By The Record, Hackensack, N.J.
Howard Stern continues to make money for lots
of people -- especially himself.
Even before his first broadcast on satellite
radio today, the controversial personality had created a run on
satellite radios at retailers, helped push Sirius' subscriber base
over 3 million and picked up more than $200 million for himself.
After years of battling with the Federal
Communications Commission and his employer, Stern signed a
five-year, $500 million contract with New York-based Sirius
Satellite Radio Inc. in October 2004, giving the satellite industry
a big boost.
But it wasn't until Stern disappeared from
free radio last month that many of his North Jersey fans began
shopping for satellite receivers.
"It's insane," said Charles Ciani, manager of
the P.C. Richards store in Paramus. Every phone call, except for one
from a reporter, was from someone asking about a Sirius unit, Ciani
said Saturday. "Right now we have nothing until Monday."
Most receivers run between $50 and $300 -- in
addition to a $12.95 monthly fee -- but cost does not seem to be
slowing demand, retailers say.
The run on receivers, especially the
Sportster model, is "completely Stern, 100 percent, nothing else,"
Ciani said. "There's like no age [factor] either. You got people 60
years old, people 18; police officers I've known for years. [Sales]
spiked when he stopped being on regular radio."
Other stores report similar stories.
"We don't have any right now," said Frankie
Babinski, audio manager at 6th Avenue Electronics in West Paterson.
"It sold out the past week. It's because of Howard Stern,
definitely. [We] still have people coming in asking if we're getting
[more of] them."
At 6th Avenuein Paramus, only $329 MP3 units
were available after the store sold out of its $129 Starmate Replay
and $149 Sportster models, sales associate Derek Sausa said.
"We've seen a spike in business since
Thanksgiving," Sausa said. "It's mostly Howard Stern
fans."
Sales have also been brisk at Circuit City in
Wayne, a salesclerk said Sunday. But he declined to be more
specific, citing company policy in dealing with the media.
Receiver sales aren't the only thing soaring,
though: Subscriptions have jumped sharply since Stern's signing.
With more than 1.1 million new subscribers in the last three months
of 2005, the company topped 3.3 million by year's end, a one-year
gain of 190 percent.
The total exceeds the target Sirius had set
when it signed Stern, so the entertainer will receive 34 million
shares of Sirius stock worth about $220 million, according to a
filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When the contract was signed, the stock was
worth about $110 million, but its value has doubled -- from under $3
a share to $6.54 a share at Friday's close.
"There's been so much publicity, pictures of
Howard Stern in newspapers," Ciani said. "I've never seen anybody
promote himself like this. He's selling their product."
Satellite radio launched in the United States
in 2001, when Sirius' only competitor, XM Satellite Radio Inc., went
on the air. XM has 6 million subscribers.
Both carry more than 100 stations that are
available anywhere in the country. It is not available to Canadian
listeners, however.
Broadcasts are commercial-free and not
subject to FCC decency rules, which frees personalities like Stern
-- and his off-color and politically incorrect humor -- from the
restraints they faced on commercial radio.
By Kevin G. DeMarrais and Bob Groves
BY THE NUMBERS
New 2005 Sirius subscribers: 2.2 million
New 2005 XM Satellite subscribers: 2.7
million
Total satellite subscribers: 9.3 million, 6
million for XM and 3.3 million for Sirius
| Howard Stern Responsible For More Than Half Of
New Sirius Subscribers |
 |
January 6, 2006
Sirius Satellite
Radio announced a subscriber increase of
1,142,000 during the fourth quarter of 2005, and according to
a new study from Bridge Ratings, 22
percent of Sirius' sign-ups during the week of October 3
alone were due directly to Howard Stern
joining the satcaster. Bridge Ratings conducted surveys at
retail outlets throughout the fourth quarter, and as Sirius
marketing, awareness and the holiday season progressed,
subscribers who signed on for Stern reached 58 percent in
the week prior to Christmas. They topped 60 percent
in the final three shopping days of the holiday season.
The other reasons most commonly given for signing up for
Sirius were "programming variety" and "no commercials."
Bridge Ratings projects that 715,000 of Sirius' fourth
quarter sign-ups were due directly to Stern, and they also
predict that during the month of January 2006, an additional
390,000 new subscribers will sign up to hear Howard.
Bridge plans to continue monitoring the progress of Stern
listeners on Sirius and will provide weekly trending and
quarterly updates through 2006. 
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