One of the more amusing of the falsehoods widely being publicized is that Howard Stern can't expect to get a big paycheck if he decides to return to traditional broadcast radio once his contract with Sirius is up. This is because traditional broadcast ratings, and thus ad revenue, are down across the board. Here's the gist:
3. Free stations are also financially struggling and can't pay Howard Stern much. "The recession has compounded problems…" "radio advertising revenue fell…" "big station owners are wrestling with debts…"
Of course, the idiotcy of this argument is that traditional ratings are down because HOWARD STERN LEFT! Of course ratings are down across the board, Howard Stern was a huge draw to traditional radio. And if he came back, guess what, ratings would go up. Overnight. Howard proved that time and time again in every market he entered.
The disconnect in all this really has to come from some kind of anti-Howard Stern complex that defies logical thinking. When Howard was leaving for Sirius, traditional radio stations kept trying to pretend it was no big deal, that he was easily replaced. Once he left, the big national story became "Howard's audience shrunk." Well, of course it shrunk, he moved into a new technology where people had to pay for what had been free. And by all possible expectations, he did an unbelievable job at getting people to subscribe to Sirius (eventually wiping out his XM competitor in merger.)
Meanwhile, ratings at the old stations he left fell into the toilet. Not only during his time slot, but across the board because Howard's halo effect was gone. Somehow, this story of how Howard's departure from traditional radio demolished their ratings across the board has gotten lost. Reporters act as if this ratings decline is just a natural phenomena like the weather.
Yes, traditional radio does have more competition, like Howard on satellite and iPods, etc., but it is still a piece of technology that every person in America has in their car. All that needs to happen for someone to listen if for there to be something they want to listen too.
What is amazing is, in the four years since Howard left the traditional airwaves, no "new Howard" has emerged. No new unique talent has filled the gag he left, not even a mini-Howard or a Howard-lite. Every Howard replacement at every station he was on has tanked. This shows how special he was. There is a gapping hole in radio that only he can fill.
Once he fills it, ratings will go up. When ratings go up, ad revenue goes up. And that means money.
Traditional radio has plenty of ways of paying Howard as much as he could get from Sirius. (He could just take a huge cut of ad revenue.) In fact, Howard is likely to get a lot more money than before if he goes back to traditional radio, because it's so clear that they screwed up by letting him leave to begin with. Traditional radio needs him bad. And trust me, they would pay a lot to get him to return. They might not say it publicly, but privately their are huge offers.
The only question is whether or not Howard is interested.
0 comments:
Post a Comment