A King Of Media: Want Stern – Pay Up!

While we’re using search marketing to bring the advertiser to the interested query at ICMediaDirect.com, our iconic locale, the Empire State Building, brings the outlandish to our doorstep. It wasn’t a man in an ape suit that startled me at lunchtime two Fridays ago, but a handful of “wack pack” wannabes milling through the lobby screaming “Baba Booey!” instead. It had been Howard Stern’s final broadcast on “terrestrial” radio and there was a nearby parade, of sorts, to celebrate. The King Of All Media was calling it a day and marching off into an embarrassingly rich sunset. The KOAM is getting half a billion dollars to leave “terrestrial” radio and enter the new media of satellite radio.

Howard Stern, a champion, a king even, of traditional radio, has fully inserted his show into a stratified channel of new media by signing with Sirius Satellite Radio. He’s left the old ways behind. Sirius, the lesser of two players in the satellite radio arena, sells their own proprietary hardware and charges a monthly fee for its service. This new format offers an extensive selection of ad-free programming with nationwide reception. Like any other form of new media, satellite radio ultimately owes its existence to recent advances in computer science.

Howard Stern, can sell Snapple or Vermont Teddy Bears to the nation, not an unimpressive skill by any means. Advertisers love his show. He’s done such a good job, in fact, that he’s been awarded a half-billion dollar contract to sell the Sirius brand. His value to Sirius is his name only, not the performance of his show. (His show, too, will supposedly continue to pitch products. And they said cable TV would be the end of television commercials, right? Either way, those ads will not begin to recoup $500 million.) The only ones who will hear him are the ones already sold. Say what you will about the merits of satellite radio, but putting Stern behind closed doors for paid admission only isn’t a long-term growth scenario.

On Tuesday, December 27, 2005 Sirius announced three million subscribers. This is great news for Sirius, they’ve made real headway and their stock popped a bit. The King Of All Media should take his bow now because he’s played a large role in the ramp-up. But Stern’s punch is a finite one that cannot snowball – his broadcasting genius will be hidden from everyone who isn’t already a Sirius subscriber. So how will he reach everyone else? Outrageous stunts? Yahoo video streams? Headlines? How does Sirius know that second hand reports of Stern’s impending shenanigans won’t annoy more than attract? Talk about your dicey propositions.

Consider this adage of marketing: “Never let the public know that they can live without your product.” Millions of less dedicated Stern fans and the uninitiated and those who don’t care for him to begin with will learn to live without Howard Stern – and it will not be difficult. I know from personal experience. I used to listen to him all the time, but missed a long spell, for work reasons, and never regained interest in his show again. Sirius is not an opportunity for Stern to gain new listeners, but a guarantee of a smaller listener base instead. Want Stern? Pay up. But is he popular enough to single-handedly make Sirius a success?

Howard Stern will be an enormous name broadcasting from a tightly sealed echo chamber, one that sets you back hundreds to crack. The privilege of listening to Stern will cost about $100-600 for the platform and around $13 per month thereafter. There’s no getting around the fact that he’s left many of his proven strengths behind in the mass audience, free advertiser-based paradigm. His universe of potential listeners, which used to consist of anyone with FM radio access in an American major market, now consists solely of 3 million Sirius subscribers. That’s 3 million total with even the ability to turn on his show for a guy who’s bragged of 13 million regular listeners.

Some ramifications of a decimated listener base:

·       If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Far less people will be talking about his morning show in the workplace. His impact will be neutralized.

·       He has no direct competition and bashing the other guy has always been a staple for Stern. All Sirius listeners have paid their admission. Good luck shaming satisfied (or even aloof) XM Satellite Radio customers into Sirius subscriptions, Howard.  Like those without satellite radio, they’ll never hear you.

·       This smaller pool of listeners means less reason for big names to appear on the show for interviews. The star system is reliant on a traditional formula – exposure to as many people as possible in order to promote their books, movies, album, etc. He’s got friends in the business, but no major star will feel any pressure to be a guest on a show with so little public penetration.

·       He can be as profane as he wants. This will not win him a single fan who doesn’t already like him – but it might turn some people off.

I don’t know how this relationship will end up. Sirius may weather the huge contract and overtake XM; Stern might feud with his bosses and blame listener disinterest on lack of support from Sirius; I imagine he’ll use connections to keep his show in the press; maybe he’ll start satellite war with Opie & Anthony; I don’t know, but I will guarantee you one thing: there will be few contracts of gargantuan size for anyone else involved with new media as a reward for accomplishment in traditional formats. The rules are simply different here. If nothing else, I’ve learned in the trenches of ICMediaDirect.com that the rules of engagement within the new media require that we cater to the individual, not the crowds. The King probably knows this already.