Matt Feinberg, SVP/National Radio, Zenith Media Services, had a few comments on a story we ran yesterday regarding Sirius asking for similar rates on Stern's upcoming satellite broadcast as terrestrial radio (8/23 RBR #165):

"There are a few national advertisers in his show now-this will actually attract more of them because he will be purely national with Sirius. The question becomes though, what's the audience? I don't know."

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Would you pay the rates they're now floating?

"No. I'd say what's the rationale for that? They don't have audience numbers for me yet, and it will be a while before they do. The other thing is he has a 20-year history of banging out the success stories on terrestrial radio. We can say with some degree of surety that he will do OK on satellite, but who really knows. Howard has been around a really long time. His career has peaked in my opinion. He's still viable and may be for a long time. Maybe he will re-animate his career into a whole new area. The question is who knows, because the sub numbers just aren't that big."

Are you placing any of your advertiser clients on Stern?

"No, but it has nothing to do with his audience numbers, it has to do with Stern. Most national advertisers don't want to be on Stern because there are just too many complications. Even if 100% of his listeners migrated to satellite, that doesn't change national advertisers' receptivity. He said he's going to get more creative on the show, but who knows what that means? I think they are going to get lesser rates for Howard for a long time, until he proves himself through sub numbers and audience research and/or success stories. It will take a couple years, but I'm sure he will have some."

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RBR observation:
Would current local advertisers really have to drop the show when it moves to Sirius? What would the harm be if someone hearing the show live in LA heard a local NYC ad? Maybe that's the plan, and there's no law against it.