Howard Stern Coming To the Net

theodp writes, "To promote an Internet radio service Sirius is launching this week, Howard Stern's 4+ hour program will be made available live online for free on October 25 and 26. The new Sirius service will offer 75+ channels of CD-quality programming for $12.95/month with no need to buy a Sirius satellite receiver."

13 bucks a month?

[saboola]

For a glorified podcast? This is a bit expensive considering their regular real sat service is about the same price, and has the glorious side benefit of being able to be listened to in the car, where most people listen to music. Maybe if the cost was half this, but at 13 bucks I dont see this moving anywhere.

How much for the service without Howard?

[edwardpickman]

I'll happily pay more if they have a service without Howard. I'm getting ready to pick up a system and Howard Stern being on Sirius was the deciding factor not to go with them. It's personal tastes but I graduated high school a lot of years ago and hearing him takes me back to high school in all the bad ways. I can listen to obnoxious jerks for free, why would I pay for the priveledge. Yes I know I don't have to listen but I don't care to patronize a service that promotes that kind of programming. I was thrilled when he left the airwaves why would I want to chase the guy to satelite? Too many people these days are thrilled to tell you what to think. I grew up back at a time when the general belief was we should think for ourselves. Now we are all but taught that's dangerous. I guess it's easier for a lot of people to let the government, religous leaders or Howard Stern tell them what to think. If I want an opinion I'd rather go to one of the great minds of our time and Howard just isn't one of them. I don't need him to tell me who's cool or "in". I really don't care. It's childish and pointless.

Who?

[just_forget_it]

I had no idea Howard Stern was still relevant.

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if I was still in my adolescence (or stuck in it) I'd really dig Howard Stern.

Advertisement

[Infernon]

How is this pertinent to the geek community at all? It looks like an advertisement to me...

come again?

[deviceb]

Well Howard Stern is already on the net. He is not on any radio stations FYI because the Feds stomped on his free speach. The fact that he can say whatever he wants [(even lez-miget wrestling in crisco) -waiting for that] makes satellite radio worth the $13 when traveling in yoru car. -That is of course if you listen to the radio at all.
No commercials is worth it to me. (howard stern has commercials)

Now offering 75 channels streaming online... i'm listening to sirus ATM in a cafe.. and it SUX compared to good old Shoutcast. Winamp has what.... 200+ stations that you can tweak the audio output of. Plus you do not need a browser window to keep the stream up. I like the freedom that satellite brings to the sheep, but i would never pay to listen online.. that is just absurd.

Re:Nothing new here, move on

[viriiman]

Hoo-hoo Robin, I invented streaming my show on the internet, it was all me. Sirius, they're rippin me off.

People said the same thing about Cable TV.

[Lordleppard]

People said the same thing about Cable TV. They'd never pay for something they could get for free... Guess what? Most of you nay sayers now pay for cable. In fact I'd wager ALL of you do.

I never listened to Howard when he was on terrestrial radio but now I do on Sirius. He's funny and there are some interesting interviews. Not all the time mind you but a fair amount of time.

To the prudes out there that can't stand to hear what he has to say, don't listen. Turn the dial.

$13 bucks a month is worth having something to listen to on the way to work. There are more then just Howards 2 stations to listen to.

Stern == Boring

[JuT333]

Bought Sirius for Stern and the music channels just to find out that Stern takes off every Friday and the regular music channels is flooded with DJ's who talk to just hear themselves talk. I fixed this problem by buying XMradio

Re:How much for the service without Howard?

[Lummoxx]

Yes I know I don't have to listen but I don't care to patronize a service that promotes that kind of programming. I was thrilled when he left the airwaves why would I want to chase the guy to satelite? Too many people these days are thrilled to tell you what to think.

I was with you at first, but the quoted bit above is where you lost me. You don't like him, you don't want to listen, you were glad when he left regular radio...man, that's cool.

The whole "they tell you what to think" rap...eh, not so much. I've listened to Howard for years, and point blank, it's entertainment. Nothing more, nothing less. Actually, Howard and the crew are really smart people. Sure, you tend to get a liberal slant on the occassions they delve into truly important topics, but at the same time, they tend to call things what they are.

Re:$13 a month...

[Iphtashu Fitz]

Actually if you bothered to RTFA, it's $13 a month to access all of Sirius' music channels as well as select talk channels like Howard Stern. You get a lot more than just Howard, over 75 channels of stuff.

Frankly I'm surprised that Sirius isn't offering this subscription for less. $13/month is about what a regular radio subscription costs, and that includes access to the internet feeds. Since you can get Sirius radios for as low as $60 it'd make more sense to buy a radio and monthly subscription to get both radio & internet access instead of $13/month for just internet access.

If you dont like it, then dont listen

[192939495969798999]

Again, look at how many people are angry. If you don't want to listen, just dont! It's not like you HAVE to listen to satellite radio. I enjoy the program, so please dont go bitching to the FCC now just because you happened to: log on, click the link, and enjoy it until it got to something that offended you.

Thanks,
the 5+ million Sirius subscribers

Surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

Leave it to a bunch of douchebags to trash talk Howard Stern in a geek forum. No talent hack? glorified podcast? I suppose the industry just hands half a billion dollars over to people who fit that profile.

More relevant to the topic, I hope they don't take away net access to the people who already have subscriptions, or make them pay extra for it.

Re:CD-quality programming . . .Yeah right

[Mike Hicks]

I have XM rather than Sirius, but a lot of people have said that both services definitely don't reach the level of 128k MP3 quality. XM is 96kbps at best, which puts it more on par with FM, though I personally find the digital artifacts to be more annoying than FM static. Well, maybe Sirius is better -- I haven't had a chance to listen to it with a proper speaker setup (as in, something other than being piped in through the overhead speakers at a store).

Oh, and that cable TV analogy doesn't work for me. It's true, but it doesn't work ;-) With cable TV, I'm paying for all these channels I don't want. Considering that sports channels are the most expensive for content providers, yet are the ones I watch the least, I wish I could get rid of them. Similarly, I'm only interested in a handful of XM channels. But, I suppose I haven't given them much chance -- I've had to turn off my satellite radio after ten minutes just because the audio quality problems became too annoying.

Anyway, I just ended up getting satellite radio service as a built-in feature for the trim level I got on my car. I don't plan to continue the service after the initial free trial period.

Re:stern = hack radio

[elrous0]

Yeah, and Britney Spears sells a lot of CD's too. That doesn't make her a musical genius.

Howard is WAY past his prime, anyway. He's an interesting guy, and is even capable of the occasional intelligent insight. But the daily grind of listening to him go on...and on...and on...and on...and on about strippers/lesbians/his dick/porn stars/etc. tends to get VERY old, very fast.

When he was in his heyday, I listened to him. He had some interesting stuff to say and his interviews were truly unique (who else could have gotten away with asking Julia Roberts how big Liam Neeson's dick was?). But it was, at best, one good segment for every 15 lame ones. And that was in his HEYDAY (10-15 years ago).

Besides, without the FCC or his wife to mock anymore, what's really left for him to do? He's like an aging knight in a world where all the dragons have already been slain.

-Eric

Re:stern = hack radio

[patrixmyth]

I think it's a mistake to equate the Howard Stern Show with Howard Stern. The show is dreck and appeals to the lowest common denominator in our society. If you lisen/watch for a bit, however, you'll realize that Howard Stern the person is a pretty smart guy who just happens to realize that appealing to the lowest common common denominator of society is pretty good for your paycheck. He doesn't respect his listeners and he knows that the second they have an opportunity to giggle and point at his misfortunes and kick him to the curb, they will do so. Meanwhile, he's getting a hell of a ride. He's a modern day P.T. Barnum barking for the freakshow. I never thought I'd use this term, but in this case it's true "Don't hate the player. Hate the game."

Re:"CD quality programming"

[a_nonamiss]

I was on the bandwagon and all reared up ready to get Sirius at the beginning of the year for the sole purpose of listening to Stern. Sadly, Sirius (and probably Howard in particular) was unwilling at the time to embrace Internet broadcasts. Rumor has it, Stern was paranoid that people would steal his show and rebroadcast it so that he wouldn't get as much money. My commute into work is 7 minutes long, and I wasn't willing to pay for a subscription to listen to 7 minutes a day. Sure, I could've probably purchased additional receivers and listened in my office, or a boom box, but honestly, that's hundreds of dollars in outlay, not to mention a PITA to set up, just to listen to something that makes me chuckle every few minutes. Had Internet streaming been available, I would have not only subscribed to Sirius, but probably paid a few bucks extra to get Internet streaming so I could listen at home and at work without having to hook up a bunch of extra hardware.

Now it's 10 months later, and frankly, I'm over Stern. I didn't think I could live without listening to his show, but due to his and his company's paranoia, I was forced to. Now, I have no desire to subscribe to Sirius. I started listening to the show that replaced his, and while not as funny as Stern, it's funny enough. I can listen over the Internet, in my car, and from my regular stereo at home.

Lesson that they should have learned: strike while the iron's hot. I would have subscribed back then, and I'd still be a subscriber. I'm sure I'm not alone. There's absolutely no justifiable reason to have not put streaming in place 10 months ago. Hell, they were already doing it with their music channels. It's not like they didn't have the technology already. Plus, they can DRM the hell out of those streams, making it practically impossible to save the digital stream. Sure, someone could've ran their line out into their line in and recorded the show and put it up on BitTorrent, but they could do that with any of the regular Sirius equipment just as easily [isohunt.com]. I suppose that's what you get when your business people don't listen to your technology people.

It always has...just getting worse lately.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

It always has...just getting worse lately.

Ask yourself the same question the next time a Nintendo (proprietary gaming platform) or Google (proprietary search engine) blurb shows up. Many, if not most of Slashdot's stories are cheap, positive PR pieces for corporations open-source Slashdotters normally wouldn't support.

Re:stern = hack radio

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

Well, to come back to your original question. Yes, I believe that Stern has talent. The skills he has demonstrated in his interview techniques have changed both radio and the larger entertainment world forever. Furthermore, I don't believe Stern has had such great success because of the fart jokes (which you seem to believe is all he does). I would say that Stern's greatest revolution is making the broadcaster (and the team behind the scenes) more than just a voice presenting a script. Stern revolutionized radio in his approach to the relationship between his personal life and his listening audience. Again, I believe this demonstrated talent and boldness, given the landscape of radio at the time.

Unfortunately, too many broadcasters focused on reproducing the crass jokes rather than what really made Stern special. It doesn't appear you were able to get past that either.

Re:$13 a month...

[Paradise Pete]

Since you can get Sirius radios for as low as $60 it'd make more sense to buy a radio and monthly subscription to get both radio & internet access instead of $13/month for just internet access.

Not everybody in the world can receive the signal. (Though I do think the price is too high.)

Re:Howard Stern? Is it still 1995?

[joshsisk]

Sure, but in 5 years, once I have paid in $780, how much extra have they paid to keep me signed up?

The answer is nothing. And it doesn't cost them ANYTHING extra to transmit to me. Their signal goes out just the same, either way.

So in five years, I will have generated them $650. Possibly more as I imagine I will have bought a second reciever by then.

Multiple that $650 by a few million other people and you have a business model that is similar to Cable Tv, which also probably generated tremendous losses in the beginning.

Speaking of that, how much of that $130 figure you keep quoating is defrayed by the $100 i spent on my reciever + accessories. Not the full $100, of course, but some of that must have made it back to Sirius.

Re:How much for the service without Howard?

[Lummoxx]

Sounds like WWF (or WWE, or `roids and trash talk, or whatever it is called now). The whole gag about acting stupid or obscene for "entertainment" is getting old, and I just don't see the entertainment in it.

But that's not the entirety of his show. Yeah, it's a large part, and despite what anyone thinks it makes me, I get a laugh out of most of it.

His interviews are the best. Whether asking serious questions, or the not so serious questions, no matter who is being interviewed, they tend to be interesting, and honest.

Bottom line, it seems like his worst detractors don't even listen to the show. They base their opinions on what they hear, and not what they know, and if that's good enough for you, great. It's just the Howard Stern Show, afterall.

If you're put off by any amount of the "adult oriented" humor, then yes, stay away. It doesn't mean that the Howard Stern Show isn't any good, or isn't entertaining, though. I think that's the point they miss, or don't want to hear.