Comments on: How big are Howard Stern's ratings?

The former radio god is, no doubt, a big fish in the very small satellite radio pond. How many listeners does he really have?

[coprock]

Does Howard get a little too much coverage here?

[DONKINGBOX]

Steve you obviously don't listen and never have. Your last statement - Face it, Stern's creative peak was decades ago. He used to be a very funny guy; now he's just a very rich man- shows your insane ignorance of the situation.

First off his show his 10 times better than it ever was on TR. He breaks for commercials once an hour for about 3 minutes. His content and guests are free to speak like normal people do these days- not using the F word every sentence but being able to express normal thoughts that people have without the FCC finsing them every 5 seconds. His interviews are insanely funny and delve into guests live like no one else can and his wack pack- the most incredibly ingenious cast of characters ever along with Richard and Sal are able to pierce the bounderies of comedy like never before. Its just plain entertaining as hell. And no he never ever ever claims that all 20 million subscribers listen to him. What you fail to grasp is that its not about numbers of listeners. And its certainly not about the company's stock, that, quite frankly a management issue. No it's about how many people will pay to listen to him, which exactly what the TR business is also. If he is so relevant why is TR tanking right now? And if he is so irrelevant why are TR execs throwing offers at him every week to come back? Why? Because he made that business what it was.
Hey if you're not a fan Steve I understand but get the fact straight. Sirius started with 385,000 subscribers paying 13.95 per month. Now they have 20 million paying 13.95 per month. Even if only 1.25 Million customers buy Satellite for Stern, that works out to $205 Million per year. Minus his 100 m Contract , sounds to me like Sterns profited them 105 M per Year. Right? Yes.

Oh and thats Why Howard Takes Home 70 Mil and Rush with all his 14.50 Mil listeners gets about 30 Million.

Apparently you pay the $13.95.

[geo825]

lol. What now Guttenberg.

[gilkison]

So you completely bought into the 'Rush has 14 Million Listeners" bs. We used to be a Arbitron family. We had the old "books" that we used to register what we listened to each day. There was no accountability and no way to determine if we were telling the truth. Arbitron has new meters that are used to judge the "true" numbers. Want to know what is happening. It seems that Rush does not have the big numbers that HE says he does.

As for "self Promotion" cmon now. Rush is the worst.

[tomsoundman]

I don' t listen to his trash, or pay for satellite radio. Garbage in your ears, garbage out your mouth...

[hk2000]

I Completely agree. I am glad he's no longer on the airwaves.

[NYCriminal]

boy the tool who wrote this really did his research


"While XM does offer some audience data from a custom Arbitron report, Scott Greenstein, president-entertainment and sports at Sirius, said Sirius has hired a third-party research company to get audience data on "certain things our advertisers would need." The third-party data, culled from the unnamed research company, shows that 58% of subscribers listen to Howard Stern during the week. "

[TXinD76121]

A similar canard is regularly passed out about the Academy Awards, and various and sundry other metrics such as Donald Trump's wealth. The POTENTIAL audience of the Oscars is in the billions because it's broadcast in a number of countries, but its real audience is probably somewhere in the vicinity of 50 million (and most of those don't watch the whole show). But this doesn't stop the references to "three billion viewers" getting regularly trotted out at every Oscar broadcast, by both announcers and participants.

Similarly, The New Yorker a while back published an article about the real wealth of Donald Trump, and concluded a) he is probably worth no more than $100-150 million, if that much (he regularly states his own net worth to be around $5 billion) and b) he's doing TV because he needs the money--he ain't slumming.

Even the vaunted Forbes 400 list is built on air--the estimates are in some cases quite good, but in many cases they're just wild guesses. In some cases the editors simply ask the subjects and take them at their word. That gives a wide-open door to the Sterns and Trumps of the world, and others who are willing to tell brazen fibs meant only to inflate themselves. Works both ways on that list, too--there are plenty of superrich who would rather not have their wealth known.

Skepticism about all such matters makes good sense, especially in the case of known self-aggrandizers.

Blue Mikey

[EthelMertz]

Steve, how can you complain about Howard's self promotion? What does Howard do to promote? He talks on his radio show to the subscriber! Can you buy Howard merch? Does he make endless talk show visits? Come on Steve, you clearly do not listen. I know the blog world is a haven to the ignorant, but the Stern fan is dedicated and we will sniff out total snob tools like yourself. Don't you have some overpriced Eurotrash speaker system to review for the 104 people who will buy them?

[BiancaLange]

The Arbitron ratings are bogus. These 'diaries' that people fill out regarding their media consumption don't even have a placeholder for satellite radio. While they are prompted for other media channels, people who listen to satellite radio have to actively write this in. Not even counting the margin for error in this kind of research - how accurate would you be if you had to account for all your media usage in a day? Would you fill out the diary on a daily basis? If you didn't how accurate would you be a the end of the week when you did fill it out? I'm sure Howard Stern is surpassing these numbers. And how can you substantiate Stern being past his prime when he was under the tight lipped regulations of terrestrial radio. You obviously don't listen to him. And why if these ratings are so useless do people listen to them? Because Arbitron has been doing it this way since Christ was a child and all rates are based off these ratings that no one wants to walk away from. Way to find the bottom of the barrel news that is 2 years old and try and bring it back to life.

Steve: You review expensive audio equipment purchased by very few users who are willing to pay for better sound. You criticize and "complain" about the overwhelming majority of people who buy mainstream audio equipment; and don't spend a few dollars more for higher-end products that sound better. Isn't a Stern listener like me just spending a few dollars extra for a more entertaining show that really has no free equivalent? Some people claim they can't hear the difference between mainstream & higher-end audio equipment , some people don't like Howard Stern. To each his own.

[Michaelxxxxxx]

self promotion? c'mon Steve, you know the only reason you put out this lame article was so that you could self-promote yourself as a Google Alert under Howard Stern. Are you trolling for reaction again steve?

[davejulien]

What Stern has said is that there wouldn't even be a satellite company with 20m listeners if he had not joined Sirius. His "potential" listener base is 20m. I don't think you can deny his role in the merger considering it would never have happened if the Sirius subscriber base hadn't grown so fast. Mel merely capitalized on the growth and took it to a merger.

Sterns real estimate toward people listening is somewhere around the 6m mark. He came to this figure from the upsurge in subscribers BEFORE he joined Sirius and the numbers AFTER. Considering at the time there was no better way to come up with a listener figure this seemed like a logical assumption.

Stern is not the same person he was years ago. Much less adolescent antics and more intelligent banter and just plain funny talk. You should really listen to him instead writing from hearsay and twisting what he really says.

Steve, I wouldn't be surprised if you get a reaction from Stern which will only help your career. I personally know that you are not interested in posting facts and likewise won't be reading any of your future columns.

[gmfullerton]

"....like today's dissing of Conan O'Brien's move to the "Tonight Show."

"If they hate him, then why do they listen?"
"Most common answer given ,'I want to hear what he'll say next.'"

[make_or_break]

This is worthy of an "audiophile" blog entry? I guess even a purported audiophile has to have his fill of trash-talk radio...if only because he couldn't come up with anything else to write about.

[SEB0465]

Make or break is right !!
Why does a "so called Audophile Blog "spend so much time dissing Stern ???
Steve if your such an Audiophile why listen Sirius at all except for Howard the audio quailty blows !!
There are like 500 FREE internet stations that with a decent DAC will give you a "Sirius" quality listening experiance.
I guess we need Krell to come out with some $ 40 K amp so we can get back to what this blog is REALLY about ???

[TomChiusano]

I'm telling karl!

[TomChiusano]

Seriously, Steve makes a good point.. Look how well Howard's replacements are doing on terestrial radio: Opie and Andy, David Lee Roth, Adam Carolla, Rover, these dudes were handed Howard's empire and they are burning down the house, I mean in terms of ratings. Mel should urge Infinity to hire Steve right away and team him up with Joel Hollander.

[ellunchboxo]

O & A, and Corolla aren't on terestrial radio.

[Jack_Mayhoffer]

I think you guys are off base with your assessments of Mr. Guttenberg's comments referring to Howard Stern. I think it's something much simpler. Simply put, Steve Guttenberg may be the only person on the face of this Earth more hideous than Howard. Or maybe he's jealous of Howards rock-star hair...

[TomChiusano]

Steven has built in birth control. Thankfully, that is the end of that gene pool.

[SiriusBuzz]

"These 'diaries' that people fill out regarding their media consumption don't even have a placeholder for satellite radio. "

Exactly, but why would the guy who wrote this article bother to do any research.

As far as creativity goes? I have been listening to Stern off and on for 20+ years and his show is hands down, no question, now better then ever.

[DerekV813]

Desperate ploy to get Howard to mention crap blog is desperate.

[illustrioushefe7]

Wow you really don't know or listen to Howard. His show is as funny as ever. Somebody please take this down because this guy should never ever be up here on CNET.

[WARP718]

WOW THE REVIEWER IS NOT A STERN FAN-that's obvious
WHAT EVER HAPPENNED TO UNBIASED REPORTING?