Howard Stern, a humorless, uptight, far-left woketard who has reportedly seen his listenership collapse from 20 million to 125,000, announced in mid-August that he would return to the radio after his summer break on September 2 with a big announcement about his future.
On Monday night, just hours before his scheduled return, he wrote an email to his 95-person staff postponing everything for another week.
The question is why?
The Daily Mail has two theories. One involves Stern’s ailing 98-year-old mother. The other involves his contract with Sirius XM.
Stern’s been with Sirius for 20 years. In 2006, he famously moved to and helped establish the fledgling satellite radio firm with a ten-year $500 million contract that was renewed for another ten years in 2016. That renewal ends in January, and the speculation is that there is no way in hell Sirius will pay the 71-year-old anywhere near that kind of money again. There have even been reports that Sirius will not renew his contract at all.
Could the delay involve difficult contract negotiations? Could he be looking for a place to land after Sirius dumped him?
Who knows?
Who cares?
No one can blame Sirius. They signed their contract with Howard Stern and Howard Stern has not been Howard Stern for at least five years. The vulgar, envelope-pushing, anti-establishment shock jock has morphed into the radio equivalent of a Womyn’s Studies professor — a humorless, smug, virtue-signaling scold who seeks to shame and scold rather than amuse.
Howard Stern has completely sold out.
Steve Grillo, who once worked for Stern, put it perfectly. “I think that if old Howard Stern could go and jump in the time machine,” Grillo told the Daily Mail, “he would punch [today’s Howard Stern] right in the face.”
You could say the same about David Letterman.
Grillo also believes this one-week delay is a sad attempt on Stern’s part to stir up interest, boost his sagging ratings, and feel relevant again.
So, it looks like we will have to wait until Monday for the verdict. Did Sirius offer to renew Stern’s contract? If so, for how much and for how long? Did Stern accept lesser terms? Will he retire? Will he move to do his own thing, a podcast perhaps?
Personally, I would just like to know why in the hell he needs a staff of 95.
I was never a Stern fan. At the height of his popularity in the late 90s, I gave him a try, but he was just too vulgar for me. Not my style. Also, he always came off to me as a jerk. Watching his biopic, Private Parts (1998), where he played himself, all my sympathies went to his boss, who was supposed to be the movie’s villain.
Stern always struck me as full of himself, a bit of a bully, and mean-spirited. In 1999, the way he humiliated and allowed his callers to humiliate Diff’rent Strokes star Dana Plato, who was obviously emotionally fragile, is a perfect example.
The next day, she committed suicide.
Howard Stern has always been a toxic jerk.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.