Howard Stern's Legacy, plus why Todd Cochrane is right and James Cridland is right

Video Podcasting? Be careful out there. Plus, this week's listening recommendations.

Following yesterday’s Podcasting Predictions for 2025, I figured I had better write about Podcasting Podcasts today for What I’m Listening To Wednesday.

But first, let me refer you to Chris Peterson’s predictions which had a few interesting notes:

A discussion of Howard Stern retiring. I have long believed that Howard will take a Two Year Victory Lap, influenced by how Johnny Carson did one last lap for a year. I could see Howard wanting his retirement to be the biggest deal of all time, so why not drag it out for two years and get as many A-listers as he can to come and kiss the ring. All this as part of Howard’s attempted evolution for his legacy to be The Great Interviewer. Sorry H, I don’t think you can outrun the first 30 years of Sybians, “the Homo Room” and some racial humor.

To be fair to Howard, he has said, “I cringe when I look at myself 30 or 40 years ago, and that was 27 years ago, I go, I can’t stand it. Am I a bad guy? I don’t think so.” Fair enough, people change, grow, age, evolve, I don’t at all think he’s a bad guy, and I am not going to sit here and tell you I didn’t laugh at many of those bits - I have even written how I Want The Old Howard Stern Back - but the idea that the Legacy is Howard Is The Great Interviewer ain’t gonna happen.

As someone who has been teaching at colleges for over a decade now, one thing that the move to satellite radio did, is it took Howard out of the mainstream. I have yet to meet a college student, some in their 30s now, who cared about Howard. He’s for us people from the 20th Century. A once-in-TWO-generations Hall of Famer, who MADE Satellite Radio, who also maybe perhaps possibly has stayed on stage a few minutes too long. (Johnny Carson knew when to go, and left us with no memories of “old Johnny.”) Anyway, I predict a two year celebration of his career, and a lot of SXM senior management retiring when Howard does - check their ages.

Jackie The Jokeman Martling came on Daily Comedy News a year ago and we talked about Peak Howard.

The other thing from Peterson’s piece is this quote:

I’ve heard directly from several CEOs that Spotify’s recent video announcement has made them less likely to upload content to the platform, at least for the time being.

On to What I’m Listening To This Week. It was a lot of Podcasts About Podcasting as I had fallen behind over Thanksgiving, so two New Media Shows, Two Podnews Weekly Reviews, one Curry….and then some Star Trek.

Todd Cochrane, on the New Media Show, had a lot to say about video, and all I can say is PREACH!!!! Todd is right. Please listen to the episode below and know that Todd is right, Todd is right, Todd is right.

I linked to this one yesterday, but listen to what James Cridland has to say about video on The Media Roundtable. James is right. PREACH!!!

Over the weekend I wrote about my love of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. One of the Inglorious Treksperts is Daren Dochterman who oversaw the recent masterpiece Director’s Edition (which I re-watched on Saturday night). Daren also does a really good Gene Roddenberry impression, and broke that out to read from the novelization of TMP. Daren also does a pretty good Older Nimoy, and passable Shatner-Kirk, Sulu, Scotty and McCoy to bring this thing to life.

James Cridland mentioned The Accidental Tech Podcast which I grabbed to hear a discussion of the Apple Podcasts App, but I wound up even more interested in the discussion of eyeglasses/bifocals/progressive lenses. I am looking at how giant the fonts are on my laptop here as I write this. Command +++

Man my phone is starting to fill up again. I gotta go listen to things, including this Steven Wright interview.

Please feel encouraged to comment on ay of this, either on LinkedIn or in the comments of teh Substack App. A restack is always appreciated, and until next time, no matter how many times I proofread, there’s still a typo.

Thanks!