I had to post something after I had heard this “rumor” about Simon Cowell and Denise Richards going on a date, from three different radio broadcasts. All three reports were in the same tone… “Rumor has it” or “the rumor mill is a buzz”. The report didn’t come from the rumor mill at all and this is just another example of a soon-to-be extinct medium grasping onto their last straw of existence.
Last week, Simon Cowell called in to the Howard Stern Radio Show on SiriusXM Satellite radio to promote the season debut of his new series X-Factor. It was during that very call-in interview that Simon said himself that he had gone out on a date with Denise Richards. Now, can that really be called a rumor? I’d say that is as close to straight-from-the-horses’-mouth fact as you can get. The only way this story came from the “rumor mill” is because the media outlets that wanted to report on it didn’t have the balls to even acknowledge the existence of Howard Stern or satellite radio.
This is nothing new either. It’s been happening even since Stern was on regular radio. Television and radio news reports would never give him credit for the stories he broke. It’s fear like this that is pushing terrestrial radio even closer towards extinction.
Just recently, 94.1 WYSP in Philadelphia, a long-time nationally-recognized flagship rock radio station, called it quits and gave its airwaves over to their AM sports talk sister station. YSP had been on a steady decline since Stern left radio and the lost a morning man that they could never adequately replace. It was obvious that Stern carried the entire broadcast day and did the same thing for many other huge rock stations all over the country, including WBCN in Boston.
As for the Simon and Denise story… you can read about it on HowardStern.com where it was posted just hours after Simon talked about it on Wednesday. Simon described it as “a bizarre kind of blind date” and added, “She showed up 8 months pregnant and had a little dog in her handbag…we met up afterwards. I like her a lot. She’s cute, funny, a bit of a wacko–but I like that.”
Good luck with all that investigative and rumor mill reporting all you non-satellite radio guys… you may get a clue some day. Although at that point you might be lucky enough to be working at SiriusXM.
