NEW YORK (AP) — Howard Stern, the favored radio host who gave an enormous increase to the nascent satellite tv for pc radio enterprise when he signed a blockbuster, multimillion greenback contract for SiriusXM virtually 20 years in the past, has abruptly left the corporate.
Stern, 71, who advanced from his shock jock origins to turn out to be a revered interviewer, didn’t seem on the channel Monday, with a flustered Andy Cohen changing him.
“I know you’re expecting a big announcement from Howard and this is not how things were meant to go,” Cohen mentioned. “This was supposed to be a cleaner hand off. I’m kind of winging it,” and calling it a “surreal morning here.”
“I can’t overstate what Howard has meant to this firm and what he did for SiriusXM. He walked in order that we may run. I can’t probably fill his void,” mentioned Cohen.
Stern becoming a member of what was then Sirius Satellite tv for pc Radio Inc. in 2006 made him one of many highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a game-changer for each the corporate and the trade. His significance was highlighted on the SiriusXM homepage — tabs included For You, Music, Speak & Podcasts, Sports activities and Howard.
The information of the break up comes after weeks of promos promised an enormous reveal following swirling hypothesis that his present could be canceled. “The tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, canceled,” one promo video mentioned. “Is it really bye-bye Booey?” Hypothesis grew after Stern postponed his return from a summer season break to “The Howard Stern Show” final week.
SiriusXM within the years after Stern joined has turn out to be dwelling to high podcasts “Call Her Daddy,” “SmartLess,” “Freakonomics Radio,” “Last Podcast on the Left,” “99% Invisible” and “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and options such personalities as Trevor Noah, Kevin Hart and Stephen A. Smith.
However SiriusXM’s subscriber base has been slowly contracting, with the corporate reporting 33 million paid subscribers within the second quarter of 2025, a web lack of 68,000 from the primary quarter and 100,000 fewer than the identical interval in 2024. It’s a battling a saturated satellite tv for pc market and competitors from free, ad-supported platforms like Spotify.
Stern prolonged his contract with SiriusXM twice, in 2010 and once more in 2020 with a five-year, $500 million deal, Forbes reported. He’s lately had newsy and intimate chats with Woman Gaga and Bruce Springsteen.
“He’s been with me and the company going on two decades, and so he’s pretty happy, but he’s also able, like many great artists, to stop whenever he wants,” SiriusXM president and chief content material officer Scott Greenstein informed The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “Nobody will ever replace them. We would never try to replace them.”
Stern, who has appreciated to name himself the King of All Media, rose to nationwide fame within the Nineteen Eighties throughout his 20-year stint on the then-WXRK in New York. At its peak, “The Howard Stern Show” was syndicated in 60 markets and drew over 20 million listeners. Stern was lured to satellite tv for pc radio by the profitable payday and an absence of censorship, following bruising indecency battles with the Federal Communications Fee and skittish radio executives. His previous on-air bits had included parading strippers via his New York studio and persuading the band then generally known as The Dixie Chicks to disclose intimate particulars about their intercourse lives.
His 1997 movie “Private Parts” turned a field workplace hit and supplied a uncooked, humorous have a look at his rise to fame. He has additionally authored a number of bestselling books and served as a decide on “America’s Got Talent” from 2012 to 2015.
