The following report is courtesy of Dan Kadar from Ohio.com:

After years of battling for it, Howard Stern gladly gave up free speech Friday. Sort of. No, the disc jockey didn't relinquish his First Amendment rights. But if you want to hear new broadcasts, it'll cost you $12.95 a month. Stern's 20-year broadcasting career on free radio ended Friday.

``It's difficult to imagine the mornings without him,'' said Bill Louis, program director of WNCX (98.5-FM), which has aired Stern's show locally for 13 years.
Starting Jan. 9, Stern will be heard on Sirius Satellite Radio, where he will program two of Sirius' 120 channels of commercial-free radio. ``Best of Stern'' shows will air on WNCX through December 30.

``What (Stern) brought was a very specialized and special form of entertainment that no one is ever going to duplicate,'' Louis said. ``Inevitably, we're going to be going off in some different direction. There's that sense of loss, but that sense of looking forward to new horizons.''

On the horizon for WNCX is another flashy morning personality. David Lee Roth, the bombastic former singer for Van Halen, will take over Stern's 6 to 10 a.m. drive-time slot on January 3.

On Stern's last free broadcast Friday, which was also streamed on the Internet, each of the show's cast members offered a farewell while a crowd of thousands packed the streets outside the New York studio. After the show concluded, Stern and company rode a double-decker bus over to the Sirius headquarters. Along the way, Stern talked to the press about his new show.

``What we're programming is second to none,'' Stern said on his broadcast. ``There is nothing better than driving in your car and listening to Sirius. It'll be huge the way cable television became huge and bottled water became huge. I know people aren't used to paying for radio, but this $12.95 a month brings you a universe of programming.''

Though the five-year, $500 million contract Stern signed probably didn't hurt, the controversial host also left terrestrial radio to avoid FCC restrictions. On his new show, the 51-year-old will be able to say and do whatever he wants without fearing editing or fines.

In 1995, Infinity Broadcasting, which owns WNCX, paid $1.7 million in FCC fines. In April 2004, Clear Channel fired Stern from six stations because of his show's content, which includes foul language, sex talk and jokes about bodily functions in addition to celebrity and political interviews and Stern's own running monologues.

``The show is going to change in every single way because we don't have to look over our shoulder at the FCC so much,'' Stern said. ``This is a show that is reborn and revitalized. We're going to get back to the way we used to broadcast.''
Louis, who has been the program director at WNCX since 1997, referred to Roth's show as the great unknown.

``I have no expectations,'' he said. ``I'm as curious as every listener out there. The show, like any show, will change and evolve as time goes on.''
Louis hopes people don't immediately rush to judge Roth.

``If you would have heard Howard 25 years ago, it wouldn't bear a heck of a lot of resemblance to what you heard this week and this year,'' he said. ``Polish comes from time.''

He added, ``You're not going to be able to put on another Howard -- there's only one of those around, so it's going to be a little bit of a leap of faith.''