(NewsNation) — Rumors swirled Wednesday that “The Howard Stern Show” was getting canceled.  

According to The Sun, SiriusXM will not renew Howard Stern’s contract at the end of the year after 20 years on the air with the satellite radio provider.  

“Stern’s contract is up in the fall and while Sirius is planning to make him an offer, they don’t intend for him to take it,” a source told The Sun. “Sirius and Stern are never going to meet on the money he is going to want. It’s no longer worth the investment.” 

Howard Stern joined SiriusXM for $500 million  

Stern, the self-proclaimed “King of All Media,” started his career as a radio host in the 1980s, where “The Howard Stern Show” amassed around 20 million listeners in 60 markets around the country at its height, according to the U.S. Sun.  

He later joined SiriusXM, signing a massive $500 million contract with the subscription-based satellite radio company in 2004.  

SiriusXM has seen tremendous growth in the years since Stern joined, and the radio host has been credited with helping the company grow in subscribers, according to Insider Radio.  

In 2020, Stern renewed his SiriusXM contract for five years for $500 million, meaning he was paid $100 million a year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Trump comments on rumored Howard Stern cancellation 

While SiriusXM and Stern have not confirmed that “The Howard Stern Show” was canceled, President Donald Trump has taken the opportunity to comment on the latest rumors when asked by a reporter about them.  

“You know when he went down?” Trump said, “Before … when he endorsed Hillary Clinton, he lost his audience. People said, ‘Give me a break.’ He went down when he endorsed Hillary Clinton.” 

Trump used to be a guest on Stern’s show before he first ran for president.  

“Whenever you put him on the air, and this was before he was running for president, he was an open book, he would say anything. This is why he was so great, there was no filter,” Stern told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in 2019.  

“I did not vote for Donald Trump,” Stern said at the time. “I wanted to see Hillary Clinton win. The way I helped Donald was I let him come on and be a personality. Whether you liked him or not, people related to him as a human being. I wanted to do that for Hillary.” 

What’s next for Howard Stern?  

A source told The Sun that SiriusXM will most likely offer Stern the chance to renew his contract, but the company doesn’t “intend for him to take it.”  

“Sirius and Stern are never going to meet on the money he is going to want. It’s no longer worth the investment,” the insider said.  

The source added, “If Sirius isn’t going to give Stern a good offer, I don’t think it would have anything to do with his ratings,” the source claimed. “It’s more likely everything to do with the political climate.” 

Stern’s show is usually on hiatus during the summer. Stern was on the air Wednesday and told listeners he will be back “very soon”, according to Daily Beast. 

”We’ll be back on the air, live. I’ve been refueling, so to speak,” he said.

Howard Stern controversies  

Stern did not earn a reputation as a “shock jock” without courting controversies over his decades-long career.  

Following the tragic murder of Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in 1995, Stern played gunshots over her music a day before her funeral and made fun of her fans using a fake Hispanic accent, ABC News reported.

“Spanish people have the worst taste in music. … This music does absolutely nothing for me. Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul,” he said at the time, angering the Hispanic community.  

Stern apologized in Spanish a week after the comments, saying he was a satirist and did not intend to hurt Selena’s family.  

One day after the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, Stern said that “really good-looking girls” had run for their lives from the two gunmen. 

“There were some really good-looking girls running with their hands over their heads,” he said on how show. “Did those kids try to have sex with any of those good-looking girls? 

During his time on terrestrial radio, the Federal Communications Commission had fined the radio stations that carried his show a record $2.5 million.  

With his transition to satellite radio, Stern’s on-air persona, while still edgy, evolved. His show focused less on the controversial “shock jock” style and more on in-depth interviews.

He’s interviewed political figures like President Joe Biden as well as musical artists and actors such as Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen and Robert Downey Jr.