Long story, going way back. I think it was around 2002 when I bought my first satellite radio kit. I remember spending an entire evening installing the kit in my car, I went with XM over Sirius. At the time I don’t think Howard had signed with anyone yet. I travelled so much for work in rental cars that I actually would take my XM kit with me. It wasn’t really portable but I made it portable, slapping the antenna on a roof of my rental with wires everywhere.
Eventually cars came with XM and then the app changed the game for good, but that was much later. Anyway at some point I jumped ship to Sirius and then they merged (Sirius and XM) which all reintroduced me to Howard Stern who I hadn't heard on a regular basis since the 90s.
I loved listening to Stern, and thought the wack pack and his staff were all hilarious although I felt Robin Quivers was annoying. I always thought all she did was agree with Howard the entire show, but if someone were paying me millions a year I’d probably agree with them too.
Wack packers and support staff would come and go, and somewhere Howard became known as an interviewer and I thought he always did an excellent job. He (or his staff) did their homework and he always asked great questions. A lot of celebrities I couldn’t stand I found respect for from his interviews. On the other hand a lot of people I admired, I no longer did after some of those interviews.
Worst interview ever: Cardi B Most snotty person interview: Jennifer Aniston One of most interesting: Ice-T
Sometimes I’d get burnt out and take a break for a month, then come back. Then COVD happened. By this point some of his most entertaining staff left (Schully, Brett) and were replaced by duds. On top of this Howard refused to come out of his house for years. Howard has more money than god and expects to live forever so he was determined to never get COVID while his staff all joined by something like a Zoom teleconference. Eventually the staff returned to the office but Stern still stayed at home long after it was okay to come out of hiding from COVID.
With this change the chemistry of the show was lost, and it’s never come back. I have not listened on a regular basis for almost 2 years and spend my time on SiriusXM listening solely to music. Apparently I’m not alone because I read last night he’s gone from 2 million daily listeners to just 125,000.
He has an entire staff, how much staff does Joe Rogan or Call Her Daddy podcast have? It sounds like (if true) SiriusXM will it get the return on investment on Stern this time around.
He’s gotten to the point where he’s boring, and he used to make fun of Don Imus’ downfall but it looks like he’s suffering the same demise.
If I were to bet, he may sign a year or two contract and be done, or if the media drama gets too big he may walk away. SiriusXM is interested in purchasing his entire catalog to reply (forever I would assume) and I’m sure that would give him a big payday. Some of his old interviews and segments are pure gold and people would pay to have access to listen to those on repeat.
A lot of people with claim this is all political if SiriusXM doesn’t renew him, and I wouldn’t doubt it plays some part, but I think it’s mostly listeners preferences have changed, there are more interesting options these days (he used to make fun of podcast “losers” all the time) and mostly, people don’t want to listen to a grouchy old man bitch all day anymore.
Were you ever a Howard Stern fan?
Stern and Robin were updated versions of Carson and McMahon, with Quivers playing McMahon's role perfectly. Never a fan. Always thought he was an asshole.