Posted on 01/09/2007 1:18:23 PM PST by iowamark
NEW YORK — Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) paid shock jock Howard Stern a bonus worth nearly $83 million on Tuesday for surpassing subscriber goals set in a 2004 contract that had already turned heads with its $500 million compensation package.
The freewheeling and ribald Stern joined Sirius one year ago... His defection marked a turning point for the nascent business of satellite radio, with both Sirius and larger rival XM Satellite Radio (XMR) paying millions more to sign on other talent and attract listeners to their subscriber model.
Sirius had roughly 600,000 subscribers when it signed Stern in 2004 for a contract valued at $500 million over five years.
At the time, analysts had forecast the company would grow to about 3.5 million subscribers by the end of 2006. Sirius and Stern agreed to an added bonus in the event that the number of subscribers exceeded that forecast by more than 2 million. Last week, the company reported that it ended 2006 with more than 6 million subscribers, at the middle of a forecast range made in December, triggering the bonus payment of about 22.1 million shares.
"The decision to bring Howard Stern to Sirius required a very significant commitment and we are very pleased that our investment has dramatically paid off," Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin said in a statement...
Both Sirius and XM are growing rapidly, but losing money as they aim to improve their technology and sign on top-shelf entertainment, from the largest U.S. sports leagues to celebrities like Stern, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart.
Sirius and XM shares have also shed more than 40 percent of their value in the last year, compared with a 10 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
RU Sirius?.......
I am amazed at how some people are able to convert their foul mouth to such riches. Sam Kennison was another.
THey have to be kidding me. THey're bleeding money and they gave him how much???
I can live without Howard Stern, and without satellite radio. Now, if they signed an exclusive contract with El Rushbo....
It wasnt cash. They gave it to him in "shares".
Not every company that has good products are good for investors. (Not that I think Stern is good, but the idea of satelite radio IS good.)
Prediction: Sirius Satellite Radio will go belly-up in the next one to two years, but before it does, their CEO will be sent packing with a huge severance payment.
Even SIRI or XM (or both) will eventually be a winner. Guessing which is the problem, and buying both is anti-diversification, which aint smart.
Satan pays his workers well.
I guess I just didn't use the correct foul words.
I cant believe he is getting all that money to sit around and talk about girls and boobs. i have been doing that all of my life and havent earned one cent from it. : (
Another double standard demonstration from the Left, and pure hypocrisy.....
But you probably have never spanked a lesbian and that's the big difference.
Is that another way of saying "worthless punk"?
LOL
Limbaugh makes pittance compared to what this guy gets. Correct me if I am wrong. ( Limbaugh & Leno make about the same)
Preaching just didn't pay as well...
That'd be rich punk. Kind of like a rich guy is eccentric, but a poor guy is crazy.
To each his own. For example, I love Stern, and I think Rush blows.
The media gives Stern a pass because he, Stern, is a liberal. Stern has stated that he's happy the democrats
won control of Congress. Fine....perhaps Nancy Pelosi should raise his tax bracket to 90%......
Where's Barney Frank to protest this pay issue, when we need him?
I may have. I'm not sure.
Can you do that regularly in a manner that will grab a lot of people's attention for sometime, and then hold that attention while you duck out periodically and let them be bombarded with commercials, and just as they are about to leave you spring right back in and continue ?
They did a great job on the Christmas stations. But I can't understand why they let NASCAR go to Sirius. I have XM but I am considering a change to be able to listen to the races when I can't be in front of the TV.
They probably will raise the top bracket to 90%, but would craft if so Hollywood incomes would be excluded.....
A liberal who voted for Reagan twice in the 1980s . . .
We also know there are armies of perverts who live in porno sites.... it should not be, but it is a fact of life and I can live with it.
Sex and crudeness sells in this day and age...ugh
In what age didn't it?
One-trick ponies typically don't have radio careers that span over 25 years . . .
"I cant believe he is getting all that money to sit around and talk about girls and boobs. i have been doing that all of my life and havent earned one cent from it."
That's not enough; you must mock the retarded as well.
A hugh and sirius bonus!
Shortly after World War II, in late 1946, the FCC created the FM band as it exists today... 88 to 108 Mhz. They gave every existing AM station an automatic FM License. Few AM Stations bothered to build their FM Station.
But many people out side of radio were certain that the increased fidelity and resistance to static would soon make FM the dominate medium.
But even as late as the mid 1960s, the FM audience was less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the total U.S. Radio audience. For over 20 years after the creation of the FM band, there was next to no FM Radio Audience.
In 1969 I committed every thing I owned to apply for an FM Station. I remember friends in the radio business thought I was nuts to bet all I had on an FM station. By 1969 the FM audience had grown to about 3 percent of the total Radio audience. AM still had 97 percent of the listeners. But it had grown from 0.5 Percent to 3 percent in a little over 2 years.
I was granted a construction permit in March of 1972 and by that date almost 5 percent of the total audience was listening to FM.
By 1977 the FM Audience was slightly over half the total audience.... FM went over 50 percent. By the early 1980s the situation was nearly reversed ... AM was down to 4 or 5 percent of the total audience.
In 1988 the FCC changed the rules making News Talk legal. Shortly thereafter Rush Limbaugh hit the AM waves saving AM.
My point is it takes a very long time to introduce a new way of distributing programming. It took 25 years for FM to make it, and it took well over a decade for Color TV to be in a majority of American homes.
History says it will take a long time for satellite radio to become a major factor. History also says being first is of little value. Those that get into the new method of distribution just as it takes off are the ones that make the money. In broadcasting early bird rarely gets the worm.
Well, Sam Kennison did clean up his act and got rid of a lot of profanities. THEN God killed him.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
I heard that XM and Sirius were going to merge, which would be fine by me...I'd even pay more a month to get everything they both offer. I love satellite radio. But I hate Stern.
Howard Stern has a grossly overinflated sense of his worth. I used to listen to him twenty years ago. He previously had the support of law enforcement personnel but he has become an uber-liberal over the past twelve to fifteen years...and especially in the time he has dated Beth Ostrosky according to what has been covered on this website and in the news.
If you find yourself in alignment with the current Howard Stern from a political perspective, you unfortunately ain't no conservative....sorry.
~ Blue Jays ~
Nick "I have a vagina" Saban just got 32 mil from the jerks at Alabama....for being an assho*e.
AND supports the death penalty.
Sirius is the only one saying XM will merge. The SEC needs to do something about Mel Karmizan giving out false rumors solely to boost stock price. XM has no interest in merging with Sirius.
ML/NJ
Sam was a crazy SOB on stage but pretty calm offstage. Funny funny guy either way. I remember once that he got banned from a Houston comedy club for some reason. Sam went across the street to a 7-11, climbed up on to a sign to a spot where he could stand and then "crucified" himself until they let him back in.
I had a friend in high school who's dad was "confused" about some things. My friend and I were sitting right up front next to the stage where Sam was doing his act and Sam started picking on my friend. Sam said something like "whatsa matter, you a homo?" This was not a good thing for Sam to say at the time. The next thing I knew Sam and my friend were rolling around on the floor trying to kill each other. Well, kill each ohter as best they could considering their "state". I watched them fight until they both got tired out. Sam said something like "I guess you aren't a homo little mister". After that we got very drunk. This was when Sam was forst getting a bit famous.
Oddly enough, Sam was killed by a drunk driver....
AND says there are too FEW abortions.
Yep. Media libs love media libs, the fewer brains and the bigger mouths the better for them.
really? I bought XM stock years ago and made some good money from it. Luckily sold before it tanked.
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