Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Howard Stern Back On Free Radio?

Howard Stern says he's been offered big bucks to come back to free radio while continuing his stint on Sirius. This makes even less sense to me than Opie & Anthony being shared between free radio and XM. Stern hasn't even been on Sirius for a year, he's still making headlines and if I were a subscriber I'd feel like a fool if I were paying $13 a month and suddenly he was on for free in my market. Plus, what about all the talk Stern gave about how free radio was killing its soul with its increasing limitations and how the FCC was hounding him (quite fair on both counts) and how he was revitalized by Sirius? If Stern wants to keep his mark on the real world he should: 1. Maybe stream his show for free online one day a week for say two hours. Drive eyeballs to the Sirius website, keep his profile high and let it be a constant tease to listeners about what they're missing the rest of the week. Or 2. Offer a free podcast of the show. Again, do it one day a week and include say 2 hours. Does the same thing as the streaming audio. Watch how successful it is. Takes the sting out of the "free radio" jibe of others, let's fans keep Stern uppermost in his mind and for people who like him, serves as a free glimpse of what they can get if they subscribe.And it costs virtually nothing and you can charge advertisers a premium to be in that broadcast.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I invented going from satellite to terrestrial radio Robin, hoo hoo hoo. Tell 'em Fred.