Yahoo's Buzz Index, a meter to show the percentage of searches made on a day, shows that Howard's impact on web searches is still running strong. Citing spikes in searches for peeps like George Takei, Rachel Hunter, Adrianne Curry, Shawn King, Roy Simmons, Alexis Stewart (Martha's daughter - who had by far the biggest spike in with a buzz increase of 5,739%) and of course Bubba The Love Spong - the "Stern effect" still applies for the web.

Sorta.

One thing that I really should point out is that searches for these people aren't necessarily huge to begin with. So it's easy to throw off the Buzz Meter from that standpoint. Still, trying not to be a cynical ass, it's cool to see this kind of stuff in action.

[The Buzz Log] 

BoA analyst Jonathan Jacoby has done some recalcuations from his previous estimates, that now reporting that SIRIUS will need 2.4 million subscribers (up 900,000 from 1.5 million) to break-even with the signing of Howard Stern. Instead of $500M, he says that SIRIUS needs to make up $679M estimated to payout to Stern.

Here's where his math comes from: Take the $400M of cash payments + $279M of equity compensation. Jacoby says the latter figure includes the $218 million already given to Stern, along with “incremental equity” the analyst expects Stern to get by exceeding subscriber targets this year, too.

"To reach break-even on Stern, we estimate Sirius requires 2.4 million incremental subscriptions," Jacoby wrote in a recent report. “While it is somewhat complex to estimate the exact number of incremental subscribers that signed up only because of Stern, we estimate [500,000] incremental ‘Stern’ net adds in 2005.”

Also of note, according to Jacoby, recent checks indicate that the early 2006 Sirius retail surge is now starting to fall off despite the continuation of hardware price discounting.

[Billboard Radio Monitor]
[Forbes]

Both XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio are featuring special programming for the 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 8th, 2006. SIRIUS will be broadcasting special music and commentary programs that will highlight all the excitement and drama of the music industry's biggest night. Their Top 40 hits channel SIRIUS Hits 1 and The Pulse, which features the best music of the '90s and now, will be the home base for their GRAMMY programs on SIRIUS with preview features, live updates on the GRAMMYs and much more.

XM Satellite Radio, the "official" satellite radio partner of the GRAMMY Awards, will be dedicating XM Live 200 to the GRAMMYs completely and will be entitling it GRAMMY Radio. GRAMMY Radio, with exclusive pre-show coverage of GRAMMY Week events, begining on February 6th, and bringing you inside never-before heard events with some of the biggest names in music. On February 7th, you'll get live coverage of the exclusive Clive Davis party as well as a ton of other exclusive programming throughout the week.

In a scathing article, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield pulls no punches in his review of Howard Stern's new show on Sirius. The title and tagline of the article says it all: Howard's End - Stern's show puts the "um" in "tedium" - OUCH! The thought behind the whole article is that now that Howard has no enemies - no censors, no FCC, no Clear Channel - he also has no substance anymore either.

"He sounds like he no longer has to deal with anybody who doesn't kiss his ass, and as a result he sounds like a bored, gloomy fifty-two-year-old man."

The most painful part to read was this: 

"Howard spends most of the mornings talking about how famous he is, how loyal his listeners are, how many millions of people are running out to buy Sirius radios, while his studio monkey-boys crowd around the mike to say, "Right on, Howard. You still the king." Fans call in to remind him he's still got it. [...] If you thought his sidekicks were useless suck-ups before, get a load of them now. Robin compares him to Martin Luther King Jr. Artie says the main reason he wishes his father were still alive is so he could hear him on The Howard Stern Show. "We're making history," he gushes. And this was the first seven days. By next month, Howard will only be able to keep himself awake ordering the staff to do tag-team ass-to-ass action."

What's your opinion on this? Has Stern lost his edge? Is it a little too early to go judging yet? Were expectations set too high from all the hype?Read the article and sound off here.

[Rolling Stone] 

Lance Armstrong will welcome funny-guy Will Ferrell as his special guest this Sunday (January 29th).

And, back by popular demand, Lance will play a brand-new duet by the lovely Sheryl Crow and the not-so-lovely Sting, entitled "Always On Your Side," which Lance fetaured last week on his SIRIUS radio show. Check it out this Sunday @ 9pm ET on... where else... SIRIUS Faction channel 28.

What is this "Faction Day" today or something?

Hey check it out, if you go to sirius.com, you'll notice a new button at the bottom of the page called "Ask Bode Anything" - that's of course referring to Olympic skier Bode Miller, the first American skier to win the World Cup title in 22 years.

Bode Miller will post his answers to selected questions on SIRIUS' website, and some might be featured on his weekly SIRIUS Satellite Radio program (heard on Thursdays at 7pm ET) on SIRIUS Faction channel 28.

SIRIUS Radio's action sports & music lifestyle channel, Faction, will provide four full days of coverage of the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. Get the latest stats and scores, breaking news, exclusive interviews with athletes, and the inside scoop on what happens after the boots come off starting this Saturday, January 28th.

Former Olympian ski racer and Faction reporter Carrie Sheinberg will provide an insider's perspective on the competition, and Faction X Games analyst Michael Tully will be mountainside with up-to-the-minute reports.  After dark, Faction host Bryan Cullen will recap the day's events, and report on the Winter X Games' nightlife around Aspen.

Good stuff!