So last week Howard only put in a three day work week so I assumed this morning when I turned the show on he would be live since that has been his pattern with the new contract, back and forth between 4 day week and a 3 day week. Imagine my joy when instead I heard the Monday show being repeated.
I knew what this meant, now the threatened full time, three day work week has been initiated. Now of course I realize Howard has been in the business for more than three decades so he has the right to work as little as he damn well pleases. However, that does not mean I can’t have a boat load of reasons why I think this is complete and utter horseshit. Let me begin.
When Stern came to Sirius radio he was asking a lot of his listeners. Not only would they be asked to pay $13 a month to HEAR him, they also would be asked to pay $14 a month to SEE the show like they could on E! So after taxes, if a Stern listener wanted to follow Howard once he left regular radio to the same degree they could before, it was going to cost them $30 a month.
Now on top of that you have the costs of the satellite radio and if you are like quite a few people, multiple satellite radios and multiple subscriptions. I know personally I have spent well in excess of $1000 since Howard went to Sirius JUST so I could listen to him and I don’t even have Howard TV. Yea, that is pretty ridiculous but that is what it adds up to for the 6+ years of service and equipment.
Now in addition to paying all of this money for the service we also got shorted one day a week. Originally when he started on Sirius, Howard said they would still work the occasional Friday. Well within a month or so that went out the window and he never worked a 5 day week since. In addition to this, when Howard came to Sirius they gave him something like 8 weeks of vacation as well.
Even with the added expense and less amount of shows, the show still seemed worth it, at least a first. Being able to say anything and do almost anything in the much more open domain of satellite radio was very refreshing. The days that Howard was working he was at least still running the show consistently till 11 am or later.
In addition to his show he brought in Bubba to fill in the afternoons who I learned to like (for the most part). It was a real nice one two punch that gave Sirius Stern subscribers what most of us would deem was good value for the money.
Ok fast forward to the new contract, which began at the beginning of this year.
Prior to signing the deal Howard performed his typical on air negotiations where he threatened to leave or flat out retire. The audience was forced to listen to him whine about Sirius for almost the entire last year of his first deal.
Well when he announced he was staying with Sirius the initial relief was soon discolored by the details of his new deal, even less live shows, dramatically less.
Initially Howard revealed he would be doing the alternating 3/4 day work week rotation. He indicated that “eventually” it would be just 3 days full time but he gave the impression that would be well down the road in the contract, not 9 months into a 5 year deal. In addition he cut the daily show length down an hour as well, he is normally off the air shortly after 10 am. I believe he also sucked another couple weeks of vacation out of Sirius.
When you do the math, the reduction in live shows is ridiculously less.
Howard in my opinion definitely seems to be phoning it in and I think there are several reasons for it. First of all he is an old dude, hell I think he is 58. Not many people have the drive at 58 to do what they did when they were 28, I don’t think he is immune to that.
Second he is pissed off at Sirius. He actually has a court case going against them because he feels they owe him money based on subscriber numbers. In addition Sirius has not appeased Howard in other ways such as his desire to keep Bubba on the channels, instead they let him walk because they literally didn’t want to pay him anything .
This anger towards Sirius surely contributes to him not feeling bad about putting in the bare minimum amount of time in the studio. Unfortunately whether he realizes it or not this is also a big F U to the fans that have enabled him to become a very wealthy person over the last decade.
The strategy Sirius has taken to fill the dead air is as lame as it gets. On Thursday and Friday they replay the stuff you just heard Monday through Wednesday, talk about phoning it in. On Howard 101 they filled the Bubba void with more endless replays of old content. It’s pretty pathetic.
Howard could do something about the lack of live shows if he wasn’t such an ego maniac. He has a number of people on his staff that could step in and do their own shows which the fans would find more interesting than replays of replays of replays. I’d love to hear a number of the show staff live on air without Howard constantly interrupting.
It’s really ironic that Howard’s massive ego is what makes him not want to have other staff on air when he is not on himself yet he has established he really doesn’t want to be on the air anymore.
Keep in mind that in addition to the steadily decreasing amount of entertainment the Stern channels have been providing, Sirius has been f@cking subscribers with a wheelbarrow full of additional bullshit charges that has raised the subscription price by more than 40%. We also have the joy of dealing with one of the worst customer service companies in the country. Every call I have made to Sirius has had at least some element of frustrating stupidity.
Howard stopped using his Twitter account because it has been stuffed with people that are dissatisfied as I am with what we now get for our money. Howard has said several times on the air to fans, tough shit, take it or leave it basically.
Well for me the value/cost equation just isn’t there anymore. I am pretty sure once this years annual subscription is up I will be pulling the plug, not that Howard gives a shit.