CBS versus Sirius. Old media against new. Anyway you bill it, the $500 million lawsuit CBS dropped on shock jock host Howard Stern is already shaping up to be the media world's catfight of the century.
The suit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, focuses on a clause in Mr. Stern's Sirius contract that said he and Mr. Buchwald (his agent) would receive a bonus dose of Sirius stock shares if they helped drive a pre-set number of subscribers to the satellite radio company. Basically, Mr. Stern spent countless mornings talking about his new gig on Sirius radio while still broadcasting on CBS, even though CBS had forbid him from uttering the word Sirius on-air. During his rants, he replaced Sirius with the phrase "uh-uh." What a clever guy. . .
Why Stern is Unique
Because of Stern's image, this lawsuit plays in to his whole persona. For many celebrities a lawsuit like this might tarnish their image and/or career, but this is not the case for Stern. Any publicity he receives from this fiasco serves as another strength element in his own PR campaign. Unfortunately for Sirius, its stock closed Feb. 28 at $5.11 after dropping 2%. Of course what's more glaring is its down 36% from a high of $7.98 on Dec. 12 -- four days before Stern exited CBS. Hum, maybe all of Stern's plugs for Sirius over the CBS radio waves did help. . .
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