NY Post - "STERN EYES FREE RADIO" (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Gatie]

Uhhh, "sour grapes" for what?

Also, could any of the Stern listeners please tell me the last time Howard needed to play O&A clips in order to fill time on the radio? It really is pathetic, cause those guys can be funny, but as I said, the obsession really wears thin, especially since they are gunning for Howard's old audience. They certainly aren't going to win any of Howard's old fans by doing that.

 

[dailW]

i've listen to howard for 8 years now and never herd him play them hes played mancow but not them.can anyone say why XM took down the 1.99 fee to listen to them.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Funny you bring this up. This was discussed this morning.

When O&A came to XM, management was afraid of them and
what they might do or say. This is in light of the St. Patricks
incident.

They purposely put O&A on a "prime" channel that cost $2.00
extra per month. This way, nobody could accidentally tune them
in and XM would be safe from any complaints. O&A were strongly
against this plan, but agreed to it because they knew this was
the only way they were getting on XM.

Then XM came under new programming management who saw
that putting these boys in an area that you had to pay extra for
was a big mistake. Management now felt that O&A would garner
a bigger audience and fare better for XM as part of their basic
subscription plan.

 

[dailW]

thanks ron.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Ron, didn't they also raise the subscription price shortly after?

 

[WillG]

Well at you can be gracious enough to admit that. If you think O&A's obsession is wearing thin, fair enough. But what about Stern's "Obsession" with Les Moonves and Joel Hollander what about his obsession with constantly blowing his horn about how great Sirius is doing and how he is personally resonsible for 3.5 million subscriptions. Does that not wear thin as well?

 

[Chris]

First, it is impossible for them to know if the channel is popular or not, because neither SIRIUS or XM have a bi-directional communication link with the satellite so teh provider has no idea what you are listening to. But I wouldn't doubt their network is very popular now that it is at no additional cost.

That having been said, when it was an additional cost, it was reported to stockholder as "additional subscriber revenue" and when divided out it is estimated that somewhere around 50,000 people paid the extra $2 per month. I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it was an experiment and I'm sure helped influence removing them as an added cost.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What I don't understand is why the XM folks feel the need to flood into a SIRIUS forum and start throwing unasked barbs. You realize, in the end, all this results in is those of us who enjoy SIRIUS going over to the XM forum and pointing out XM's woes?

Thank god no one is starting a "I need to cancel" thread.. wait, that's already happened in the XM forum.. basically twice.

 

[WillG]

Let's not take that as a "Sirius must be better because XM people are thinking of cancelling" ascertation. I think one of the core reasons for certain people's dissatisfaction is the fear that XM is "dumbing down" as the industry is becoming more mainstream. You have two services out there: XM where the business model was diverse genres and deep playlists, basically trying to woo people who couldn't stand the repeativeness of the music on FM radio. Then there is Sirius where the model was more of an FM without commercials mentality (And these philosophies have been confirmed by Ron for one). So as the industry mainstreams, which company has more to lose? The one who tried to be appeal to more niche tastes or the one who had the mainstream philosophy all along? XM is making the frustrating decision to push for more mainstream tastes. This is very frustrating to the people who have supported XM for their initial programming philosophy but unfortunately, this seems to be how business works. This is partly the reason you see, "I need to cancel threads" People who are happy with Sirius will always be happy with Sirius, because they will never need to change. They already had the mainstream angle. It might be safer in a business sense, but it doesn't really make it "better" does it?

 

[Brent T]

Initially, the show was offered to XM subscribers at a premium cost of $1.99 a month. In April 2005, "High Voltage" became part of the basic XM subscription. There are no numbers available with respect to the number of premium subscribers. Hughes gave some indication, however, when he told the Long Island Press in 2006, "we went from having a show that was syndicated in 17 major markets to having a few thousand listeners."

few thousand < 50K

Sorry my mistake

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Howard has reason to obsess over Les and CBS, they are suing him at this very moment. But even at it's worst, it never approaches the level of the obsession O&A have with Howard. Howard never sued them and anything he did that directly affected them was years and years ago. Anyway, the lawsuit stuff is on hold and Howard has not spent much time on it. See me in 4-5 years, if he's still braying over Les and CBS, I'll let you know how "tired" it is. I'm one of the many who turned Howard off during his endless political rants against Bush, it just was not good radio, IMHO.

Edit - And before you come back and say he still obsesses about Imus, his Imus stuff is funny. Imus just asks for it (see above) and the imitations are hysterical. Plus, Imus actually was a rival at one time. O&A never directly competed with Stern, they only cooked up a "war" to get themselves exposure.

 

[WillG]

I would hardly take that quote as gospel. Opie could have been referring to day one at XM when he mentioned "a few thousand" and also, XMs promotion of them was virtually nonexistant (not because of lack of faith but because of caution due to the St. Pat's incident.) Even some of the die hard fans had no idea they were picked up by XM at the time. So they had always had an uphill battle.

 

[Stu Rosen]

How come most of us are justifiably skeptical about the truth of statements made by presidents, senators and other politicians, but we accept the truth of statements made by DJs?

Without taking sides here, how do any of us know what the truth is among all these statements?

Finally, while I understand all the publicity-related reasons why radio personalities would want to start a war of words, why in the world would anyone else buy into the war and actually take it seriously?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

If you noticed, I'm not buying into it. I've repeatedly said there was no "war". Plus, I don't have to "trust" Howard to do anything besides make me piss my pants laughing every morning. In most parts, he's done that for me, so I feel a sort of loyalty. Misplaced? In some ways, certainly, but real all the same. Just like being a sports fan, if some athelete or a team entertains you, you tend to defend them. Not blindly (at least not in my case) but you like to think your loyalty as a fan is not all that misplaced.

 

[Stu Rosen]

Jeff - I wasn't directing it at anyone, so much as I was at everyone (including myself - I used to listen to Stern pre-Sirius, and still can't get myself to listen to Imus).

 

[dailW]

i love listing to howard but he hasnt made me piss my pants but him and artie make my cheeks sore from laughing.like this morning when howard did gary booking guest on the show.i'm still laughing.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Chris, you don't notice certain HTF SIRIUS listeners here coming
over to the XM area and posting negative remarks and Press Releases
that are not favorable to that company? I do. Take a look.

Speaking for myself, I have done a remarkably good job of staying
out of the Sirius forum. The only time I come here is when I see
something posted that I don't believe to be totally factual. For the
most part to date, the only threads I have participated in here
pertain to the Opie and Anthony/Stern debate. You guys listen to
Stern every morning -- I listen to O&A. It's inevitable that there
will be a clash of discussion regarding statements made on both shows.

There have been quite a few times I could have come here and
posted Press Releases that are unfavorable to Sirius. I have not
done so as of late. Meanwhile, I have seen certain people here
post negative press to the XM area. I let it go -- it's fine -- as
long as there's an understanding as to why there is this kind of
crossover activity.

 

[BenS]

I still haven't heard where Stern said he wishes he could go back to free FM and beat Dopie and Aintfunny. If someone would provide a sound file that would be great. I listen to Stern everyday for his entire broadcast and he has never said that.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ben,

The clip was played a few days ago on the O&A show.

Unfortunately, I don't record the show and don't have it,
so take its validity any way you wish.

 

[Brent T]

Will,

Ummm so a few thousand subscriptions with OnA at start up and a few million with Stern. Yes Stern and Sirius promoted the hell out of their venture however XM did not. You believe XM didn't promote OnA because of the St.Pats day incident ??? You can't honestly believe that. XM has only recently begun to invest money in advertising and thats after Sirius began to take away their market share. Any press is good press Will and if XM was so fearful of the St. Pats day fiasco they wouldn't have signed OnA in the first place.

As OnA said in an article from this year... they only had a few thousand listners. Feel free to spin it any way you like.

 

[WillG]

Like I said before, to me, that quote is somewhat vague. Maybe they stated out with "a few thousand" but no one really knows how many listeners they have now over a year and a half later. Also you have to remember, that O&A were off the air for two whole years and then were quietly added on to a fledgling platform. How many people did you expect to come right off the bat? If they were never fired and still had a popular show on WNEW, decided to sign with XM at the end of their contract and had a whole year to promote the shit of their move there would have been a hell of a lot more people that would have followed them to XM. Also, it's true, they never had nearly as big of an audience that Stern did, no one here who is an O&A fan ever tried to pretend that they did. Really when you try to compare Stern and O&A's move to their respective Satellite companies, you are really comparing apples to oranges. It was always going to be an uphill battle for them to rebuild their careers. They were basically starting from scratch. But it seems that now they are doing pretty well.


Anyway, I don't get what these feuds are for anyway. There shoudn't be much reason why Stern fans cannot enjoy the O&A show and vice versa. They are both guilty of doing a lot of the same things that have been slung back and forth in these threads. I still enjoy Howard. I may have some criticism of him, but you have never heard me say that he sucks or isn't talented or unfunny.