(NewsNation) — Howard Stern is ready to address the rumor mill about the future of his radio show on SiriusXM.
“The Howard Stern Show” posted across its social media pages on Tuesday, teasing the return of his show on Sept. 2, where the shock jock will seemingly address reports that his show will be canceled.
In an Aug. 15 post, the show wrote, “Fired? Retiring? Canceled? Bye-Bye Booey?” a reference to the show’s producer, Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate. “Howard Stern will speak.”
Rumors swirl around Howard Stern’s future
The Sun reported earlier this month that SiriusXM isn’t going to 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.”
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.”
In 2020, Brian Russo, a Credit Suisse analyst, estimated that 15% of Stern listeners could cancel their SiriusXM subscriptions if he left the company, with a “potential subscriber loss of 2.7 million,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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.
Stern’s SiriusXM contract was renewed for five years for $500 million in 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Stern earns about $333,000 per show.
When SiriusXM extended Stern’s contract in 2020, it also revealed that the show’s archive of audio and video would continue to be licensed to the company for seven additional years.