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...calls himself the King of All Media, but in his three decades of radio broadcasting he has also earned a more dubious crown: the King of All Fines. Stern, who hosted his last FM-radio show on Friday, has cost stations that carry his program nearly $3 million in FCC penalties for indecency. He didn?t help his cause when in 1992 he infamously declared on the air that he hoped the prostate cancer of an FCC commissioner would spread through his body. ?When I get angry and really fired up... I will say vicious things,? he told 60 Minutes...
...That, in essence, is the $500 million gamble for investors in Sirius Satellite Radio, Stern?s broadcaster come January. Sirius, as you may know, is one of two satellite radio services (the other is XM) over whose content the FCC has no jurisdiction. Each service charges $13 a month for dozens of channels of commercial-free music, talk, sports and a variety of other content. Sirius has about 2.2 million subscribers, XM boasts 5 million (as of the end of September) and both are elbowing each other to sign high-profile talent. Besides Stern, Sirius is trumpeting a Martha Stewart...
...from less than $10 million now. Stern is essential to that equation. Karmazin, after all, has long had faith in the nation?s premier radio bad boy to bring in the bucks, going back decades to their days at Infinity Broadcasting, where Karmazin steadfastly defended Stern from the FCC and refused to kick...
...anything?s certain it?s that Stern won?t have the FCC to kick around anymore (and vice versa). Of course, while the FCC may have cost Stern?s broadcasters buckets of cash, the content police created a brilliant comedic foil, allowing Stern to portray himself as an anti-establishment crusader, fighting uptight Washington bureaucrats with his renegade style. Will Howard Unbound be as funny as the guy who could always pull some boundary-skirting stunt to keep his audience amused? Stay tuned for The King of All Media?s answer...
...gaps remain. The FCC ruling does not apply to peer-to-peer calls made between two computers without a third-party provider. And the FCC has yet to resolve the issue of identifying the location of callers using VOIP. A Justice Department spokesman praised the FCC's announcement as an "important first step" but asked for "prompt action on the remaining issues." --By Brian Bennett