Why drop Bob Edwards?

I am completely mystified why SXM is dropping Bob Edwards. Wasn't he the main draw to SXMPR?

I sure hope they're not going to ruin morning drive with six more hours of Car Talk! Not only is it on for hours every day (M-F), they even run it at the same time that the NPR Talk channel does (and almost every NPR affiliate) at 10 AM ET Saturdays!

I will be very interested to see what in the world they plan to do without Bob Edwards, and interested to see where he goes next. Could he produce new shows for PRI? APM? At least give the man a weekly show, or let him do some new segments that could be mixed with old segments for Bob Edwards Weekend.

If SXM really doesn't want to pay much, I suppose they could turn the channel over to PRI or APM and let one of them program it.

An interesting idea would be to partner with Slate, who is producing an awful lot of NPR-type content in their podcast division these days. Maybe set something up where some Slate shows are live-to-air, or at least, heard first on XM, then available later that day (or the next day, etc) as a podcast?

I just think this is a really boneheaded decision by SXM. I may have to settle for CBC in the mornings.

jegrant said:

I am completely mystified why SXM is dropping Bob Edwards. Wasn't he the main draw to SXMPR?

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Keep in mind that SXM is under new ownership these days. What was done ten years ago no longer applies.

And recent moves have shown a clear shift toward more mainstream, lower-brow programming and, of course, branded celebrity content. Book Radio made way for Rural Radio. One of the three classical music channels was eliminated so that a 2000s country channel could move to the satellites. The Village (folk) was sent to the Internet two years ago. "Niche" and "culture" are dirty words to this regime.

Bob Edwards dropped: It's Deja Vu all over again.

jegrant said:

I am completely mystified why SXM is dropping Bob Edwards. Wasn't he the main draw to SXMPR?

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Could it be he wanted to retire?

If he was going to retire, wouldn't SXM have said as much? At least then it looks a lot better than SXM just dropping him with no statement and no explanation.

jegrant said:

If he was going to retire, wouldn't SXM have said as much? At least then it looks a lot better than SXM just dropping him with no statement and no explanation.

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He's retiring because they couldn't agree on a contract.

They are dropping him because they couldn't agree on a contract.

Pretty simple.

SiriusXM pays air talent to draw subscribers. Howard Stern gets big bucks because enough people pay to listen. How many people are going to pay to listen to "Bob Edwards?" Nice pipes. OK interviewer. Nothing unique. Morning Edition gets along just fine without him and you don't have to subscribe to anything to listen. And it was/is "Morning Edition" - not "The Bob Edwards Show." On satellite radio, Bob does not have the producers, editors, writers and contributors that NPR has - and they are the ones who make the show.

I wish SXM wasn't so damn 'cheap' and would focus on quality programming again, including a decent music program director for the 70's and 80's decades channels. The only thing SXM does right anymore in the music department is CH6 (60's on 6), CH69 (Escape - EZ), CH59 (Willie's classic country) and the off-the-wall Little Steven's Garage on Ch21. The don't have their XM niche channel "Fine Tuning" anymore, or Cinemagic. With the above 4 exceptions, SXM is turning into FM stations without the 7 minutes of commercials each hour.
I want my old XM back, circa 2004. Sirius has ruined the radio star known as XM.

They don't have much choice about being cheap. People aren't subscribing and they have over-paid big time for "names" - with or without radio experience and ability. Why pay for satellite radio with all those Internet radio channels out there?

The only good investment they made in hiring a "name" was Howard.

FredLeonard said:

They don't have much choice about being cheap. People aren't subscribing and they have over-paid big time for "names" - with or without radio experience and ability. Why pay for satellite radio with all those Internet radio channels out there?

The only good investment they made in hiring a "name" was Howard.

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They are STILL spending on "names." Joel Osteen, the televangelist, is getting his own channel. Jenny McCarthy has just been given a regular show. A channel will be devoted to Barbra Streisand for a limited run. It's all lowest-common-denominator stuff, though. There was quite an outcry over Edwards' ouster from ATC when it happened, and XM probably gained a few thousand subscribers in the immediate aftermath. But there was no follow-on effect, and after the Sirius takeover, I'm sure Edwards seemed like excess baggage to Sirius execs like Scott Greenstein, who are looking more for the Miley Cyruses and Kim Kardashians of the world, names that have generated "buzz" in mainstream media.

CTListener said:

They are STILL spending on "names." Joel Osteen, the televangelist, is getting his own channel. Jenny McCarthy has just been given a regular show. A channel will be devoted to Barbra Streisand for a limited run. It's all lowest-common-denominator stuff, though. There was quite an outcry over Edwards' ouster from ATC when it happened, and XM probably gained a few thousand subscribers in the immediate aftermath. But there was no follow-on effect, and after the Sirius takeover, I'm sure Edwards seemed like excess baggage to Sirius execs like Scott Greenstein, who are looking more for the Miley Cyruses and Kim Kardashians of the world, names that have generated "buzz" in mainstream media.

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They are not spending on Osteen; they are collecting. He's pay to play.

Jenny is hot and stupid. That makes her television material; not radio. If you can't see her, she's nothing. All you get on radio is her annoying voice and her idiotic anti-vaccination rants. She got fired from "The View" and she won't last on satellite radio. They probably aren't paying her much either.

What's interesting about Howard Stern is that I hate his SXM show, but on NBC-TV's America's Got Talent, he is actually a likeable decent guy. I think if he actually had a PG-rated show that he could really have an even larger audience, or have 'two versions' of him on SXM, PottyMouth100, and SmartyPants101 or something like that - but I doubt he wants to do that much work anymore.

Howard is 60. He's been doing his schtick for more than 35 years. He may be tired of doing the same act. He made it clear long ago that he was tired of hassles from the FCC and from radio managers. Don't expect him to go back to terrestrial radio. Do expect him to leave SiriusXM at the end of the current contract. Just like Bob.

Just saw they'll start a year of Best of Bob Edwards re-runs in a couple weeks.

While I'm not a Howard Stern fan I thought "Private Parts" was a good movie. In the early days it showed that his bits were clever and well thought out. I loved the bit with God doing the weather, some might disagree but I didn't find it offensive at all.

Having been in radio I could relate to bonehead program directors and I remember all the jocks doing wNNNNNbc.

I think after awhile he just started coasting. Just my opinion. He should retire, if he hasn't blown all his money he's sitting on a bigger pile of it than most of us will ever see.

I sense from your other posts that you'll understand this: Radio is a bug. It's a disease. If you've got it, the money doesn't matter. You do it because that's what you do. Like breathing.

I expect that Bob Edwards will write a book about his experiences and his interviews. That's what Noah Adams did. I seem to recall that Bob wrote a book about Red Barber. He's got a lot more characters like that in his arsenal.

TheBigA said:

I sense from your other posts that you'll understand this: Radio is a bug. It's a disease. If you've got it, the money doesn't matter. You do it because that's what you do. Like breathing.

I expect that Bob Edwards will write a book about his experiences and his interviews. That's what Noah Adams did. I seem to recall that Bob wrote a book about Red Barber. He's got a lot more characters like that in his arsenal.

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More like he'll hire a ghost writer.

With the Red Barber book he transcribed some of his radio interviews with Barber and dictated a little. He really didn't write anything. He's a newsreader passing himself off as a "journalist." No more, no less.

Funny that OP can't start his mornings without Bob when there really isn't much difference between Bob and Steve, except Steve is still free.

DavidEduardo said:

I really doubt that Osteen is paying for a Sirius/XM channel.

Osteen has a greater following than many of the high-paid personalities on satellite, so it makes sense to offer a channel with that content.

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Satellite radio's broken window, or boarded up store front. Religious radio is the first nail in the coffin as satellite radio becomes like the AM band with preachers taking over.