Stern's Vanishing Act???

Crain's reported that Stern has lost cultural influence, having reduced his listener base from 12M to 1M since his move to SIRIUS.

"Howard was on the front burner," says Mark Lefkowitz, media director at Furman Roth Advertising. "He's not anymore."

Fighting words from Anthony-

"He bought his own hype, thinking everyone would follow him to Sirius," says rival host Anthony Cumia of Opie & Anthony. The duo recently took over Mr. Stern's old slot at WXRK--now Free FM--while continuing to do their show on XM Satellite Radio.


Stern is a scrapper, he isn't happy unless he is fighting and creating. Sure, he could have rested on his laurels but with SIRIUS he has the chance to be a central character in building something new, which is a lot more risky but at least provides a challenge. SIRIUS isn't a perfect platform - the technology isn't as cutting-edge as it was a few years ago, it is losing a lot of money and it provides a much smaller audience than terrestrial radio (and the internet); but it has a LOT of potential and is already revolutionizing the way that we think about radio and music.

And maybe Stern didn't like being defined by his conflict with the stupid rules set by the FCC...