Stern
: I predicted that Stern would end up going to satellite and he talked about it this morning. He said that if he went onto satellite, they’d sell 12 million receivers immediately; “they wouldn’t be able to make them fast enough.” It would change the entire radio industry, making broadcast stations worth a helluva lot less, he said, and he’s right. Radio had no appointment programming until Stern came; if he goes to satellite, he will bring listeners and excitement and revenue with him. Stern said he was planning to leave radio in two years but now he says he’s thinking about changing the industry and then leaving. “If you don’t think I’m serious, watch me.”
He also said that though he’s not a conspiracy theorist, he notes that he got pulled off Clear Channel after he started talking about defeating George Bush because he fears Bush is swinging the country to the side of the religious right; he noted that Clear Channel is a big Bush contributor; he repeated that Clear Channel pulled him only so they’d have an offering on the altar in a congressional hearing the following day.
I didn’t hear it, but someone told me that Stern also called John Kerry a wuss.
Finally, he warned that Congress (including wusses from both parties) is using all this as an excuse to try to regulate content and speech not just on broadcast but also on cable.
I’ll keep warning you: The Internet is next.
: More on Stern and satellite. AudioRevolution says:
Currently, satellite radio has about 1.3 million total subscribers with a little over 1,000,000 on XM and about 250,000 on competing Sirius. Even a tiny fraction of Stern
