Your commute may go Stern-free

For 12 million radio listeners, their terrestrial radio experience may be Howard Stern-free next week, or Stern may just spin music like he has threatened to do in the past. In a move that to me is Viacom's way of firing Stern without having to pay him his last year, they signed an agreement with the way-too-powerful FCC to fire Stern if at anytime the FCC deems him obscene, profane or indecent. But the only indecent act in all of this is how the FCC conducts itself, using a "moving" list of what they consider profane. What is bad for some is OK for others. There is no way to predict it, and therefore Stern would be doing the "smart" thing by getting on the radio January 3rd and play nothing but music. Sirius, which subscribers just hit the 1.1 million mark, has expressed interest in bringing over Stern earlier than their January '06 plan. We will just have to tune in on Monday to see what Stern will do, which is exactly what he wants.