Howard Stern's ratings have gone through the floor over the past few months in Washington D.C. and are down 15% in New York. I stopped listening to him about a year ago when he changed his show from kind of "on the edge" to "bash all Republicans". It all started with the Janet Jackson boob incident which then sent Michael Powell, head of the FCC after "indecency" on the airwaves.
Now I was all for Sterns attacks on the FCC and their moralistic BS they were trying to shove down everyone's throat, but after about 3 months of constant daily rantings about it and how Bush and all Republicans are evil, the war in Iraq was wrong and any other issue you could tie to the evil-Conservatives, I dropped him. I enjoy a good Republican joke as much as the next guy, but there's jokes and there's annoyance.
If I wanted to listen to that crap for 3-4 hours a day I'd listen to Air America, which recently has gone down the tubes itself, probably due to the same reasoning. There has to be a reason behind your argument not just a constant "I hate this, I hate that" rant every morning. The trouble with Stern and Air America is that most of their rants are based on unfounded conspiracy. Sterns rants against the FCC and it's crackdown had a basis, but you can only rant about that for so long with an audience built upon expecting humor.
Stern moves to Sirius satellite radio in January and it doesn't look like he'll be bringing a lot of his audience with him in his current content format.
Washington Post
The shock jock won't jump to satellite radio until January, but in the meantime, his listeners in the Washington area seem to be heading for the exits. Stern's nationally syndicated morning program, which is heard locally on WJFK-FM (106.7), suffered a dramatic fall in the summer audience ratings, which in turn helped drag down WJFK's overall popularity.
Stern's share of radio's most lucrative audience (adults age 25 to 54) fell by nearly one-third during the July-September period, bottoming out at 3.4 percent, according to Arbitron Inc., which measures radio audiences. That was the lowest total for Stern in years, and possibly decades, given his long and successful career.
During the same period in New York, Stern lost 15 percent of his listeners. (Because he had been so far out in front of the pack, though, he remained tied for No. 1 with all-news WINS-AM.)
Tipped by: The Moderate Voice who has a lot more to say about this subject.
Other entries on Diggers Realm:
Oct 6, 2004
Howard Stern To Leave Public Airwaves For Sirius Satellite Radio
Oct 27, 2004
Howard Stern Confronts FCC Head Michael Powell On The Ronn Owens Show On KGO Radio
Nov 18, 2004
Mel Karmazin To Join Howard Stern By Heading Up Sirius Satellite Radio
Jan 21, 2005
FCC Chairman Michael Powell Resigning
Ace of Spades weighs in on why he stopped listening.
