The Hollywood Liberal

       Stern Show a Favorite of Radio Pirates

Sirus Radio who recently hired Howard Stern for 500 Million Dollars a year, has been reporting that Sterns show which debuted January 9, is being pirated by fans and put on file sharing services such as Bear Share. Stern, left regular terrestrial radio at the end of last year due to constant hassles from the FCC, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines, which were paid by his former employer Infinity Broadcasting. A former republican supporter who has seen the light is a big Bush basher, which is part of the reason for so much trouble with the FCC in the first place.
Listeners of the show are pirating each and every broadcast and have them up on the file sharing networks within a couple of hours after the show ends each morning. Pirate Radio operators in New York, and New Jersey, are taking Sterns show and putting it up on unused radio frequencies. Sirius has sent out cease and desist letters to anyone they caught illegally broadcasting the show, but it has not stopped listeners from getting the show for free on the internet.
Stern, not wanting to alienate his fans, is walking a fine line between losing business, and losing listeners. He has not come down on his audience that are listening for free, but did asked repeatedly that fans pay the 42 cents a day that the broadcast would cost.

posted by hcpgr @ 1:27 PM Permalink