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Shock jock Howard Stern enrages fans by announcing he's now taking entire summer off after signing $500M Sirius XM contract

Meh, Stern's fans need to remember that he's 67 years old - past the age when many people are fully retired. If he wants to take 2 months off in the summer to spend time in the Hamptons with his wife and their loads of rescue animals, so be it. Think about Johnny Carson back in the day....for YEARS (starting in about 1980) the guy only worked 3 days a week with a guest host 1 day per week, and a rerun (or "encore presentation") on another, and also got 15 weeks of vacation with various guest hosts filling in over the years...While also making $25 Million per year.

The story in the Guardian in the link above states that fans are angry, some are threatening to cancel their subscription to SiriusXM, and others are upset that Stern already takes a lot of time off and gets paid $17 Million. Great, then let them step up to the plate, put in the time and years of work he has to build the audience he's got and the salary he commands, and then they can come to the studio in the middle of the night, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year to entertain the masses.

In my experience listening to Howard 100 and 101, aside from the few hours per day that he's live, much of the content is repeats and reruns with some shows hosted by other people on 101. Stern has years of old shows archived, and they could easily fill 2 months with archived guest interviews, in-studio antics, calls with the "whack pack" and other generic content. Stern's show doesn't need to be live or current or topical to be entertaining and funny, regardless what the armchair quarterbacks want to say or how loudly they want to moan.
 
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As if an extra $500 million makes a difference at this point. Try to put yourself in that place where money no longer means anything. It's no longer the motivation. So what's the motivation to continue working every day if you're Howard Stern?

Not to put myself in his head, but I would guess he's at a point where he's just thinking about his legacy. Taking the two months off gives him time to refresh himself, and perhaps find that new motivation, that new excitement that means more than money. It's just two months. Rather than dwell on his time off, I would think about what he'll do when he returns live in September.
 
Stern sucks. He's worse than Imus now. Like I said in the past, Sirius is wasting their money on him. Who is subscribing to Sirius, because of him? He's not worth $500 million. As far as Johnny Carson, it's common for tv shows to not run new episodes during the summer. Stern is the worst show I've ever heard on reruns. 67 isn't old for radio. That's how old Bob Grant was when he began his second stint on WOR in 1996, and he broadcast M-F.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Meh, Stern's fans need to remember that he's 67 years old - past the age when many people are fully retired. If he wants to take 2 months off in the summer to spend time in the Hamptons with his wife and their loads of rescue animals, so be it. Think about Johnny Carson back in the day....for YEARS (starting in about 1980) the guy only worked 3 days a week with a guest host 1 day per week, and a rerun (or "encore presentation") on another, and also got 15 weeks of vacation with various guest hosts filling in over the years...While also making $25 Million per year.

The story in the Guardian in the link above states that fans are angry, some are threatening to cancel their subscription to SiriusXM, and others are upset that Stern already takes a lot of time off and gets paid $17 Million. Great, then let them step up to the plate, put in the time and years of work he has to build the audience he's got and the salary he commands, and then they can come to the studio in the middle of the night, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year to entertain the masses.

In my experience listening to Howard 100 and 101, aside from the few hours per day that he's live, much of the content is repeats and reruns with some shows hosted by other people on 101. Stern has years of old shows archived, and they could easily fill 2 months with archived guest interviews, in-studio antics, calls with the "whack pack" and other generic content. Stern's show doesn't need to be live or current or topical to be entertaining and funny, regardless what the armchair quarterbacks want to say or how loudly they want to moan.
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All talk for people claiming to leave Sirius XM because of the Howard Stern situation. But at the same time Sirius would have to consider who their next big talent they want to attract to their venue if they want to go be relevant for the next generation.
For now as in the release Howard Stern will be on vacation.

SiriusXM will have to go through a similar situation similar like what Iheart just went through looking for new talent. Iheart has Clay and Buck but that's political talk. In Sirius XM's case they will stick to Howard Stern for now until he decides to end his contract or is gone.
 
Why is this in the New York forum? SiriusXM is a national service and where they are headquartered is irrelevant, Stern hasn't been a local presence on New York radio for 15 years. The 'shock jock' label also seems outdated.
 
Does anybody know the current demographics of Stern's audience? When I heard him here in Dallas years ago it was young, male and mostly white. A few females and that was it. An impetuous lot that’s always threatening to do something when they’re peeved. Maybe they’ll start a change.org petition demanding Stern come back.

As for Imus, I always liked him. Had to hear his show on MSNBC in the mornings. His focus on The Ranch was understandable but tedious. I thought he was otherwise alright up to the end.
 
I doubt stern will ever walk away from the money. It will never be enough. He's a good broadcaster doing a bad routine and he'll keep going as long as management keeps paying.
 
Mike_JT said:
Does anybody know the current demographics of Stern's audience?
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SiriusXM is so secretive about how it measures its audience that the demographics of that audience are buried several layers deep in information no one outside the executive suite (and, presumably, the ad agencies SXM does business with) is allowed to know. Somehow, in some way, SiriusXM must know that Stern attracts and retains paying customers and must be kept happy at all costs.
 
Mike_JT said:
Does anybody know the current demographics of Stern's audience? When I heard him here in Dallas years ago it was young, male and mostly white. A few females and that was it. An impetuous lot that’s always threatening to do something when they’re peeved. Maybe they’ll start a change.org petition demanding Stern come back.

As for Imus, I always liked him. Had to hear his show on MSNBC in the mornings. His focus on The Ranch was understandable but tedious. I thought he was otherwise alright up to the end.
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change.org?? I doubt any SiriusXM executives care at this point. I figured Howard Stern's demo have to be 50-60 years old at this point.

Also Sirius XM is on the hook on how to attract younger end GenX and older end Millennials as the money demos.
 
CTListener said:
SiriusXM must know that Stern attracts and retains paying customers and must be kept happy at all costs.
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I keep hearing that Howard 100 is the #1 channel at Sirius, and nothing else comes close.

As far as demos, that mainly applies to music programming. In personality programming, you're selling the personality. You saw that with Rush, where aging demos had no real effect because Rush's advertisers knew what they were getting. Subscriber radio is the best platform for Stern or any national personality who can attract a paying fan base. The local personalities aren't as lucky because their fan base is confined to that local market.
 
Mike_JT said:
Does anybody know the current demographics of Stern's audience?
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It does not matter what age the listeners are, since Sirius/XM is a subscription service that does not depend on targeted advertising campaigns for revenue.
Mike_JT said:
When I heard him here in Dallas years ago it was young, male and mostly white. A few females and that was it. An impetuous lot that’s always threatening to do something when they’re peeved. Maybe they’ll start a change.org petition demanding Stern come back.
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... which will be immediately ignored. If the listeners are Stern fans, they have to realized that this was Stern's decision and demand in order to sign a new contract.
 
RadioPatrol said:
change.org?? I doubt any SiriusXM executives care at this point. I figured Howard Stern's demo have to be 50-60 years old at this point.

Also Sirius XM is on the hook on how to attract younger end GenX and older end Millennials as the money demos.
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Amazing why change.org petitions get the coverage they do. I could start a petition there to ask Congress to declare National Cumquat Day and have the same effect.
 
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