Howard Stern "Stunned" by News That Sirius Wants Done With Him

Before getting to that, some facts about Howard Stern's show. According to Maureen Callahan:

1. He has a staff of 95. What?

2. Sirius pays him $120 million per year to produce the show. I assume the lion's share of that goes into Stern's pocket.

3. The usual morning host works 250 days per year. Five days a week, fifty weeks per year. Stern, on the other hand, works 112 days per year. Three days a week, Monday through Wednesday, and for only 37 weeks per year. Fifteen weeks off per year.

In addition, the days of four or five or even six hour shows are long, long gone. Apparently he now only does three hour shows.

4. Also, he no longer does the news. Which is fine, considering his cranky underbridge-troll wokeness. Apparently he's now picking up the guitar at age 71, which is fine -- I'm all for late in life learning -- but then he talks incessantly about his guitar lessons and has his guitar teacher on the air to talk about his Guitar Journey.

Wow. A bitter old hippie pervert talking about having trouble nailing the chords to "Smoke on the Water." Sounds like appointment viewing.

Callahan also discusses this leaked video. In 2013, Stern held a staff meeting in an auditorium called "Revolution 2013." It's so gay. Even then he realized his ratings and relevance were on the slide, because he spends the first 17 minutes demanding that his staff "blast" emails to publicists to let them know that Howard Stern still exists. Then he turns to demanding that the staff book guests who don't want to be on the show, claiming, absurdly, that Jerry Seinfeld and David Lettermen owe him big-time for making them stars, and so they are obligated to appear on the show again.

I always thought that Stern's constant claims to have "innovated" everything in talk radio was a put-on. Sure, I figured that there was some truth to him feeling insufficiently acknowledged as a media star, but I thought that 90% of his constant complaining that he's never recognized for, say, the "innovation" of long interviews with guests was mostly exaggerated for comedic effect.

This video shows that no, even when he's not doing a show and just berating his staff, he really believes he's owed huge credit for (checks notes) launching the careers of Jerry Seinfeld and David Letterman.

It also shows that his staff hates him, because who else would leak this except for an enemy?

I missed this Daily Mail article from last week. The reporters make it sound like Sirius is not engaging in aggressive bargaining with Stern just to reduce his demands for the new contract (the old one expires in Decemberbut really want to sever ties.

Howard Stern's 95-strong staff had only one goal in mind when they gathered for a 'team building' bash in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

A few cocktails coupled with games of ping pong and serious laughs ahead of the 20th season of the show on SiriusXM on September 2.

Their 71-year-old boss was a world away from Midtown's Spin bar, instead chilling at the $21 million Southampton pile he has spent most of his time since Covid.

There's a reason Howard Hughes was never a great radio personality. If you just sit in your house all day wearing a face-diaper because you're still afraid of covid -- what do you even have to talk about?

No seriously let me know because I'm way more homebound than I should be and I need a list of topics that non-hermits find interesting. Seriously what the hell do normal people talk about?

...

By 5.30pm, the group had split; some going bar hopping in Hell's Kitchen while others taking dinner at Japanese restaurant, Benihana.

That's when the lifechanging the bombshell dropped: a news alert claimed Stern was on the verge of walking away from SiriusXM altogether because the station couldn't come close to meeting his financial demands for another contract.

'The mood changed quickly. No one knew this was coming... and we couldn't get any answers,' one stunned insider said.

Repeated calls to executive producer Gary Dell'Abate went unanswered.

What staff didn't know was the bombshell came as a shock to Stern himself, who received it via a Google Alert as he finished dinner after a walk on the beach.

His famous friends were quick to call, with Stern allegedly avoiding calls from Ali Wentworth [George Stephanopolous's wife] and Jimmy Fallon. He did, however, pick up the phone when longtime friend Jimmy Kimmel rang.

'First I'm hearing of it,' was all a reportedly stunned Stern could manage.

Multiple sources confirmed Stern decided to make an 'emergency show' on Wednesday morning to quell concerns he was finished.

But apparently that show was just an interview with Lars from Metallica. All Stern said about his show was that he would be back from his nth hiatus on September 2nd.

He claims he's ready to prove to the world he's still got it. And by "it" he means a spastic colon.

A source exclusively tells the Daily Mail that a 'pumped up' Stern is ready to 'prove people wrong again' and is confident he is still 'the best' at his craft as he considers a future outside of SiriusXM.

'He is in a bring-it-on mind frame right now. Howard likes what he likes and though he could be bitter on how things are going, it isn't anything new to him', the insider said.

'He also isn't blaming things on his age; the world has changed. He has changed himself. If he didn't, he would have been gone a long time ago.

'It is true, he doesn't like the uptick of podcasts, where everyone can be on the radio, he just thinks he is the best and there is a lot to learn from him rather than throwing him away.'

LOL. Sad! BTW, Stern is incredibly egotistical while also having an eggshell-fragile ego -- a bad combination, which you see a lot -- and has for years been slagging off podcasters for being more relevant than he is.

Now he's whining that the podcasters he attacks should "learn from him rather than throwing him away."

For now, Stern has plans to potentially join huge streamers HBO or Netflix - in a bid to bring his career to an end 'on his own terms.'

The source continued: 'All this unknown is music to Howard's ears. He thrives in this element of the unknown.'

Obviously. The 71-year-old who's too afraid to come out of his basement and complains that his Southampton neighbors don't wear face-nappies when they're at the beach is very thrilled by chaos and the unknown. He certainly sees his impending firing and discarding as an opportunity.

Absolutely I believe this.

'He needs to deal with a personal bad guy in the situation. In the past it was NBC, just watch his movie.

'Then it was Simon Cowell, look at the fallout of AGT and now the honeymoon might be over with Sirius after almost 20 years, but he still wants to figure something out to stay, especially for his team that would mostly be affected.

So they mean that Howard Stern can't really flourish without an Enemy he can direct all of his stinky spleen at. That's been true before, but... No one cares any more. No one is going to pay money to hear Stern complain that his bosses at Sirius gave Andy F***ing Cohen more attention and respect than they gave him.

'And now if the fallout continues with Sirius, he has made roads elsewhere to potentially do something with HBO or Netflix. It is not all bad if this goes bad. His story isn't done.

'Because he wants it to all end on his own terms. He believes he deserves that for all that he has done in the medium.'

I suppose it's possible they offer him some kind of a deal to do ten one-hour shows or something, like they gave Letterman.

But he's a very damaged brand with a limited audience and falling ratings. How much money does Stern think he'll be able to command at this point? What kind of audience does he think he still has?

posted by Ace at 04:39 PM

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