According to Mike he has 1 million listeners, but I dont know how that number is calculated
If I had to guess Sirius probably sends out subscriber surveys (although I've never received one).
Satellite radio is not national radio. As much as I love it, it has a small listenership. I'd love for Premiere to pick him up and syndicate him.
Love Mike and Jack. Wish they had a better vehicle.
I'm not hating. Just saying it's NOT national radio. It's a step above podcast. No offense but some local stations in major markets have more listeners. It's a victory when they are on regular radio.
I have mixed emotions about this. First off I am a professional talk radio producer in Nashville prodcuing both local and nationally syndicated shows nationwide at the two largest talk stations in the region. I therefore tend to have a bit of an insider perspective on this. Much of what I say below however is pure speculation based upon reality as I see it.
I do a lot of traveling and when I do I love having the portability of satellite radio. I can get the same thing wherever I'm at, it's great. I'm not stuck to just my MP3 library inside the car. The downside is that its more money to listen to it when I am NOT in the car because I either have to buy another receiver with another activation (ugh), OR I have to pay more to stream it on the web. The honest truth is that I capture it for timeshifting purposes daily and can listen to Mike's show anytime I please. Mike's clock/format is much better in my opinion too, only having 1 break per hour for the most part. This does make it easy for him to get things explained better.
The downside is that his audience is limited, very limited. I know thousands of people in the liberty movement, and very few of them actually know who Mike is. It's pretty sad and unfortunate because he is the best voice we have doing a daily talk show on national issues. Brian & The Judge (which competes with Mike) can't hold a candle to Mike's show. Brian the neocon tends to have the Judge tied to a bit of a leash and he can't go out of the box too much it seems. Brian and the Judge vs Mike Church, Mike Church wins each and every time. Now if FreedomWatch vs Mike Church were to go head to head, that would be a very tough choice. :o
I don't want to give out too much insider insight, but it probably doesn't make sense for Mike to try to go terrestrial. I am betting that he makes quite a pretty penny on Sirius (if they really have 20million subscribers the company grosses $240 million/month).
If you have not read their corporate report from 2009 you should - it's fascinating!
http://investor.sirius.com/annuals.cfm
Our business might never become profitable. As of December 31, 2009, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $10.2 billion. We expect our cumulative
net losses to grow as we make payments under various contracts, incur marketing and subscriber acquisition costs and make interest payments on existing debt. As of December 31, 2009, we had total debt of approximately $3.1 billion. If we are unable ultimately to consistently generate sufficient revenues to become profitable, we may not be able to make the required payments on our indebtedness and could ultimately default on our commitments.
"SIRIUS and XM compete with traditional AM/FM radio. Many traditional radio companies are substantial entities owning large numbers of radio stations or other media properties. The radio broadcasting industry is highly competitive. Unlike satellite radio, traditional AM/FM radio has had a well established demand for its services and offers free broadcasts paid for by commercial advertising rather than by a subscription fee. Many radio stations offer information programming of a local nature, such as local news and sports. By attracting listeners to their stations, traditional AM/FM radio reduces the likelihood that customers would be willing to pay for our subscription services and by offering free broadcasts they impose limits on what we can charge for our services. Some AM/FM radio stations have reduced the number of commercials per hour, expanded the range of music played on the air and experimented with new formats in order to lure customers away from satellite radio. "
Internet radio broadcasts have no geographic limitations and can provide listeners with radio programming from around the country and the world. Major media companies and online-only providers, including Clear Channel, CBS, and Pandora, make high fidelity digital streams available through the Internet for free or, in some cases, for a fraction of the cost of a satellite radio subscription. In addition, there has been wide proliferation of mobile Internet enabled smartphones, many of which have the capability of interfacing with vehicles. These smartphones can typically play recorded or cached content and access live Internet radio via browsers or dedicated applications. Internet based radio products have also been announced for vehicles, although their adoption is currently nascent. The past few years have seen a steady increase in the audio quality of Internet radio streams and in the amount of audio content available via the Web, resulting in a steady increase in Internet radio audience metrics. We expect that improvements from higher bandwidths and wider programming selection are likely to continue making Internet radio an increasingly significant competitor in the near future. These services already compete directly with SIRIUS’ and XM’s Internet offerings and with our home line of products through the use of home stereo media adapters, media-centric PCs, and specialized IP-based audio consoles.
The Apple iPod ® is a portable digital music player that allows users to download and purchase music through Apple’s iTunes ® Music Store, as well as convert music on compact disc to digital files. iPods ® are compatible with certain car stereos and various home speaker systems, and certain automakers have entered into arrangements with manufacturers of portable media players that are expected to enhance this compatibility. Availability of music in the public MP3 audio standard has been growing in recent years with sound files available on the websites of online music retailers, artists and record labels and through numerous file sharing software programs. In addition, many emerging artists give away their music for free via blogs and other websites in order to increase live event ticket sales, which are often more profitable to emerging artists than music sales. These MP3 files can be played instantly, burned to a compact disc or stored in various portable players available to consumers. Internetbased audio formats are becoming increasingly competitive as quality improves and costs are reduced. In addition, many current generation portable audio devices, such as the iPod touch, also contain WiFi connections enabling direct Internet connections for purchasing additional music or streaming music that is not stored on the local device.
So the question is whether satellite radio is the Titanic or not? I happily pay the $12/month to keep the service even though I could get it for free if I wanted to. One of the biggest reasons I don't in fact pirate it is because I want to reward them with my money for making Mike one of their hosts. It's ashame because satellite radio has so much potential.
If Mike were to make the jump to someone like Premiere or TRN or WW1 who could syndicate him nationally, then he might be making less money, but could possibly reach a wide audience. And the benefit would be that he would probably be able to podcast his entire show every day for those who don't live in an area where he is received. Now I am willing to bet that he is
prohibited from podcasting because of an exclusivity agreement with Sirius. If he were to be able to get into a position to get a modified contract where he could also seek syndication over terrestrial while on Sirius (that would suck considering the format/clock would have to change) it could be beneficial because it would give him the best of both worlds.
Would someone like Premiere or WWI or TRN pick him up? I dunno. I don't work on that end of things to be honest, but I know that they are putting their money in several different places at the moment maybe even unsuccessfully. Neal Boortz will be retiring one of these days and that could leave an opening. I'm willing to bet that Rush and Savage will be hitting the hay too in the next few years. That will allow either musical chairs to be played with proven talent, or the syndication companies will try to develop talent. It remains to be seen. So far however talent development of people like Fred and Dennis leaves a lot to be desired.
What would it take to get Mike on terrestrial? Well again he would probably either have to quit or modify his existing contract with Sirius. And then he'd have to get an offer from a terrestrial syndication company. A deal is struck by having ratings (Mike doesn't have because there are no ratings on satellite radio) or by having clout. Mike's position as being the longest running host on satellite radio might be able to buy him some clout, but again I don't know how that end of the biz works completely. I think Mike has a great deal of potential as a syndicated host and that TRN/PRN/WW1 should all be bidding on him because he is a safe bet but I am biased for obvious reasons.
I will say that I have
NEVER seen a talk show host work harder on all of the ancillary activities and be as active with his audience as Mike is. Mike I believe is probably the hardest working host out there and it shows. Look at his website. Look at all of his parodies. Look at what he does to help promote the ideals. And also I believe the fundamental difference between Mike and everyone else is that Mike isn't just an entertainer.
Remember the only goal of any talk show host is to keep you listening long enough to stay listening though the commercials. Mike does this, but he also goes beyond and makes the topics educational and believes what he says. Most hosts tend to be inconsistent because their goal is entertainment, not leading an enlightenment as Mike is doing. When one listens to his show one actually learns something. When I do listen I learn something every day, guaranteed. Mike actually cares about what he is saying and he says it in an entertaining way which is highly unusual for a professional host.
Mike does not try to dumb down his show to the lowest common denominator or attempt to have broad-based widespread mainstream appeal. In fact if I had to guess I would say that his show actually has quite narrow appeal (I feel like he is singing to the choir every time I tune in - and I love it!) because of the topics of discussion. Yeah he does his fair share of liberal/Democrat bashing but he also spends a great deal of time bashing faux-conservatives or people he calls "Decpticons" otherwise known as neocons or RINOs etc. So he stands out from other hosts because he doesn't drink the Party cool-aid and is not "a part of the talk radio mafia" as he calls it. A lot of talk shows will try and widen their topic base as much as possible as to keep the most people listening for as long as possible. It's the music radio mindset of giving everyone in the audience something they care about often enough that they don't change the channel. That's why much modern music, and even talk radio, tends to be so bland. But what do I know?
Anyway, I try to promote Mike as much as possible because he is more than deserving of it. Yes I said it, I'm Matt Collins, and I endorse Mike Church [and Jack Hunter too!]
