Just days after announcing that it had hit the 6 million subscriber mark, Sirius Satellite Radio has paid Howard Stern $83 million in stock after the subscriber numbers well exceeded estimates for year-end 2006.

As a Sirius subscriber, I'm really not surprised to see the growth in the space, for them or XM. They've definitely proven that people will pay for something if they see some real value to it - irrelevant of the companies "making money" yet or not, they definitely have some part of the right idea, especially when it comes to content sans advertising. Additionally, I've gone from seeing one friend who works for Clear Channel go from blowing off the satellite space to realizing that it wasn't going away anytime soon in less than 18 months.

Merger or not between the duopoly, I think that satellite will be around to stay for quite some time. While many believe (I'm pretty much one of them) that IP-based content delivery will end up being how we receive our radio, etc., in our vehicles and at home (a lot of us do that already), I'm one to believe that the space could be "led" by Sirius and XM, especially as they've already set up pretty significant Web presences and ability to listen to the same content they delivery via satellite.

In case you haven't noticed already, or you're wondering what's up, Los Angeles' KKBT-FM, "The Beat," has been changed to KRBV-FM, "V100, the Best Variety of R&B," reports Radio Ink. This change has also brought a new on-air lineup including a local morning show rather than a syndicated show featuring Tom Joyner.

In Friday's Rocky Mountain News, Dusty Saunders writes about an amusing situation about to take place in the city of Denver next week. As it turns out, FOX News talk show host Bill O'Reilly's television show will be up against his radio show - "The Radio Factor" - which Clear Channel-owned KHOW is going to be running on an eight hour delay. Saunders' item is obviously focused on the news of the various movements going on at that particular station, but I've got to say that if this doesn't spell disaster for the "hardcore" fans of Bill O'Reilly then I'm not sure what does.

I know that the talk radio listener isn't necessarily the same as the person who would watch O'Reilly - whose television show probably catches a lot of casual fans or those who dislike him, too - but isn't it kind of a programming oddity to do something like this?

There's been a whole lot of folks showing up here in the last day or two looking for Sid Rosenberg, presumably because he was on Stern on Monday morning. Well, if you are trying to figure out where Mr. Rosenberg is hiding these days, you can find him here at 790 The Ticket down in South Florida.

This Tuesday's Robert Feder column in the Chicago Sun Times ran with comments by Cara Carriveau, a radio personality on WLUP (The Loop), a station in that market. Carriveau was heavily critical of the lack of major personalities on the air in that particular city, although not naming any particular stations or specific incidents.

Radio and Records' Mike Boyle details the situation that ensued following that letter running in the Sun-Times earlier in the week, which culminated in Carriveau being fired from WLUP, but apparently not just for this particular incident. Boyle points out what Feder's followup column from Thursday stated, including the station's VP/GM, Marv Nyren, telling Feder that there were "other incidents" that took place before this one with Carriveau.

Now, to be fair, what Carriveau said really isn't too far off from what most of us who have been ragging terrestrial radio for some time now have to say. It's not like what she had to say was *that* inflammatory, but I'd liken it to what has gone on in a lot of industries, including what we do for my day job. For instance, it's no concern for companies today to "let" employees have personal blogs. Stopping them from doing so, for the most part, will only cause more problems in the public's eye. However, those employees should always try and use their best judgement when being critical of work, or the industry they are employed in, for obvious reasons. Most people are "at will" employees, and something like this would be very easy for an employer to terminate an employee for.

Yesterday, I was tipped off to the story about how Bill Nguyen of LaLa had apparently come in to save what is now WOXY.com. In case you're not familiar, that is what was left of the WOXY that previously broadcast on 97.7FM out of Cincinnati, Ohio.

That does appear to be the case, according to a story in today's Cincinnati Enquirer by Lauren Bishop.

News.com's Media blog has an item by Harry Fuller on Monday referencing stats that AdAge had pulled together regarding Howard Stern's current ad value on SIRIUS as opposed to when he was on terrestrial radio. While Fuller is spot on to say that the ads are obviously costing less for the advertiser, the audience is less, CPM is different, and SIRIUS is also taking into consideration its overall subscriber dollars, which traditional radio didn't have to factor in.

Sure, it means that they aren't commanding the same "pound for pound" rates that Stern garnered before based on his show on its own merit, but is that such a terrrible thing? I guess it'd be very different if we had SIRIUS talking about how much they were ruing the fact that they had Stern and weren't making as much cash - in this argument (we all know they're not) - then this would be a different discussion. But we can't just sit here and ignore the fact that subs are PAYING to listen to Stern in the first place.

Yesterday, I had caught more wind of this story about how Howard Stern was "thinking" about moving back to terrestrial radio from satellite. Of course, this should be completely dismissed unless all satellites happen to be hit with a giant meteor and knocked out or orbit, leaving us all incommunicado. It wouldn't at all surprise me if something similar to what his fellow satellite radio guys ended up doing - Opie and Anthony - where their show is rebroadcast, sans a lot of the things they couldn't say over the airwaves, over various stations because there was a need for some different content, given that two of the bigger shows as far as syndication went were off the air for some time, but that's about it.

On Tuesday, CBS Radio stated that it might sell some of its radio station assets, including four in Cincinnati, two in San Antonio, including one of its "JACK" format stations, and a number of properties in Buffalo, among other cities. The company's official announcement can be found here.

Is there anyone else out there who is actually surprised by the "news" that Howard Stern would be staying put on satellite radio and not moving back to terrestrial? I mean, I *could* see something similar to the Opie & Anthony situation going down, where an OTA station picked up chunks of Stern's show that weren't too heavily edited, but other than that, I just don't see it.

When it comes to the morning talk shows, I'm not sure we'll ever see the likes of what we had in the last two or so decades, with Stern grabbing one huge chunk of the audience, and Don Imus grabbing another sizeable chunk, and the rest going to news and localized programming. Given that, at least in the case of Stern's former show being rehashed with multiple hosts, there haven't been too many great entrances into this market, we might go away from the nationalish shows and stick to more localized stuff as far as mornings go. Sure, it's probably just as costly to hire people on in every single market, but people like local stuff that's customized to them. Just my two cents.

A few days ago, I started hearing that 660AM WFAN out of New York City would be streaming live over the Internet soon, and as it turns out, it's true. On Friday, I received an email from the station's marketing deparment stating that the streaming would go live at 3pm on Tuesday, April 11, where the "Mike & The Mad Dog" show would be broadcast while the New York Mets game would be played over the actual airwaves. (Major League Baseball teams are a subscription-only service through David Singer's favorite online stream, MLB.tv)

I'm psyched mostly that the "Imus in the Morning" show is going to be over the 'net now, because my office location isn't exactly getting me great AM reception, depriving me of my WFAN fix for the day. Considering it's like one of the most widely-broadcast stations on the AM dial, this has some big implications. Now how many streams do you think they'll make available? My bet is: not enough.

Looks like Oprah is, yet again, extending her reach. This time, she's made a deal with XM Satellite Radio to start a new radio channel later this year, according to the Associated Press.

Could the vaunted Red Sox leave their hallowed radio home of WEEI? Seems like it's definitely a possibility - though not at all a guarantee - according to the Boston Globe's Sasha Talcott.

At first this might not seem like a big issue, but after seeing New York's Knicks and Rangers move from their home on 660AM WFAN over to 1050AM WEPN (ESPN Radio), I've got to say it should be a concern. For one thing, WFAN is a clear channel broadcast, and I've heard it as far away as the Carolinas - 1050 barely makes it into the central part of New Jersey, just 30-40 miles away. While ESPN Radio will surely never admit that this has hurt the teams' listenership, I've got to say that purely based on reach, it has to have done so. Hopefully, Boston won't have the same issue.

In Sunday's San Diego Union-Tribune, staff writer Frank Green shares the story of Finest City Broadcasting and its president, Mike Glickenhaus, and how this independent (read: not CBS Radio or Clear Channel) network of stations has grown to become a player in that portion of the country.

Over at The Motley Fool, Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes about the expectations of XM Satellite Radio to kick off its presence at the Consumer Electronics Show with not only a big number as far as subscribers go, but some significant plans as far as video services go.

The Boston Globe's Keith Read writes about the success (?) that SIRIUS Satellite Radio might end up having this holiday season with the move (finally) of Howard Stern to its service. According to some retailers, SIRIUS hardware is moving quite well off the shelves, with one store manager at a Best Buy going as far as to say "This is driving our revenue right now..."

We'll see what kind of sub numbers that SIRIUS throws out there early in '06, but there are probably many a Stern fan who didn't buy in until the last minute, perhaps feeding the dark forecasts that this move made analysts have. At the end of the day, this might not make or break satellite radio, because converts to it have been singing its praises for some time now, but it will probably show how much a draw it has on the general population.

Just heard that Yahoo! will be the exclusive home for video and audio broadcasting of Howard Stern's "welcome" to satellite radio this Friday, December 16, after 9a.m. Eastern.

TVWeek.com's Jay Sherman is reporting Thursday that the satellite television provider will be adding 72 XM stations over its service, with the number of stations each customer getting being based on the level of package s/he subscribes to.

As a SIRIUS subscriber who enjoys the service a lot, it's great to see the innovations that the company has been putting together with regard to hardware and programming. That said, the programming is becoming more and more competitive between SIRIUS and XM, with some exclusive sports contracts moving back and forth between them. While I prefer SIRIUS overall, that's not to say that XM doesn't have some things I'd like to have. Now, as a DirecTV subscriber, I will - well, if what I'm looking for is included in the distribution.

Now, if I could only get some more high definition channels...

Big news this afternoon for hockey fans, especially those who are satellite radio customers. Turns out that XM will also be carrying the NHL's season this fall, ultimately taking on the games exclusively in the 2007-08 season. It'll be interesting to see if the continued "exclusivity" contracts that both XM and SIRIUS have been working up will have the same effect that DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket have on the industry.

Oh my - in what seemed to be a never-ending saga of personal problems and on-air issues, WFAN talk show host Sid Rosenberg has resigned from the station, "effective immediately." His former co-host Joe Benigno made the announcement just as the 10am-1pm midday show opened up this morning. No further details were discussed, and WFAN's "Joe & Sid" page wasn't updated on the station's Website.

More details if and when they become available.

[update 9/13] The New York Post (r/r) has more on the story, which looks like it ended badly over the weekend with Rosenberg's attendance at an event in Atlantic City.

In case you haven't heard all the details about WWL, the AM radio station out of New Orleans that managed to stay on through the dedication of its employees and the assistance of a market competitor, the Wall Street Journal's Sarah McBride sums up how the Entercom Communications-owned station was able to have a profound impact of those on the ground in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last week.

Just caught an item at MediaBuyerPlanner about how the Summer and Fall surveys of markets affected by Hurricane Katrina might be altered because of the devastation.

MediaBuyerPlanner points out a Radio World piece detailing the issues that HD Radio will need to take care of in order to become the next big thing that turns into the next everyday thing.

The Boston Globe's Bill Griffith has details on the end - at least at ESPN Radio - of the career of Chuck Wilson, 20 year veteran of the "Game Night" program heard every evening on stations broadcasting the ESPN shows, just as ESPN Radio enters the Boston market. I came across Wilson while doing some traveling a decade or so ago, when I tuned in ESPN Radio on my car's radio - something I'd never heard before, as WFAN (660 AM) out of New York was pretty much the only all-sports station I'd ever heard. You'd definitely recognize his distinct voice, which was all business and yet all fun at the same time.

Surely Wilson will be picked up by another station or network, as he is recognizable and brings a high level of experience and professionalism that a sports radio station would surely desire. Good luck, Chuck! Hope to hear from you soon!

In a move that might change the way that terrestrial radio has worked over the last few years, Sony's Epic label owned up to what is effectively payola, where deejays and station employees were given trips, sneakers and electronics to play particular songs on the air. The New York Times' Jeff Leeds and Louise Story cover the story, which included one method I'd never even heard of, which was the playing of songs on the air as "commercials," in a way adding spins to a song in a way that listeners wouldn't even know what was going on.

Let's not be naive here, most people these days realize that the 20 or 30 songs heard regularly on the radio aren't necessarily the "best" songs out there these days, and most deejays do nothing but talk and make jokes here and there. They're not all expected to be skilled at putting together a great mix of music for people to listen to - those days haven't been around for a long time now. But will this continue to be the same, going forward, as radio stations have eyes like those of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's closely watching?

The Cincinnati Post's Rick Bird reports on an contest held by First Broadcasting, owner of two radio stations who have gone to a new format that is very similar to Infinity's "Jack" format, to name a couple of their stations. Listeners can go to nameusandwin.com and enter to win $10,000 if their new name / slogan is chosen to be used.

This format is most familiar as one that throws the playlist out the window, and would be like putting 1,000 CDs on shuffle and walking away.

Is it just me, or does the concept of David Lee Roth, among other deejays, replacing Howard Stern not bode well for Infinity's programming schedule?

It looks like another instance of "Jack" striking at a radio station has gotten some people up in arms. The Chicago Sun-Times' Robert Feder places the responses of readers to Infinity Radio's Joel Hollander in his column on Tuesday. Let's just say that most people weren't pleased by the station's format change nor Hollander's reasoning for the move.

Lifting has stung yet another member of the media, this time in the radio world. The San Diego Union-Tribune's Gregory Alan Gross and Karen Kucher have the details on the firing of Gabriel Wisdom from KPBS, where he was responsible for giving commentaries on financial topics. This comes shortly after Wisdom's departure from NPR's "Marketplace" because of plagiarism.

The Associated Press is reporting that Lexington, Kentucky-based WLTO-FM 102.5 is in a bit of trouble after a lawsuit was filed by a listener against station owner Cumulus Media this week. The plaintiff, Norreasha Gill, says she won a contest for "a hundred grand" and was told she had actually become the new owner of, you guessed it, a "100 Grand" candy bar. That article notes that the DJ involved, "DJ Slick," stated that he had left the station on his own volition on his website
- but not without "walking out the door and slamming it behind [him]."

Mediaweek's Katy Bachman suggests that last week's news that Clear Channel Radio was looking for an Arbitron replacement - or at least the way the company currently measures listenership - might be just what the industry really needs to get towards the "portable people meters" that have been much ballyhooed recently.

A couple of weeks ago, word got out that Infinity was ditching the oldies format at 101.1 WCBS-FM for the "Jack" format they've been rolling out elsewhere, due to the demographics for that type of sound providing easier advertising sales. Yesterday, the David Hinckley offered details in the New York Daily News about a planned protest for next Tuesday outside of the station's offices as well as a pointer to finding an all-oldies, all the time feed online at wcbsfm.com.

On Tuesday afternoon, word was trickling out that Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown" program would be returning to ESPN, though not to his famed "SportsCenter" chair that he anchored next to Dan Patrick - though he would be working alongside Patrick again, we think. As of August 5, he'll be on the air during "The Dan Patrick Show," which runs from 1-4 p.m. Eastern. Reports seem to indicate that Olbermann will participate on Fridays for an hour.

Surely, OlbermannWatch will have something to say about this?

The Kansas City Star's David Hayes noted Tuesday that Sprint mobile phones will carry some radio shows from the SIRIUS Satellite Radio service.

On Monday, Clear Channel Radio expressed its displeasure with the state of radio measurement and ratings by putting out a request for proposals for a new system to do a better job. The company cites a recent study by Millward Brown that showed a 49% besting of television ad by radio spots for getting consumers to make a purchase. But it's not just TV that Clear Channel thinks radio needs to go up against - print is included too - as they refer back to a survey from 2004 that showed radio ads that replaced print ads grew brand recall by more than 1/3. Additionally, Clear Channel was kind to the radio measurement industry by saying that the methods used - namely, personal diaries - are not so effective after been seen "under increasing skepticism" recently.

And you know what, they're right. It's kind of crazy that there hasn't been a newish method of measuring listenership, although one would presume that services like XM and SIRIUS would have the ability to keep an eye out for what their listeners had on for what amounts of time - but they "own" the right to transmit to those devices. It's not so easy to do so with the regular terrestrial radios. So what's the solution, folks? It's obviously not an easy one, becuase there's no reason that we'd all be sitting here without one for years and years unless it would be a pain to fix it.

The Lexington Herald-Leader's Rich Copley reports that Kentucky's governor, Ernie Fletcher, has added a radio show host, Dave Baker, to the state's new sex offender task force. Baker discusses general Kentucky issues on his WLAP-AM radio show, but some have expressed concerns about his "connections" to the state while he is a member of the media.

One of the topics I try and keep abreast of for the purposes of this blog is radio station format changes. With satellite radio continuing to grow in popularity and personal playlists a la online downloads and such becoming the norm, it's no surprise that radio stations have to do everything they can (or think they should do) to keep listeners tuned in. It's important to keep in mind that the station's owners aren't usually concerned about what kind of music or content is playing, as they are truly in the business of getting advertisers' messages to listeners. That's all well and good, but the average listener doesn't want to know that - they want to be able to find whatever they want, when they want, commercials or not.

This week, a big move came through in the New York City area - the Friday drivetime welcomed listeners to 101.1-FM WCBS with an all new sound, that of the "Jack" format Infinity Broadcasting has been rolling out in recent months. Listeners to the station, of which I'm only a periodic one, aren't pleased about it. But just as the Star-Ledger's George Berkin points out, it's not about those listeners, it's about getting "better demographics later on," as one radio writer describes.

And I'm not the only one who will miss the station. Michele at A Small Victory harkens back to the days when she grew up with the station on. I, for one, am very familiar with my childhood days of having WNEW on in the car as we went on family trips in the area, and the holidays is always a great time to turn the dial that way when visiting family and friends. Not anymore. I'll also echo Michele's final statement, "It's time to load some doo-wop and 50's rock and roll onto the iPod." Radio stations are concerned about being able to sell advertising in order to operate and get people to listen. What they don't realize is that if all the stations on the dial are essentially the same three or four types of stations, then the gravedigger just got two or three assistants to help dig that six foot hole - and they brought a case of Red Bull.

Billboard Radio Monitor's Chuck Taylor reports Wednesday morning that WFAN sports talk show host Sid Rosenberg has been fired from the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, which is also run on television's MSNBC - but not from his role as host from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on WFAN's midday show.

Unlike with his personal problems, WFAN's Sid Rosenberg seems to have public opinion slanting against him with regard to his actions after singer Kylie Minogue's announced last week that she had breast cancer. Rosenberg made obnoxious comments, on-air, about results of treatment that Minogue would be receiving, leaving fans to wonder what his deal was. The New York Post's Phil Mushnick says that this is just Rosenberg "going too far in his mandate to serve as Don Imus's trained pet pig."

Rosenberg isn't present on the "Imus in the Morning" program this morning on the radio or MSNBC.

[update] NYDN's Bob Raissman reports that Rosenberg has been pulled from Imus' show until further notice, and no additional word on his tenure at WFAN in New York has been made public at this point.

The Press-Enterprise's Lisa McPheron informs that San Bernadino area radio station KVCR-FM, 91.1, will drop its mostly classical music format on the NPR station and shift towards "locally produced news and talk shows and syndicated public radio programming."

Shortly after being removed from the airwaves of 640 AM WMFN, the Detroit Tigers are back on the air, the Grand Rapids Press reports. After a week of stating that the cost of running the games was just too much to bear, the station has apparently decided that it's in their best interest - oh, and they were more or less contractually obligated to do so, anyway.

The Oldies format just can't catch a break on radio stations today. The Baltimore Sun's Rob Hiaasen reports that 102.7FM out of Baltimore flipped the switch from oldies to the "wide ranging," as it is described, Jack-FM format. Along with the entire radio station's staff, popular morning show host Steve Rouse was given no warning before being let go by WQSR's owners, Infinity Broadcasting.

Just read over at Droxy that XM has scored before injury time with their exclusive coverage of next year's FIFA World Cup in Germany.

BBC News' Paul Anderson reports from Afghanistan that the Taliban has restarted their "pirate" radio broadcasts in that country as a way to motivate their supporters "against the government and its supporters, principally the United States."

[via The Agonist]

The AP's Seth Sutel reports that Martha Stewart has signed on to have her own channel on SIRIUS satellite radio. The station will be targeted towards women interested in many of the topics that the Marth Stewart Living publication and overall brand have been about.

Christian and family-themed radio broadcaster Salem Communications Tuesday named former Mondosphere Broadcasting and Emmis Communications executive Jon Horton vice president of operations. Horton will continue to consult on overall programming issues and handle efforts he is currently working on at northwest and Great Lakes area stations.

According to a story out this afternoon, XM Satellite Radio and AOL are teaming up to offer online radio to listeners visiting the aol.com website. Additionally, AOL members will be able to purchase access to a higher end service for a fee.

This morning, WFAN-AM's Sid Rosenberg returned to work after being out for a month in