King of ALL Media?

King of ALL Media?

I really don’t know why I am writing so much lately about Howard Stern, I really do like him. I have been listening since 1992. I have driven to work for the past 18 years and every job I have had usually requires a 30 to 40 minute drive to and fro. Howard provides me the ability to ‘turn off’ my brain and unwind, laugh and not take myself too seriously. He also boils things down to its simplest form and applies common sense which is very refreshing. Now, I don’t always like his antics or topics but for the most part I enjoy him.

Lately, however, I have been thinking about him and his iconic stature as he is probably getting ready to be off the air in the next two years. Recently I was thinking about his ‘title’ as “King of ALL Media”. See, I am in the technology business and today’s new media is the social networking medium. I bring it up because Howard brought up the fact that he tried to get on Facebook and he found it too complex and tiresome to manage while Benjy Bronk, a member of his staff is all over Facebook and Howard was giving him a hard time. On top of that Howard does not have a blog and recently stated ‘what the hell is a blog’? If you look at the Alexa ratings for his website www.howardstern.com and compare them to WSJ.com you can see even his website, which is a form of the new media, isn’t rated number one. Also, a number of people do buy into his TV show but it isn’t rated higher than American Idol, a show he is enamored with, for example.

When I speak with new media experts they talk about the half life of news papers being 50 years and now the half life of blogs being 10 years and the new technology, twitter and the half life is about 5 years what is next? Where will Howard be with the new social media?

Perhaps we should call Howard ‘King of OLD Media’ or ‘King of; Radio, Book, Movie’ media - I don't know but he definately has some work to do to really be the 'King of ALL Media'.

Sirius XM

Sirius XM

So, I have been thinking about this whole Sirius XM bankruptcy thing and had a really cool idea. What if Sirius were to offer to "users" a platform to provide radio content. For example, Blogger provides a platform for people to blog, why doesn't Sirius provide a platform who have radio or recorded content to 'broadcast' from their satellites. They could sell advertising and split these revenues, because that is what they are good at, and these new channels could could add value to Sirius and its customers and help drive more revenue. There you go Sirius, your back in business.

H.R.1, The Bailout, Sirius XM and Howard Stern

H.R. 1, The Bailout, Sirius XM and Howard Stern

So, I have been thinking about this. Sirius XM files for bankruptcy, or as Howard would put it "...is doing a restructuring." Now, I get it. I have been in the business world for a long time and I know there are a number of reasons and outcomes that can happen from a bankruptcy. What I am entertained by is the 'spin' that is put on this by Howard Stern. First, I am a HUGE fan, I have probably called into the show 20 times and never made it on. Some may say that it would be the icing on the cake of life to be heard on his show, but I don't get to excited about it. I admire Howard for his honesty and his 'stand up for what is right' attitude but in this case I have to say he is putting a bit too much spin on this story. I should back up. I have heard on many a Stern show, Howard beating up on all those banking executives that took huge payouts for "driving the company into ground". Now Silicon Alley Insider reports that this bankruptcy or "restructuring" gives Sirius an opportunity to renegotiate their expensive contracts. The funny thing is, Howard got on the air yesterday saying that Mel Karmazin told him "...that he would honor his agreement with Howard." I find it odd that Howard, if he is a 'stand up for the little guy' kind of person wouldn't take one for the team and help out the company and renegotiate his contract as well to help the overall company be successful. It was origionally posted that Howard would get $500M for going to Sirius. I am not so sure that that wasn't a combo salary, bonus and stock deal and I am sure he probably wont get all of that as he claims on the radio but its still going to be multi-millions. How much does he need. If what he says is true, he can take pleanty of money to live on, get a stock deal that can pay him as he retires, still make the huge ego claim as King of all Media (which I happen to agree with - well except for this social networking thing which is the new media) and have a fantastic life.

See the banking CEO's that drove the companies into the ground are only partially to blame. The rules at which they operated at, led by the federal govenrment allowed them to do so. If one guy stood up to say he/she was going to be more ethical than the next, then they could have faced going out of business in the very competitive banking world and then have hurt their stock holders earlier rather than later so it is a toss up at the blame. But here it is clear. It cost millions to put satelites in space and it costs millions to have Howard on the radio - Sirius can't be as successful with one and not the other so both contracts should be reconsidered. Thoughts?