If there’s one piece of truly good news coming out of the pending merger between XM and Sirius satellite radio, it’s the spreading of Howard Stern’s wise word. The official King of Shock Jock radio – known for his stripper interviews and “smallest wiener” contests – is now asking U.S. pop TV fans to help throw American Idol. How? By reaping as many votes as humanly possible for Sanjaya Malakar, a contestant with as much talent as his hairdresser.
Surprisingly, Vote for the Worst.com is hardly new. The website boasts that it has existed since 2004, encouraging Idol viewers to (further) corrupt the Cingular wireless voting process by flooding the provider with ballots for the least gifted contestant.
Despite its history, Vote for the Worst has never had the support of someone with as much sway as Howard Stern. It’s also never found an Idol – this late in the game – quite as untalented as Malakar, who has on a few occasions belted out embarrassingly bad renditions of Stevie Wonder tunes.
Lost amongst the hype over Malakar, Idol, and Vote for the Worst is the mainstream attention being brought to Stern. That’s especially good for satellite radio, battling through a flurry of scrutiny as XM and Sirius struggle to gain approval for their desperate joining.
There’s no doubt Stern knew what he was doing for his show by tapping into Idol’s pop power. However, he may not have been aware of the positive impact such a campaign could have on his despairing and unique medium.
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