KING OF ALL BICOASTAL MEDIA: Jeff Jarvis has the Howard Stern appreciation comments:

There's all this hubbub right now about David Letterman going or not going to ABC from CBS for $20 or $30 million, depending on whom you believe (Howard says he'll stay at CBS and he leaked the ABC story to put them in a bind). I like Dave.
But Howard is bigger than Dave. He captivates America -- mostly male America -- every morning. I first discovered him when I watched his show for TV Guide and I was surprised how much I liked him. I wrote then that contrary to what you'd think, Howard is best taken in large doses. He's a taste you acquire quickly. So I started listening to him. I quoted him to my friends in the office after my morning commute. They all started listening to him. We all listen to him. Howard is a media virus. He spreads.
Howard should be making at least what Dave and Jay make; he should be in every market; he is bigger than his competitors or detractors want to admit.

I dunno --can he be in every market? You look South and you get nothing, Stern-wise; advertisers won't buy his time and maybe Southerners just prefer other people. Stern, like Rush Limbaugh (another guy who is bigger than his competitors or detractors would like to admit), should not be dismissed out of hand. He's really funny sometimes, but the criticism Harvey Pekar had for David Letterman can be applied to Stern as well: a smart guy who puts some real morons on the air. Of course Letterman has to take his morons winkingly serious, while Stern mostly makes fun of his morons, but there you go.

The Stern phenomenon must be addressing something that's not being covered by mainstream pop culture --probably a guy's perspective on sex free of caring what girls think about sex. The Limbaugh phenomenon probably addresses the secret conservatism of a lot of people, so I wonder if his numbers will/have gone down in the O'Reilly era. Maybe not; they're on at different times, different media and everything. I don't think Limbaugh and Stern compete with each other either (do they? Does the one ever acknowledge the other?) Having carved out distinct empires out of the American mind, they're probably content to leave the other alone, like Rome and China or something. Stern is probably the king of all he surveys; it's just that what he surveys has its limits. Like anything else.

And he isn't king of anything until he releases a few albums. Nimoy: The True King of All Media.