Fridays off. He had to. He just
had to. I really wish he would have been upfront about that. Why not wait a year and then do it? Anyway - Sirius programming rocks with or without Howard so I'm not totally disappointed. I listen to Octane, Back Spin, Faction, Hard Attack and 1st Wave quite alot while I'm in the car. In fact, I haven't listened to regular radio since Christmas. Listen, I'm paying for the content - let me have it when I want it.
