# Howard Stern's 8AM announcement

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-sterns-8am-announcement/267825>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 6, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-sterns-8am-announcement/267825 "2004-10-06T11:13:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-sterns-8am-announcement/267825/81 "2004-10-07T23:32:28Z")

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> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#):
>
> Oh, and about Sirius vs. XM --\> Clear Channel Communications owns a good bit of XM, and that’s my guess as to why Howard isn’t going there.

> [@Pashnish Ewing](#):
>
> So, if Howard supossedly went whining to them, why didn’t they tell Howard to shut up and take it like a man?And yet, they didn’t have the same concerns about Stern?
> 
> Good point. So maybe Howard did have some incentive to take the wind out of XM’s sails.
> 
> Pash

Clear Channel sold it’s holdings in XM a while ago.

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**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-sterns-8am-announcement/267825/82 "2004-10-08T00:25:58Z")

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> [@MannyL](#):
>
> Clear Channel sold it’s holdings in XM a while ago.

Really? I’ve read that they still hold about 2%.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-sterns-8am-announcement/267825/83 "2004-10-08T02:22:49Z")

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There are conflicting reports on the premium issue. Between [this Motley Fool article](http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04100703.htm), the press releases, and the [SiriusBackstage.com](http://SiriusBackstage.com) forums, my conclusion is that Stern will be producing three streams (channels, not just shows), two of which will be premium. The regular Howard Stern show will be free for all subscribers.

Sirius currently doesn’t have any premium streams; even the NFL package is available to everyone. They’ve marketed that as an advantage over XM, so if some of these new streams really are premium, that’ll be a step back for their PR.

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