WolfViper
09-27-2005, 08:55 PM
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17462,00.html?tnews
Searching for Stern Subs Difficult
by Charlie Amter
Sep 27, 2005, 3:30 PM PT
How many sex-crazed radio hosts will it take to replace Howard Stern? More than one, apparently.
Executives at Viacom-owned Infinity Broadcasting have deemed Stern "not replaceable" and are opting to try out multiple radio personalities in different soon-to-be former Stern markets, Daily Variety reports.
Among the likely candidates to try and woo Stern fans in the morning early next year when the iconic shock jock departs from traditional radio for Sirius Satellite radio, are Mancow Muller in his native Chicago and Loveline's Adam Carolla in Los Angeles.
Although no official announcement regarding new talent has been made by Infinity, CEO Joel Hollander said the company had "all the talent we are talking to under contract" at a advertising confab in New York Monday.
Instead of simply hiring one host to fill Stern's shoes, the company will instead try out several different personalities on-air in January, per reports.
While some reports have likened the strategy to a real life Survivor-esque tournament to replace Stern, a more apt analogy may be The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. CBS suits chose Ferguson to be the sole host of the late night yakfest earlier this year after auditioning a number of potential hosts, including D.L. Hughley and Michael Ian Black on-air when they were forced to replace Craig Kilborn after he chosenot to re-up his contract five years after he began hosting The Late Late Show.
Per reports, Infinity will evaluate the hosts over a two-year period before they reveal their final choices for long-term fill-in hosts, or host, should one candidate prove himself worthy of Stern-esque ratings.
While comedians and radio personalities of all stripes are no doubt lining up for the opportunity to score lucrative deals with Infinity now that airspace has opening up in crucial markets during the morning drive-time slot, snagging Stern's audience, or ratings, will be anything but easy.
"A lot of people think it's very easy to do, but [personalities such as Bill O'Reilly] will be the first to tell you it's not so easy," said Hollander, who appeared with O'Reilly at the conference Monday.
Indeed, at least one possible Stern replacement, Carolla, is learning the pitfalls of producing live, daily content as he is recently coming off one of his worst live performances Monday on his new nightly Comedy Central talk show, Too Late with Adam Carolla.
The funnyman was not so funny Monday as he was forced to fill air time and take live calls from fans who got digs in at the new host's expense after his scheduled guest, Jackass' Steve-O, did not work out.
Stern himself endorsed Carolla in July and the New York-born comedian has plenty of experience via his syndicated weekly radio show Loveline. Even so, filling four hours of airtime daily will prove challenging for even some of the biggest names in the rumor mill for Stern slots in cities nationwide.
Hollander revealed he had even tried to contact some unlikely Stern replacements prior to deciding on the multi-host model. "We went from Jon Stewart to Whoopi Goldberg and Geraldo Rivera...a lot of people thought it would be easy," Hollander said.
The CEO also hinted Monday that "there are a couple of surprises" coming as well regarding possible big name hosts in certain markets. Five to six personalities in all are thought to be close to signing deals with Infinity for the early-morning radio shifts in 2006.
"As far as I know, no one in the industry has ever replaced 27 morning shows at once," Hollander said regarding the scramble to replace Stern.
As for the man at the center of it all, he is apparently gearing up big-time in advance of his January debut of his new, uncensored Sirius show.
Per his official Website, Stern spent a portion of Tuesday's show talking about meetings he had with Sirius brass on Monday.
While the E! version of Stern's radio show is now in reruns, fans with digital cable will soon be able to see visual highlights of the daily show on various cable systems' In Demand pay-per-view networks. E! Networks' parent company Comcast will carry Stern's new show, as will Cox and Time Warner.
Stern On Demand will be executive produced by longtime supervising producer of the E! show (The Howard Stern Show), Doug Goodstein. 11 year veteran of the E! show, Scoot DePace, is also on board to direct the unpixelated one-hour daily edition. Fees are expected to be $10 a month for those who choose to subscribe to Stern On Demand in 2006.
E! will continue to air reruns of the pixelated version of the show, which has been airing since 1994, until the end of this year.
New versions of Stern's E! show stopped airing in June.
Searching for Stern Subs Difficult
by Charlie Amter
Sep 27, 2005, 3:30 PM PT
How many sex-crazed radio hosts will it take to replace Howard Stern? More than one, apparently.
Executives at Viacom-owned Infinity Broadcasting have deemed Stern "not replaceable" and are opting to try out multiple radio personalities in different soon-to-be former Stern markets, Daily Variety reports.
Among the likely candidates to try and woo Stern fans in the morning early next year when the iconic shock jock departs from traditional radio for Sirius Satellite radio, are Mancow Muller in his native Chicago and Loveline's Adam Carolla in Los Angeles.
Although no official announcement regarding new talent has been made by Infinity, CEO Joel Hollander said the company had "all the talent we are talking to under contract" at a advertising confab in New York Monday.
Instead of simply hiring one host to fill Stern's shoes, the company will instead try out several different personalities on-air in January, per reports.
While some reports have likened the strategy to a real life Survivor-esque tournament to replace Stern, a more apt analogy may be The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. CBS suits chose Ferguson to be the sole host of the late night yakfest earlier this year after auditioning a number of potential hosts, including D.L. Hughley and Michael Ian Black on-air when they were forced to replace Craig Kilborn after he chosenot to re-up his contract five years after he began hosting The Late Late Show.
Per reports, Infinity will evaluate the hosts over a two-year period before they reveal their final choices for long-term fill-in hosts, or host, should one candidate prove himself worthy of Stern-esque ratings.
While comedians and radio personalities of all stripes are no doubt lining up for the opportunity to score lucrative deals with Infinity now that airspace has opening up in crucial markets during the morning drive-time slot, snagging Stern's audience, or ratings, will be anything but easy.
"A lot of people think it's very easy to do, but [personalities such as Bill O'Reilly] will be the first to tell you it's not so easy," said Hollander, who appeared with O'Reilly at the conference Monday.
Indeed, at least one possible Stern replacement, Carolla, is learning the pitfalls of producing live, daily content as he is recently coming off one of his worst live performances Monday on his new nightly Comedy Central talk show, Too Late with Adam Carolla.
The funnyman was not so funny Monday as he was forced to fill air time and take live calls from fans who got digs in at the new host's expense after his scheduled guest, Jackass' Steve-O, did not work out.
Stern himself endorsed Carolla in July and the New York-born comedian has plenty of experience via his syndicated weekly radio show Loveline. Even so, filling four hours of airtime daily will prove challenging for even some of the biggest names in the rumor mill for Stern slots in cities nationwide.
Hollander revealed he had even tried to contact some unlikely Stern replacements prior to deciding on the multi-host model. "We went from Jon Stewart to Whoopi Goldberg and Geraldo Rivera...a lot of people thought it would be easy," Hollander said.
The CEO also hinted Monday that "there are a couple of surprises" coming as well regarding possible big name hosts in certain markets. Five to six personalities in all are thought to be close to signing deals with Infinity for the early-morning radio shifts in 2006.
"As far as I know, no one in the industry has ever replaced 27 morning shows at once," Hollander said regarding the scramble to replace Stern.
As for the man at the center of it all, he is apparently gearing up big-time in advance of his January debut of his new, uncensored Sirius show.
Per his official Website, Stern spent a portion of Tuesday's show talking about meetings he had with Sirius brass on Monday.
While the E! version of Stern's radio show is now in reruns, fans with digital cable will soon be able to see visual highlights of the daily show on various cable systems' In Demand pay-per-view networks. E! Networks' parent company Comcast will carry Stern's new show, as will Cox and Time Warner.
Stern On Demand will be executive produced by longtime supervising producer of the E! show (The Howard Stern Show), Doug Goodstein. 11 year veteran of the E! show, Scoot DePace, is also on board to direct the unpixelated one-hour daily edition. Fees are expected to be $10 a month for those who choose to subscribe to Stern On Demand in 2006.
E! will continue to air reruns of the pixelated version of the show, which has been airing since 1994, until the end of this year.
New versions of Stern's E! show stopped airing in June.