Howard Stern cancels SiriusXM return in ‘out-of-the-blue’ email leaving $500M show in limbo
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Howard Stern will reportedly not return to his SiriusXM show this Tuesday, September 2, despite promising fans on August 15 that he would address rumors about his future live on-air.
The 71-year-old shock jock informed his 95 staffers of the decision in a carefully worded Labor Day email that sources described as “out of the blue” and linked to frustrations over his ongoing contract negotiations with the satellite radio giant.
Stern’s current $500 million, five-year deal expires at the end of the year, potentially ending his 20-year run with SiriusXM.
Contract frustrations and staff blindsided by Howard Stern
A source told the Daily Mail that Stern’s abrupt decision to extend his summer break stems from stalled talks over a new deal. SiriusXM president and CCO Scott Greenstein has previously said Stern can “stop whenever he wants,” noting, “Nobody will ever replace them. We would never try to replace them.”
Former staffer Steve Grillo slammed the situation as a publicity stunt, calling Stern’s September 2 tease, “Fired? Retiring? Canceled? Bye-Bye Booey?” a “desperate hoax” to “try and make Stern relevant again.” Grillo added, “Come September 2, I think it's just going to be everybody's tuning in, and then I think they're going to get disappointed and tune right back out.”
The Queens-born broadcaster has also been coping with the ailing health of his 97-year-old mother, Ray Schiffman Stern, who turns 98 in October. “It rips my heart out. I don't want my mom to be uncomfortable. I just want to fix her,” Stern said on-air in 2022.
His father, Ben Stern, died in 2002 from prostate cancer, a loss Stern described as devastating.
Declining audience and political backlash against Howard Stern
Stern’s SiriusXM audience has reportedly plummeted from a peak of 20 million weekly listeners on terrestrial radio to as few as 125K. Steve Grillo and others attribute the drop to Stern alienating longtime fans by embracing progressive politics. “Those people were the hard working people that wanted a change in this country and made him famous and made him rich,” Grillo said.
“And he turned his back on them by saying, ‘If you like a certain political person, I don't want you listening to my show.’ What kind of arrogance and stupidity is that?”
Donald Trump blames Hillary Clinton endorsement for Howard Stern’s decline
President Donald Trump, a frequent Stern guest in past decades, mocked the radio host last month. “Howard Stern is a name I haven't heard - I used to do his show, we used to have fun - but I haven't heard that name in a long time,” Trump said. “You know when he went down? When he endorsed Hillary Clinton. He lost his audience. People said, ‘Give me a break.’”
With Stern’s massive contract ending this year, the future of his show remains in doubt. While some insiders blame stalled negotiations, others point to the July death of Stern’s longtime “superagent” Don Buchwald and the influence of his current COO, Marci Turk.
