Stern Goes from Serious Player to Sirius Backwater

Howard Stern, once the self-glossed “King of All Media,” has lost much of his audience and prestige in his much-ballyhooed move to satellite radio, the Los Angeles Times reports. Analysts estimate that Stern, who once boasted 12 million daily listeners, attracts only about 1-2 million on the subscription service, and A-list bookings have dried up.

Being free of the Federal Communications Commission has also been a curse in disguise for Stern, who no longer enjoys the publicity its huge fines engineered. “He made a Faustian bargain,” said one analyst. “He got everything he wanted in terms of money and not being bothered by the FCC, but he lost the bulk of his audience.”
(More Howard Stern stories.)