Comments on: Can Howard Stern save Sirius XM?

Everyday working stiffs are being forced to accept givebacks and pay cuts to help save the companies they work for. Isn't it time that silly rich stars like Howard Stern do the same?

[rmoore5]

I have subscribed to Sirius since April 2007. Prior to that XM for 2 years. Here in the midwest I have had signal problems from time to time.

The Sirius signal became unusable June / July of 2008. I am on a 3 month subscription plan and the signal returned before my subscription expired. I had signal with ocassional dropouts mainly on the talk channels (radio classics, nascar, etc.) the music channels seemed better. I wonder if Sirius did this to manage bandwidth? I use the same radio on 3 different antenae. The problem is the same with each one.

The signal seemed to be the same all the way to Portland Oregon on a trip over the 1st weekend in Feburary. Around the 9th of Feburary the signal became very weak and was unusable on the 13th.

I had a very similar problem with XM when after updateing software they lost 2 out of 3 satellites. I assume that Sirius can not afford to use enough satellites to get the job done. I maybe wrong and probably am. But the fact I'm paying for a service that I can't get a signal on won't go on for long.

[Hallock]

Howard Stern ruined it. I started with the original XM @ $6.95 per month. Then, MLB was added, Oprah, etc. all at ridiculously high contracts, all without options for customers to buy as addons. I thought I would get more listening with the merger, but most Sirius channels come for a fee. Now, the price is doubled and I am forced to pay for several channels I never listen to. Hmmm . . .why are they in bankruptcy?

[kdrobb2k]

Sirius would surely have failed without Stern in this 2009 economy. They only had 600 to 700K subscribers in 2005. Two years after Stern came they were over 7 million and growing. Yes they are barely holding on after the XM merger but they are sill a viable service. The only thing hurting them is the debt. Subscriptions will continue to grow. Standard over the air radio is still repetitive and stagnant with it's limited play list formula from the seventies. Listeners want more.

[Pappy81]

Personally, I would not pay a dime to hear Howrd-his act grew old and tired years ago. I plan to let my subscription expire when the free tril in my car expires. While I recognize he has many listeners, his outrageous salary has dragged Sirius/XM to the brink of ruin. He is by far the largest expense on Sirius/XM, and the CEO of Sirius openly questioned whether or not he was worth it about 6 months ago. Facts are facts-it would appear this whole operation is no longer
viable.

[frankiecooper]

awesome!! so based on your suggestion, since CBS is in trouble (they just shaved their dividend by a whopping 85%...), why don't you volunteer to take a cut in pay??

no?

why not? you make enough already, right? if you are grateful to CBS for giving you a writing gig, its the least you can do....

[whothehellgivesadamn]

ok let's start over, the technology and convenience is a great idea , however their programming always sucked, then they got sucked into throwing money away at over paid worthless clowns like stern, stern is a good entertainer, and maybe worth, up to $30.00 an hour, if he represented real income advantages then they could have simply worked out a net contract with stern where stern gets a cut of his new subrcribers that sign up in his name and then nobdody could complain, i used to listen to stern for free, it was ok, when you have idiots throwing away hundreds of millions at mediorcre talent that brings in mediocre numbers then guess what you get, you'll get a few satelites that will be dead in the sky....its a great technology, they just didn't know how to program and spend their money on good programing and so they are idiots....somebody may find a way...five hundred million on that *****, how dumb, again the show is fine for free and if it pulls its weight, fine....let it crash and burn and let it be a lesson, it will probably find a way through....think of all the good bright people could have done with half a billion...wow...what a sick pathetic waste of money on a guy who would be just fine as a lead in for ***** at a strip bar for $30.00 PER HOUR, in short with mistakes like that and many others they deserve to crash and burn...