please viacom, suspend stern and play those > 10 year old best-of’s for the next 2 months. When they suspended stern for that day, i had no idea he was gone and i thought to myself “whoa!, he’s actually witty today!”, then i heard jackie’s laugh and thought “it figures”.

The fact that the interviews with strippers turn some off does not justify the conclusion that all commenters here only watched Stern on E! I could go back and cut-and-paste the quotes from the prior commenters to the contrary, but think this would be pointless, as you obviously didn’t bother to read them the first time. And for all I know, bk just posted that last comment to tweak you (kinda wich I’d thought of that). For example, the fact that you find Artie a decent replacement for Jackie does not require the rest of the Western world to do so. Moreover, as I pointed out before — and you ignore — Stern’s ratings are down. People who by definition listened to Stern have stopped listening in droves. Every one of them — by definition — didn’t just watch Stern on E! Please join the reality-based community.

Like Big A said above , O & A are simply better. Maybe it’s b/c they are closer to the agegroup of their target market than Howard, who is closer to the age of our parents.

When I want to listen to an old guy, I tune into Imus (which I do more often than not lately). When he goes to commercial for 10 minutes at a time, I’ll switch to NPR…., unless they’re asking for donations, which they seem to be doing more often these days….

Come to think of it, maybe I will get satellite.

As a former Stern nut… I almost feel bad for Tony. It’s like rooting for the Astros at this point.

I don’t want to hear about ratings… history… future… Yes… Howard WAS the king… Opie and Anthony (and Jimmy) put on a better show than Howard. I listen to both shows everyday. I would have never thought I’d say this 5 years ago… but Howard stinks now.

It is not just the net.

Whoa! An Assault on the Media by Treacher right here on Jeff’s website. (Does this get you the Mi-Fi for October?)

Nah, I would’ve had to interrupt Jeff’s actual post somehow. Stupid contest rules…

I truly dont know what he did any differently in 1990 than he’s doing today except then he was pimping out his book and now he’s showing people a way for adults to listen to adult programming is via an alternative to radio.

Sure he could have weilded his power for nefarious means, but instead he chose to stay true as an entertainer on tv and the radio. How is that such a horrible thing? People say that theyve turned off – but what have they turned on to? What morning personality is any better? Some say DLR or Penn Jillette will make things fresh again, but I doubt it solely because they were never interested in radio before.

Do you think it’s just that simple to get on the mic and be the next King of All Media? Dont you know how many others have tried and failed over the last 20 years that Howard has dominated? I like DLR as much as the next guy, maybe more since I own two of his solo records, but does that mean that he will be anything more than a slightly hipper Rick Dees?

The thing about Howard is he makes it look so easy, but it’s because he’s been doing it for so long and he doesnt follow the leader, he leads. During this last year as his ratings have “fallen” who has risen up? Ryan Seacrest? No. Big Boy? No. Nobody has risen up and nobody will rise up when Howard leaves because people like BK have yawned as the FCC has put a stranglehold on free speech. What will happen is bland bs boring djs will play it safe so as not to get fined, there will be no edge on terrestrial radio and the softness that you claim Howard has gotten with his “old” age will be even more pronounced in the AM and FM dials.

Meanwhile the real innovation will be on pay broadcasting, the same way its happening on HBO and Comedy Central on tv.

But go ahead and keep proclaiming Howard boring and no longer entertaining. Keep listening to O’Reilly, voting for Bush, and watching Jay Leno. You’re part of the problem.

case closed.

and by the way bk, you are the lazy ugly americans that let the BushCo bs steamroll through:

“Yeah, crushing a man’s First Amendment right sucks and it would suck more if I actually liked him, but because I don’t like him I will be apathetic as he’s unfairly targeted by the government.”

keep not listening or watching or being aware bk

But both Carolla and Jillette offfer way more promise of entertaining me than Howard ever did. The schtick has long sense grown tired..ohh an inteview with a stripper, wow, cool. Spare me.

I’m no fan of censorship or how Stern was targeted and forced to alternative distribution. It’s a shame he’s neither reliably entertaining nor a remotely sympathetic figure. Then I might be troubled a little bit more.

none of them wrote about any of the examples that I gave – which is the bulkload of the radio show, and E! rarely showed any of the indepth interviews or rants or political debates that Stern has during his radio show. instead they show T&A for 22 minutes a night.

Howard’s numbers last fall during the FCC witchhunt (which was spearheaded by Powell) were Stern’s highest ever – OF COURSE in relation to that peak he’s going to drop off. Especially since now, if you bother to listen to the radio show, you see that he’s being butchered by censors, who make the show nearly unlistenable. Unlistenable not because it’s penis jokes without punchlines, but because it’s a bad show when words are chopped and bleeps are inserted. Words that other entertainers are allowed to say on the radio and tv.

Howard’s numbers also fell in relation to the last books, probably, genius, because he doesn’t have any support from E! anymore since the show was cancelled.

And, perhaps, these former Stern listeners did what he said and made the move over to Sirius – their numbers are going up – where do you think they’re coming from?

Did Howard go soft after his divorce? Not according to Powell – who fined him more after that divorce than he was ever fined before. Not according to his ratings. Not according to the nervous nillies who pulled him off Clear Channel. Not according to E! where the Stern Show was #1.

I love people who throw out crazy accussations and have nothing to back them up with.

And anyone who believes that Copps is a Dem probably also believes that Glenn Reynolds is a Libertarian.

Howard Stern’s year-long commercial for Sirius Satellite Radio, and continuous rant against traditional radio and the FCC, may be costing him a few of his 6.5 million weekly listeners. Or, it may be that the 50 plus-year-old graying shock jock’s schtick needs to take a new turn.

He’s suffering double-digit losses, even among his core 18-34 demo, even in his strongest markets.

tony, in his own way, exhibits the same condescending attitude one gets from most of the institutional media. He claims that the commenters here are dumb; they don’t listen to the show, or enough of it, to appreciate Stern’s talent. Yet if you read the comments, what you find is people saying they do think Stern is (or was) a talent and a good interviewer. The strippers are just one of the things that turned some (but not all) of the commenters off the show. Some don’t like his choices for interview subjects. Some don’t like the focus on their gambling. Some disagree with tony as to whether Artie has filled Jackie’s shoes. Some think he went soft after the divorce, and so on.

And the author of the Mediaweek piece clearly hasn’t enjoyed the consistent hyping of Sirius and whining about the FCC. Stern had plenty of problems with the FCC before the last election and before the Bush Administration — he just didn’t whine about it incessantly during the Clinton years. tony’s implicit premise of political persecution also overlooks that the most anti-indecency FCCommissioner, Copps, is a Dem.

As the Mediaweek piece notes, there are hundreds of thousands of people who were Stern radio listeners who have turned him off. It’s fairly obvious that these people did not just watch him on the E! channel, or they wouldn’t have have shown up in the ratings in the first place. And tony has no basis for assuming that the commenters here didn’t listen to the radio show also.

Once Howard actually moves to Sirius, he won’t be having to hype the move or whine about the FCC, so perhaps the show will return to form for some.

Oh, those crafty Jews! Whether young or old, they’re always looking for perfidious ways to get money — even from Aunt Sadie.

If there is another explanation, I’d like to hear it.

Oh, those crafty Jews! Whether they’re young or old, there’s always looking for perfidious ways to get money — even from Aunt Sadie.

If there is another explanation, I’d like to hear it.

However, I was off from work Monday and Tuesday, but still rose at 6:30 so I could listen to all of Howard’s show on my couch in the comfort of my sweats. Sure, some of the timbre of the show has changed- but so has Howard’s life. Of course he’s going to talk about Sirius, because that’s what’s happening with him right now.

Howard still knows how to do and does compelling radio. His interaction with Gilbert Gottfried (take or leave his voice, I still say he’s one of the most gifted and underappreciated comics today) on Tuesday’s show was, as always, a riot.

And yes, I was listening when DLR came in to make the announcement about Infinity’s format changes. What I found moving was Howard talking to some of the station staff who felt betrayed and hurt by the sudden switch. The woman who follows Howard on XRK was near tears at one point and my heart went out to her and all the folks at the chain who were effectively handed their pinkslips on air.

(Sure this helps Howard’s case for people to switch to Sirius, but it was compelling listening, nonetheless…)

What was truely shocking was the absolutely cold way station manager Tom Cheapasano handled everything. The came off as a major prick.

Irionically, I had purchased my Sirius unit, with both car and home adaptors, the night before. The whole incident just reinforced what a smart decision I made.

I have no problem with Stern or his content… he’s a brilliant humorist, and one of the most fearless.

However, I can recognize that current Stern listeners are being ruled by pure emotionalism. Stern did a superior job of arranging his transformation to pay-for-play (which he has always liked) in a way that made Everybody Else villains, and deflected any potential listener animosity away from him, which would have been deadly to his career.

Stern even has normally sensible people saying things like “Stern should not be leaving the airwaves”, even though he is not leaving the airwaves. He is “leaving the airwaves” like Dowd and Krugman left the internet.

Diff is, NYT will probably come to regret their decision; Stern’s move will make him very rich, directing more of his show’s profits away from the dull, empty suits who have plagued him in the past and more to himself and his show’s contributors.

I applaud Stern’s move; I’m not so sure if I respect the smoke and mirrors employed to cover his ass, but I at least understand why; but I’m certainly not impressed with the naivety of media pundits who are bedazzled by the soap opera of it all.

Radio is not dead, and not all of it is due to Stern, although he deserves credit for many things. I can’t comment on all city markets, but here in Dallas, the scope of radio has greatly *expanded* since the 80s and 90s. There seems to be this dysfunction among white people, though… if they move the dial around and can’t find more than one or two hoary old “classic rock” stations with an annoying DJ, they think that radio is dead. Every station must be WKRP!

Meanwhile, our band is more stuffed with hispanic and black programming (one asian station on AM is just a start, I hope); there are more music alternatives (some of them I don’t like, but I at least can recognize that not all stations must be programmed for *me*); there is more live programming, and more around the clock.

If this is the result of corporatism and media conglomeration, then maybe it’s not so bad. The indie stations of the 80s and 90s here were all carbon copies of each other. Back then, radio was dead and Stern was an oasis. Although Stern deserves credit for breathing some life into radio, I don’t believe the expansion of programming has anything to do with him. I can turn my radio on now and find a mariachi band at will, and that has nothing to do with Stern. This is natural evolution… companies using a neglected medium to reach audiences that they previously ignored.

In any case, I just don’t see these dark clouds over radio that current Stern listeners see. Just pay for the Sirius already, and stop crabbing about having to pay for your Howie.