Magic Numbers

July 25, 2005

Howard opened this morning reading in the local papers about the New York area ratings that had just come out. Of course, the thing that initially caught his eye was the fact that he was number one, again.

However, the most amazing thing he read in this article was that Imus was number 7. Imus hadn’t been in the top 10 in a few years so this really was news. At least until Howard noticed who the other shows mentioned in this article were, i.e. Curtis and Kuby and reality TV show chef, Rocco Despirito. Apparently, this writer had pulled only the talk shows out of the ratings book and then ranked them. So Imus’ 7 ranking was more likely a 20 when you put back all the other, non-talk radio shows this writer neglected. Howard said this NY Post radio reporter always seems to have it in for Howard and never really writes very nice things about him. Howard thought he might want to report on radio when he finally leaves the air so he can be the one guy who actually reports accurately. This led to a discussion of the rumors that Infinity wanted to replace him starting this coming September. Howard had reported hearing these rumors too, but has since learned that these rumors were not true – unfortunately. He said he was originally planning to take a nice 3 month vacation, until he realized that everyone who worked for him would not be getting paid for 3 months and that bothered him. He also noted that the people at SIRIUS had told him they wanted him to start broadcasting there the day after he left the terrestrial airwaves should Infinity cut him off early. Howard said he was worried about everyone but Fred, who had grown up in the woods and probably knows how to boil and eat humans – so he’ll survive.