There are two things that I will never pay for:

1. radio programming
2. sex

Remember way back when and people were scoffing at the idea that people would pay to watch TV?

If I were on the road just a little bit more often (or if there was just a bit more static in the NPR reception in my apartment) I'd be all over satellite.

MY views on Howard are about the same as Alex's. When he wants to, he can be really funny, even inciteful. But far too often he goes for the lame cheap banal laugh. He even manages to ruin the good salacious fun that goes on in his studio by being a crude moron the whole time. So I gave up trying to listen to him long ago.

I do, in a way, pay for radio programming. I support KCRW.

As for sex, I usually pay for it afterward. Days or weeks afterward. ;)

I know he can be crude and rude and it does seem that after the FCC started cracking down he did push as far as he could go.

I suspect I'm more irritated at the fact that out of nowhere the FCC decided to start fining people and shows left and right for what was acceptable in the distant & not so distant past and it's just gotten out of control.

And now if I want to listen to Howard Stern I have to pay for it. Thanks government.

Don't blame the government - blame the greed of Howard Stern. He knew what he was doing, he knew the rules.

And this is definitely NOT "out of nowhere." Howard has been at odds with the FCC for years.

And the level of crude behavior has been getting worse over the years. The FCC finally had to put a stop to the decline.

It's sort of like when you are driving. If everybody keeps their speed to 65 (assuming a freeway with a 65 MPH limit), then there are no problems. Usually, you can go 70 without too much concern; the law will usually just look the other way (but it is still breaking the law). Then people start pushing it to 75 and it is "iffy". When the whole freeway starts doing 80, there is a problem and the CHP will start cracking down on speed laws. Sure there are people who regularly drive 85 and are surprised when they get a ticket because "they've always driven that fast." Just because you've been able to do it so much in the past doesn't mean that it was wrong!

Howard insisted on going a 110 all the time.

And I admit that my driving analogy isn't the best: speed is something that is measurable and definable. Decency on the airwaves is a little more nebulous.

My views -

Howard followed the money. He's always been a shrewd person and knew a good thing when he saw it. More power to him!

Every day and in every way, the FCC totally sucks ass.

I hope satellite radio doesn't go the way of basic cable TV. These days we're paying for censored shows littered with commercials. What a joke.

I don't think pay radio is the way for me just yet - NPR plus my iPod is just fine.

I think decency is over rated

I think decency is treating others well, not hushing up those bad ole cuss words.

I'm seriously considering....oh, geez, that's gonna look weird. Seriously considering getting Sirius. Well, that's the way the sentence crumbles.

(added) and it's not just for Stern, whom I can't hear in Hawaii anyway. Clear Channel's got their hooks in most of the public stations. They're very right-wing. They shut down the rock station here and changed it to The Fish. Yeah, I'm ready to pay for radio, and it just became available here.

How about parents who would prefer to keep their children from hearing rubbish like what is heard on Stern, Opus and Andy, et. al.? The point is that airwaves radio is, for the most part, not controllable by the parent (as far as keeping it from getting to the children), whereas a pay option (such as Sirius, XM, cable TV and satellite) is more readily parentally controllable.

There has to be a threshold of what is acceptable to be put out on the airwaves and on the Superbowl halftime show. That threshold has been long passed.