http://www.thetowerlight.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/05/01/4455459db7162
It's been almost six months since Howard Stern left terrestrial radio and we are now seeing the after-effects of this drastic change. He was quickly replaced three months ago with David Lee Roth's morning show, and it was announced this week that his show has been cancelled. A faithful listener of Howard Stern for over 15 years, I never bothered to listen to the David Lee Roth Show. My only impression of him is a combination of the 1984 video "Jump" and the character Chris Kattan emulates on Saturday Night Live. I thought his radio show would be filled with "Zoo be doo bop bas," but I could be mistaken.
Terrestrial radio has found its limits, and people are tuning into satellite radio providers XM and Sirius. I have been a consumer of XM satellite radio for a little over a year now and I will never listen to terrestrial radio again. XM recently hit the six million subscriber mark and is expected to hit nine million by the end of the year, while Sirius has about four million subscribers.
Side by side Sirius and XM are very much the same. If you are a Howard Stern listener I recommend Sirius, but for a music fan, with 68 music stations, XM radio provides a bit more for its users. Sirius provides 65 commercial-free music stations. XM has also added Canada to its market, and some of the Canadian stations can be rather interesting, eh.
XM and Sirius simply offer their customers more than terrestrial radio can, and those customers don't mind spending the $9 to $13 a month to not listen to commercials for half of their day, and enjoy listening to Jefferson Starship's "Miracles" uncut.
When WHFS was taken off of its legendary 99.1 tuning and moved to 105.7 in Baltimore they promised "legendary" WHFS programming. It soon became clear, however, that it was the same boring WHFS we have known since Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" hit the airwaves in 1999. After three months at the new Baltimore location, 105.7 has been nothing but corporate programming, occasionally throwing in the songs that made WHFS famous. Just because they play an obscure track like "She" off of Green Day's album "Dookie" does not qualify programming to be at the "legendary" WHFS status. Listeners want more of a variety and they are finding it through satellite radio.
Tom Petty has an hour-long show on XM where he plays classic rock tunes that have not been and will not be played by terrestrial radio. The Beatles are played every hour on the hour on the '60s station. Channel XMU provides listeners with the latest releases in rock music. It was also announced that Bob Dylan and Oprah Winfrey will have their own shows.
Local stations that once carried the Howard Stern show (105.7 WHFS in Baltimore and in D.C. 106.7 WJFK) have dropped to almost half of their listeners, and the Don and Mike show after Stern has dropped 27 percent according to the Washington Post.
The Sports Junkies have replaced Stern in our local markets, but Adam Carolla and David Lee Roth have replaced him in others, but all markets have fared poorly. Terrestrial radio has a lot of work to do if they're going to keep up with the ever-changing technology. Satellite radio is commercial and censorship free and nine million Americans agree it's much more entertaining.
Stern always proclaimed himself as the "King of All Media," and we never disagreed with him, much to the chagrin of the FCC, but the ratings really show how much free radio misses him.
It's been almost six months since Howard Stern left terrestrial radio and we are now seeing the after-effects of this drastic change. He was quickly replaced three months ago with David Lee Roth's morning show, and it was announced this week that his show has been cancelled. A faithful listener of Howard Stern for over 15 years, I never bothered to listen to the David Lee Roth Show. My only impression of him is a combination of the 1984 video "Jump" and the character Chris Kattan emulates on Saturday Night Live. I thought his radio show would be filled with "Zoo be doo bop bas," but I could be mistaken.
Terrestrial radio has found its limits, and people are tuning into satellite radio providers XM and Sirius. I have been a consumer of XM satellite radio for a little over a year now and I will never listen to terrestrial radio again. XM recently hit the six million subscriber mark and is expected to hit nine million by the end of the year, while Sirius has about four million subscribers.
Side by side Sirius and XM are very much the same. If you are a Howard Stern listener I recommend Sirius, but for a music fan, with 68 music stations, XM radio provides a bit more for its users. Sirius provides 65 commercial-free music stations. XM has also added Canada to its market, and some of the Canadian stations can be rather interesting, eh.
XM and Sirius simply offer their customers more than terrestrial radio can, and those customers don't mind spending the $9 to $13 a month to not listen to commercials for half of their day, and enjoy listening to Jefferson Starship's "Miracles" uncut.
When WHFS was taken off of its legendary 99.1 tuning and moved to 105.7 in Baltimore they promised "legendary" WHFS programming. It soon became clear, however, that it was the same boring WHFS we have known since Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" hit the airwaves in 1999. After three months at the new Baltimore location, 105.7 has been nothing but corporate programming, occasionally throwing in the songs that made WHFS famous. Just because they play an obscure track like "She" off of Green Day's album "Dookie" does not qualify programming to be at the "legendary" WHFS status. Listeners want more of a variety and they are finding it through satellite radio.
Tom Petty has an hour-long show on XM where he plays classic rock tunes that have not been and will not be played by terrestrial radio. The Beatles are played every hour on the hour on the '60s station. Channel XMU provides listeners with the latest releases in rock music. It was also announced that Bob Dylan and Oprah Winfrey will have their own shows.
Local stations that once carried the Howard Stern show (105.7 WHFS in Baltimore and in D.C. 106.7 WJFK) have dropped to almost half of their listeners, and the Don and Mike show after Stern has dropped 27 percent according to the Washington Post.
The Sports Junkies have replaced Stern in our local markets, but Adam Carolla and David Lee Roth have replaced him in others, but all markets have fared poorly. Terrestrial radio has a lot of work to do if they're going to keep up with the ever-changing technology. Satellite radio is commercial and censorship free and nine million Americans agree it's much more entertaining.
Stern always proclaimed himself as the "King of All Media," and we never disagreed with him, much to the chagrin of the FCC, but the ratings really show how much free radio misses him.
