Thursday, October 07, 2004

Controversial radio host Howard Stern, who built his career in good part by pushing raunchy content, signed a five-year, $500 million deal to leap from conventional airwaves to satellite radio -- a potentially huge boost for the nascent, and unregulated, medium.

Mr. Stern, an iconic radio figure and one of the nation's most popular radio hosts, plans a 2006 defection to tiny Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. after his contract with Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting ends in 15 months.

His show, currently heard by more than 10 million listeners in 45 markets, will shift from free over-the-air broadcasts to the Sirius service, through which users pay a monthly fee for broadcasts delivered by satellite.

The company is betting that Mr. Stern, who is hugely popular with technology-friendly males between the ages of 18 and 49, will generate both new subscribers and advertisers, elevating its status and carrying satellite from the fringe to the mainstream. Sirius said it will recoup its costs if Mr. Stern generates an additional one million subscribers -- or nearly twice its current subscriber base of 600,000.