By now, most know of Infinity buying 24 full-page ads as the sole sponsor in this week's edition of Ad Age to promote Stern replacements, including Adam Carolla, David Lee Roth, Penn Jillette and Rover. The cost for that alone was reportedly around 800,000 dollars, with 1.2 million being spent in LA alone in December to market Carolla. What was the reason for that kind of spend? Did it increase interest for the radio buyers? Was it worth it? We asked a few for yesterday and today's issue.

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Said Natalie Swed Stone, US Director, National Radio Investment: "I think the ad campaign is masterful and appropriate given the media attention from the other side. I personally enjoyed the various creative executions and style-humor and edginess, etc. The use of Joel's stationery and negotiations was also apropos given the insider nature of Ad Age! Stern's leaving has been one of the biggest media stories of the year-and the Infinity defense demands a commensurate response/splash. Bravo!"

Said one buyer, off the record: "Obviously, Howard Stern is an icon in the radio industry. And everyone was like, 'Whoever Infinity chooses is not going to be a success because no one can be Howard Stern.' Well, I think that Infinity was brilliant and they chose a number of different people to replace him. Because it was a more complicated switch than just replacing him with Howard Stern, they had to get the message out to the advertising community of what they were doing. So I think they were smart in doing that. I don't know how much they spent in Ad Age, but they certainly got my (and everyone else that was reading) attention."

Said another off the record: "I think Infinity is kind of scrambling as to what they're going to do. So this gets them buzz, some press. They have to do something, I mean if you think about it, Howard represented a huge percentage of their revenues. He's going away, they know there's no other talent like that. So they're trying these noteworthy personalities. Let's see what happens-I mean none of my clients would advertise on Howard. The others they're bringing in are a little less risqué, so maybe that allows for some non-Howard advertisers to come on board."