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Posts Tagged ‘Howard Stern’
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Kanye West is a disgusting scumbag. Someone needs to take this out of control lunatic and tell him that no one gives a shit about him or his arrogance, stupidity, or racism (remember his ridiculous remark about President Bush a few years ago? See below). The fact that an incredibly ignorant piece of garbage like West can even become a celebrity in America is a sad and pathetic commentary on what our culture pushes to the mainstream.
When this jerk blurted out a few years ago that President George W. Bush didn’t care about black people, all networks should have immediately banned him from their cameras until he issued a heartfelt apology. That ban never happened. Further, you would think that the mass media and the masses of America would take a statement like that and immediately realize that the person who said it was a complete moron and someone to be shunned. That never happened either.
Then a few years ago West ranted and raved about how MTV was holding down black artists and that he shouldn’t have any competition at the awards show because he was above the rest. I thought that at that point in his ignorant history, people would have begun putting the pieces together and realized that this man is nothing more than an uneducated scumbag who thrives off of making race a divisive issue. Frankly, these two incidents prove that the man is an ignorant racist. And while this incident highlighted his love of using race in a negative way, last night he managed to put the exclamation point on his stupidity.
Here was Taylor Swift – a young woman who was excited to win her VMA and who had never done anything negative to West or anyone else in his world. She wins her award and that scumbag jumps on stage and rants about how Beyonce should have won the award? Are you serious? Who gives a shit about what this asshole thinks anyway? You know that South Park episode where they make fun of West because he doesn’t get the “gay fish” joke? The point of that episode was that West goes around acting like everything that anybody says deals directly with him and that he has a right to insert himself into any dialogue. Well, the world has news for West – sit down and shut the fuck up because no one cares about you!
On the other hand, Beyonce is a saint. If anyone’s night was ruined more than Swift’s, it was Beyonce’s. She wins the biggest award of the night and she graciously gives her time to Swift so she can finish her acceptance speech. What a great thing to do?
MTV (and all networks) should ban West. If Howard Stern can be banned from MTV for showing his bare buttocks, then what else does a moron like West have to do to be banned from that network? The man is a joke.
Posted in Entertainment, Idiots, Morons, & Fools | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Some of the most fun that I have with this blog is tracking where the visitors come from; especially when they are coming from a search engine. Yesterday, Sirius XM ’s Howard Stern and his crew took the day off (it was Labor Day – we all had the day off). Well, he takes a day off and what do I get on this blog? That’s right – a bunch of hits from people who are Googling the “Howard Stern Vacation Schedule.”
Ha ha! I love it! Talk about having some impact on the internet!
As for the topic itself, no Howard Stern is not on vacation this week. Granted, I can understand why some fans feel the need to have the internet confirm this for them – I mean the man and his crew seem to take off every other week. Show producer Gary Dell’Abate claims that the crew gets 10 weeks of vacation every year. I don’t know about that – it certainly seems like they take off a great deal more time than that each year, especially when you consider that they get off every Friday and holidays in addition to those 10 weeks.
I think that it’s for reasons like this that Sirius XM subscribers and Howard Stern fans get frustrated when Stern talks about how he’s exhausted and he wants to hang it up when his contract is up. Sure, as a stockholder I want to see Howard stick around because I think it helps the brand. However, as a fan of the show I don’t want to hear about how this guy is tired and exhausted all of the time. He is on air at most for 20 hours each week (not including commercial and not-live-content breaks). Some folks out there do that much work in 2 days. Stern and the on-air talent do it in 4. That’s not a bad gig.
Anyway, the point of the post is that while Howard and his team go on vacation way too much as it is, they are not on vacation this week. Labor Day seems to have fooled some people.
Posted in Entertainment | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Sure, the Dow Jones may not be back above five figures yet, but anyone who decided to invest in those stocks that everyone used to criticize like Ford, Sirius XM, and Bank of America…well, let’s say that we’re doing pretty good right now!
Sirius XM closed around 68 cents today. So…for those of us who bought it at 11 cents, that’s not a bad gain, huh? 
One of my roommates and I are somewhat “new” to the investing game and while other people are talking about how bad they are losing money, we’re both up over 100% in our portfolios. In fact, as of today my stock portfolio is up over 150%. I think the reason why we’re up so much is – first and foremost – that we bought when the market was low and everyone thought that the world was going to end. When people are dropping the value of stocks based on fear and paranoia, you have to jump in and buy.
However, I think that one of the reasons why we’re both doing so well is that we’re purchasing stocks with which whose products we are familiar with on a personal level. For example, I invest in Sirius XM because I know that they have a quality product (unless you’re one of these people who have the service for Howard Stern alone, then you might be annoyed at the 10 weeks of vacation that he takes every year). But when it comes to commercial-free music and something to listen to during the work day, no one can deny that Sirius XM is a great product.
Anyway, the reason for writing this post is to tell the everyday people out there that they can invest in the stock market and find success.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Just when you thought the man couldn’t work any less…Howard Stern is on vacation again! This vacation started last week and will last through the end of this week. I understand that he has these types of vacation breaks written into his contract and I think that it’s great for him and his crew.
Sometimes, though, I have to question the wisdom of the powers that be at Sirius XM of allowing him to take the vacation breaks. The case that I have in my mind is from the winter months (might have been December) when XM subscribers were given a free preview of the Howard Stern channels for a week. I thought that was a great promotion, except that the Stern crew was on vacation that week! Good grief!
Anyway, since I’ve been getting a lot of traffic on the blog in the last few days from people Googling what the deal is, I thought I’d add this entry. Howard Stern is on vacation, again, and I believe that he’ll be back on the radio live next Monday morning.
Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Earlier today I was listening to the “Best of the Week” of Howard Stern on Sirius XM. One of the segments that they had on the show was when rapper Flo Rida stopped into the studio earlier this week to perform his new single, “Right Round.” I’m not hating on a man trying to make it big, but this guy has got to be the worst live performer in the history of entertainment!
At some point last year this guy was on the Stern show singing his other hit song, “Low.” He was so horrible in that performance that I figured he would be both laughed off of the show and pretty much lose his rapping career. Not so! I guess that with the amount of electronically-stylized music that is out in the market today the masses don’t really care about entertainers who can’t really perform live.
It’s definitely a weird change for the music market where, at one point, you actually had to be able to sing and carry a performance on your own. Today, all you need is a sound mixer and you’re good to go! Weird.
All I know is that if you listen to Flo Rida’s live renditions of “Low” and “Right Round” from the Howard Stern show, you’ll think this guy is the biggest scam artists on the face of the earth…or at least in the music industry!
Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
One of my frequent readers sent me an article earlier in the week that talked about the Sirius XM /Liberty Media deal that saved the fledgling satellite radio company from bankruptcy. As a shareholder in the company, believe me when I say that I was watching the newswire with baited breath on Monday night/Tuesday morning waiting for news of an announcement heralding Sirius XM being saved from the financial woes – and after a long while, that news finally came.
As the article linked above puts it:
The money-losing home of Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony and the NFL got a $530 million investment from John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. that will keep Sirius XM out of bankruptcy. Shares of the New York-based company are soaring.
Malone is demanding a steep price in exchange for bailing out Sirius XM. Liberty will provide a senior secured loan of $280 million which matures in 2012 at an interest rate of 15 percent. Sirius XM, though, may have had little choice but to accept such a high interest rate because it had $171.6 million of its maturing 2 1/2 percent notes due Feb 17. Even with today’s huge run up, Sirius shares are down more than 94 percent over the past year.
In the second phase of the investment, Liberty will provide a $150 million loan and to buy $100 million in loans issued to XM Satellite Radio. The company will then issue Liberty 12.5 million shares of preferred stock which is convertible into 40 percent of the common equity. Malone and Liberty CEO Greg Maffei will join the board of the satellite radio company.
I take issue with the article’s use of “money-losing” as an adjective to describe Sirius XM. If you look at the figures, Sirius was on the brink of making money before it acquired XM and their unbelievable debt load. At this point, though, that doesn’t mean much since there is only one company – Sirius XM.
Since the deal was finalized, many online media sources have commented on it with varying levels of support (or contention). The New York Times’ DealBook blog, for example, looked at the Form 8-K filed for the transaction and proceeded to tear into the particulars of the deal (which are admittedly not the greatest). After the Times posted their review of the 8-K, stock prices for the company began to sink. In terms of real dollars (cents?), the stock price was at 18 cents before the Times posted their review. The stock price is now at 12 cents.
For months I’ve been harping about how Sirius XM is a great niche product for those who have extra long commutes and those who want special content like Howard Stern. The company is also poised for success in the long-term as it has some 20 million subscribers paying generally $13 per month for their service. That’s approximately $260 million per month; over $3 billion per year. Of course there are costs that have to be deducted from that $3 billion figure each year, but over time that built-in revenue base is a gold mine.
I have to wonder, though, if Sirius XM will be able to succeed in the long run with the way the internet media continues to lambaste and destroy it. The Motley Fool has it out for the company and it would appear that the would revel in its failure. And with the way the New York Times’ DealBook blog is listened to by investors, you have to wonder how many more negative reports the company can withstand in the current market.
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology, Entertainment, Money, Jobs, & Finances | 11 Comments »
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