Howard Stern to Satellite

Howard Stern is off to satellite radio now and went out with a huge bang (or so it sounded like on CNN.com.).  So the big question is whether or not this is going to bring satellite radio into the mainstream, and I'm not so sure about that.  This will be a test to see if his fanbase was really that fanatical or if it just happened that he was conveniently on the radio during their morning commute and now they'll just listen to something else.  Is twelve bucks a month plus the cost of upgrading the stereo in your car worth hanging onto a morning show that you just kind of like?  I doubt it.  So I think that Sirius will see an increase in subscribers but I don't think its going to be enough to usher in the age of satellite radio. 

Also, I can't help but think about Family Guy when I'm thinking about this.  The difference between the TV show and the movie that they released is actually quite pronounced.  On the movie, because they weren't subject to FCC restrictions and could do whatever they wanted, they could just be as blatently offensive as they desired.  Which is fine, I'm not one to be offended by offensiveness.  I think the problem was that when they didn't have to worry about restrictions, they weren't forced to be as smart with their writing.  So while the movie is funny, the TV show is much funnier and I think that can be attributed to the writers actually having the think harder, to get to the more clever ideas.  It's easy to talk about shit and racial slurs all day, but its much harder to have to write those same kind of jokes in a way that will get past the censors and still be funny…

…which leads us back to Howard.  I never thought he was very funny, apparently some people did, but I wonder if the Family Guy principle of funnier when under scrutiny will apply.  Additionally, for the listeners that love Howard, I wonder how much of their enjoyment of his jokes stem from the fact that when he's talking about boobs they get excited that he's pushing the established rules for radio.  Once he's allowed to say whatever he wants, will there be a level of excitement about his content that will be missing?  You know, like when you turn 21 and drinking loses a little of the excitement factor.  Time will tell my friend…time will tell.