Now that the dust has settled from Howard Stern’s big announcement last week that he is moving his show to satellite radio in 2006, some winners and losers have emerged.
File these in the winners column:
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. Flash back to Oct. 4, when XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. introduced shows starring former broadcast stars Bob Edwards and Gregg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia.
District-based XM was the 800-pound gorilla in the nascent satellite radio industry.
Then Mr. Stern and Sirius announced their $500 million, five-year partnership. The company’s press release billed it as “the most important deal in radio history.”
Now Sirius, based in New York, has the momentum. XM has 2.5 million subscribers — almost five times as many as Sirius — but look for them to reverse roles by the time Mr. Stern arrives in January 2006.
XM Satellite Radio. But don’t write XM off.
If Sirius and Mr. Stern are able to persuade the masses to pay for radio — something they have enjoyed for free for decades — XM is bound to benefit, too.
Elliot Segal and the “Sports Junkies.” If you are a local Howard Stern fan but aren’t willing to shell out $12.95 a month for a Sirius subscription, where else will you go to hear naughty comedy during morning drive?
Put these in the losers column:
WJFK-FM (106.7). The powerhouse talk station has carried Mr. Stern’s syndicated show since 1988 and usually generates more revenue than any station in the Washington area. But its future — and the future of parent Infinity Broadcasting Corp. — look dimmer without their star attraction.
The Federal Communications Commission. For years, Mr. Stern was an easy target for regulators consumed with indecency on the public airwaves. How else do you explain the crackdown on his show after singer Janet Jackson’s infamous Super Bowl halftime performance — which aired on TV, not radio?
When Mr. Stern is gone, who will the FCC pick on?
Then there’s the big question mark:
Mr. Stern. At last he’ll be free of those FCC constraints. But didn’t those very constraints contribute to his show’s charm?
When Mr. Stern moves to satellite, will he lose his edge the way David Letterman did when his TV show moved from 12:35 a.m. to 11:35 p.m.?
Time will tell.
’Desperate’ viewers
About 166,000 Washington area households stayed up late Sunday to see that busybody Martha Huber nose around Wysteria Lane during the second installment of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”
The episode was delayed until after midnight because the local ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV (Channel 7), carried the Washington Redskins game earlier in the evening.
Viewership for “Housewives” in the Washington area plunged 60 percent from Oct. 3, when the show’s debut drew about 415,000 households on WJLA in its regular 9 p.m. time slot.
Local viewers will get another chance to catch the second episode — and a glimpse of the measuring cup that survived the first week’s fire and has Mrs. Huber in such a lather — when ABC repeats it Saturday at 10 p.m.
• Call Chris Baker at 202/636-3139 or send e-mail to cbaker@washingtontimes.com.
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