Mutt - I have a serious question for you.

Mutt, What is you personal opinion of the current state of the Howard Stern Show?

The reason I ask is because Howard is clearly disconnected from reality concerning the quality of the show.
I'm wondering if there is any talk about this by those involved with the show and Sirius-XM.

The idea that 2 day weeks are acceptable for any reason is just an insult to paying subscribers.

if you add @ to a person's id they'll get a notification.....like this Mutt

Thanks for the info.

do you honestly think you'll get his true opinion? Mutt is a true fan and not a sycophant. If he didn't do the SFRT I think you'd get the unedited version. I love Mutt and this site, but his opinions have been mildly tempered since he's taken on the gig.

Good for you, asshole. I bet that Mutt or Doctor Ivan would love to hear about you bragging about stealing the show.

Jerkoff

It really is a slap to the face to subscribers

Here's my 2 cents, for whatever its worth.

I think when Howard came over to Sirius he had a lot of ideas and was very excited to work with te company, and he probably thought that his ideas would have a lot more weight with the Sirius brass than what they actually turned out to have. I think a lot of stuff he might have wanted to implement were shot down. Slowly but surely, he started to realize that Sirius didnt treat him any different, that he was not as special as they led him to believe, so he started to become very dissapointed that he couldnt do what he wanted to with the show, so he started to wind down, to put less and less effort into the show, and now with the lawsuit, he has all but given up in trying to put together the show he wants. I think he's depressed about the show, and is just going thru the motions.

Its really dumb to say he doesn't put any effort into the show, he does, but its somewhere close to the bare minimum. Also, take into consideration that he's been doing it for so long, I think after a while you realize that you have done all the good bits, ideas, etc. After 30+ years you might think you start to run out of ideas. You have told all the good stories about your life, you dont do as much as you used to do in your youth (duh!) so not much happens in your life right now. Its a combination of things, yet people usually want to focus on one (like Beth for example) and put all the blame there, because simple-minded people need to focus on one thing. Trying to understand multiple reasons and factors that make the show what it is today is too difficult for some to grasp. So its just easier to blame Beth than to actually give it all a little thought.

That said, I still enjoy the show a lot. I enjoy Howard talking about whatever with Robin. Why would I torture myself comparing the show today to what it was? What's the point? You cant go back, no matter how much you want to. You live on, and instead of being angry all the time, you try to take what is there and make the best of it.

Your common sense and grasp of reality will not be understood or accepted here.

Fuck.

So you two are the only normal ones? Settle down. You could also argue that once he got his bonuses, his drive disappeared. He is going through the motions, but he has 30 years of institutional knowledge in how to do his job.

I think he realized how big a job planning the channels would be and dialed it back to a bare minimum. His cheapness got in the way. There is no better example of his laziness than Howard101. The only person he has developed is Riley Martin.

Jay and Riley are both worth listening to, they could be on more to make up for lack of live Howard.

just curious what "ideas and concepts" you believe were "shot down" by sirius management?

Howard was finally able to do the show he wanted, then got bored with it. easy peasy.

The entire list of stuff he constantly had Gary write down before they left K-ROCK or does anyone remember what was on that list but I'd be interested in hearing what got shot down as well.

"His cheapness got in the way?" Do you really think talent is responsible for putting up the funds to run the channels? Why would he put up his own money when he gets paid a salary, and is in litigation to resolve a dispute over unpaid bonuses?

It's Sirius's job to fund the channels, and it was supposed to be Howard's job (or at least his input) with respect to programming the channels. Now you may be right that the job was to big for him, but he did bring in Bubba; and at the end of the day Sirius couldn't even afford to sustain a mid-market shock jock (and I don't mean that as an insult to BTLS. I like'd his show). If all Sirius can afford is a couple hundred bucks here and there for riley and shows like Geek Time, I can't really blame Howard for not putting a lot of effort into 101.

why hasn't Mutt answered yet

I don't get how two or even three day weeks are considered acceptable.

Not going to quote your entire post, but I think a lot of it is very possible. Sirius is a business just like any other, and there are all kinds of factors involved in putting content on the air. Just because Howard wanted to do something and didn't, doesn't mean that it's because he got lazy and just didn't do it. I think it's very likely that he was very excited about being able to put out a lot of new programming at Sirius, only to find out when he got there that it's business as usual, with office politics and management bullshit just like terrestrial. Except they can curse on the air. I'm sure anyone who has worked for a living long enough has similar experiences.

That $500MM figure that everyone likes to throw around is the budget for Howard 100/101. We have no idea how that budget is split up, but it's not as simple as saying Howard could just forgo a portion of his salary and poof they have more money to produce a whole lot of shows. First, I would never expect Howard to do so. He negotiated his salary, I don't expect him to turn around and give it back. But on top of that, corporate accounting is complicated. Different budgets pay for different things, and you don't just move money around from one bucket to another. I think it's total bullshit, and counter productive, but that's the reality of corporate accounting.

His non answer is his answer.

The show has evolved and is no longer a comedy show. I don't want to hear AGT infomercials and that's what I feel I'm getting lately.

Mutt will answer that the show has never been better and for all of us to stop bitching.

very well put and i follow same thoughts-- phoning it in leaves a bad taste though.....

Wrong.

Why would you post that if you have no idea what you're talking about? Or do you know better and just decided to lie?

I pretty much agree with this, but any longtime fan knows this is just part of the game. How many infomercials have we sat through for: private parts (the book); private parts (the film); miss america; sirius. This has been going on for decades. As for the AGT stuff, some of it's ok, and some of it's just a bore and I turn it off.

To be honest, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I actually miss a lot of the raunch (which I didn't think I was a huge fan of before, but here we are). I know the parade of porn stars could get boring, but when they did it creatively it was awesome (Wheel of Sex, It's Just Wrong, etc.).

While the show is still better than anything else on radio these days, Howard lost his hunger to put on an amazing show every day.