Howard Stern. Last of a dying breed.
Friday was the last day of Howard Stern on free radio. You know, I’ve been a fan for ages now, and it’s almost like that song…
“Don’t know what you got, till it’s gone.”
YES! Way to swing in a CINDERELLA lyric. I win.
But seriously, it hit me this week that Howard is gone from free radio. Something I’ve taken advantage of over the years. I listened to him as a teenager out in Southern California, and of course loved every minute of it. Here was this guy, saying whatever he felt like saying, it seemed very “no holds barred” and I liked that very much. Now, as I grew into an adult, I saw that there were a TON of bars being held on him. The amount of “drops” Clear Channel would pull on him in the middle of something great. Sometimes they’d do it so smoothly you didn’t know it happened– it just went to commercial. The only time you knew it happened was when Howard would complain about it, or callers would call in and complain. And it’s gotten tougher and tougher on Howard ever since Janet Jackson whipper her boob out. You could see this tightening of the moral right all over America. And it was a joke. This is what made Howard really decide to abandon the rotting ship that is free radio. Because, let’s face it, free radio is anything but FREE.
Howard, of course isn’t gone. He’s moving to SIRIUS satelite radio. I’ve been thinking about getting it for some time now, but I’m cheap and I don’t know if I can justify ANOTHER monthly entertainment cost. But the more I hear about it, the more it interests me. One thing that bugged me the most about the Stern show were the long commercial breaks. I’m sure they’ll have to break sometime, but it won’t be with annoying commercials from local car dealerships acting like they’re Howard’s buddy. GOD, how annoying! Yesterday, I got to watch some of Howard streaming live on Yahoo.com, and I was impressed. You get the feeling that he truly is reinventing radio ALL over again. He made a good point about paying 20 bucks for one DVD you watch once and it sits around and collects dust. Sirius costs 12.95 a month, and beyond the music channels, I’ve heard the comedy channels are pretty solid. Maybe Santa Claus will hook me up. I think I’ve been a good boy this year.
Tonight, Stern is scheduled to make an appearance on SNL. And this just blows my mind. Anyone remember when he was competing for the same time spot and saying his show would destory SNL? I was let down by that then, because the CBS show ended up being much like the E! show. I was expecting something else. Still, I’m sure he’ll be plugging Sirius on there, but I hope he gets in on some skits of some sort.
My friend CHad had told me that on XM, there’s a station that just has the guy from RANCID playing cds from his house. That’s crazy! And something similar with Tom Petty as well. I wonder if satelite radio really is the future of radio? I guess we’ll see real soon, huh?
Webcomic Plug
I don’t usually do this sort of thing, but I was sent a link to check out, and I enjoyed this webcomic. It’s called Accidently Obscure. Good name. And hey, I thought they had dicks too…. LINK
December 17th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
Up here in Canada, the CRTC (our version of the FCC) got rid of Howard Stern shortly after 9/11 (around the same time ABC pulled “Pollitically Incorrect” with Bill Mahr). I really enjoyed listening to Howard Stern’s show. I really appreciated the fact that he spoke his mind. Even if you didn’t always agree with what he was saying, it was great to listen to someone who never held back his opinions… and and also liked to talk about boobies too
December 17th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
I could never get into Howard Stern. I dunno. Maybe I need a little push-push or something.
(you’re not the only one that can swing Cinderella lyrics around, Coffman!)
December 17th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
i don’t listen to howard myself, but i’d imagine you could still download the episodes via bt after the switch. i mean, i see them on the trackers now…no reason to think people won’t still torrent them after the move.
just a thought.