Howard Stern says he will stay on the air with Sirius XM for another three years. There had been speculation in the tabloid press this past summer that Sirius wouldn’t want Stern after his contract ends at the end of 2025. Some had speculated that he wouldn’t even return from his summer break.
Reasons?
- Stern’s ratings had dropped (but it’s a subscription service without encoding or ratings).
- Subscriptions were way down (but Sirius says it has 33 million subscribers, only slightly off its high)
- Stern would want too much money and Sirius couldn’t afford it.
- Stern will be 72 in a few weeks and had lost his popularity.
Stern used the negative publicity to his advantage. When he was supposed to return from his summer break, he didn’t show up at first. He had fellow Sirius host Andy Cohen come on his channel for 15 minutes and announce that he would be replacing Howard, renaming the channel “Andy 100.”
This caused Sirius XM stock to drop temporarily. Then Stern went on the air to say it was a hoax. He wasn’t fired or quitting. But he also didn’t say if he would renew his contract either. Now it’s official that he will stay, not for another of his usual five-year contracts but for three years.
—Reported by Craig Francis
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