This story makes me chuckle about life's ironies. In case you have never heard of Howard Stern, he is what is referred to on radio as a "shock jock." That is a radio announcer who goes out of his way to shock you with outrageous comments and borderline bad-taste materials. Howard Stern is the most famous shock jock of them all.
I have always found him to be totally repugnant, a purveyor of bad taste with no redeeming qualities what-so-ever, and an insult to my intelligence. Stern has often been the target of FCC scrutiny as much of his material skirts the legal issue of pornography on the air...and because of this, Stern has often attacked the FCC on his shows. The FCC in 2004 cited Stern's show on Clear Channel for "repeated graphic and explicit sexual descriptions."
Anyway, Mr. Stern was recently wooed away from radio and television to appear exclusively on the Sirius Satellite broadcasting group. He was given a five-year contract at about $100 million dollars per year, an outrageous sum, to say the least. Sirius, who is in a major battle with XM Satellite Radio for subscribers (and is way behind), took this major gamble to help them win the war.
Sirius claims that they have signed up 1.1 million new subscribers since he signed the contract. And while there are many, many Howard Stern fanatics out there, it looks like many of them have turned to piracy rather than pay Sirius $12.95 a month for a subscription.
According to BigChampagne, an online media measurement firm, Stern's shows are among the most popular media traded on the peer-to-peer networks...more popular than "Gilmore Girls" and just behind "The Simpsons." It seems that all of Stern's shows are available for free downloads on peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa.
As one might expect, Sirius is royally ticked that fans are sidestepping its $12.95-a-month subscription fee by illegally downloading the show. "We don't condone the stealing of Howard's show, or any of the content on our more than 125 channels," Sirius spokesman Patrick Reilly told the L.A. Times. "We vigorously protect our intellectual property rights and we will actively prosecute those who attempt to steal it." Not only that, pirate radio stations around the country are playing Stern's Sirius radio shows.
But, whom do you think that Sirius is complaining to? You got it...the FCC. Now, they want the governments help to stop this piracy and protect their rights. I find this ironically funny. Just call me warped.
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