Howard Stern returns to SiriusXM radio show after trolling listeners
[September 09, 2025]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Howard Stern, the popular and highly paid radio host,
returned to SiriusXM's airwaves Monday after trolling listeners into
thinking he had departed his long-running show.
Stern, 71, who evolved from his shock jock origins to become a respected
interviewer, enlisted a seemingly flustered Andy Cohen at the top of
“The Howard Stern Show” to pretend to be his successor. “This was
supposed to be a cleaner hand off. I’m kind of winging it,” said Cohen.
Stern then came on the air and thanked the Bravo personality, who has
his own SiriusXM show and podcast, for agreeing to do the bit. The stunt
was the culmination of weeks of promos that promised a big reveal,
following swirling speculation that Stern's show would be canceled. “The
tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, canceled,” one promo video
said. “Is it really bye-bye Booey?” The speculation grew after Stern
postponed his return from a summer break last week.
While he did return Monday, Stern did not announce that he had reached a
new contract with SiriusXM. His current deal expires at the end of 2025.
“Here’s the truth: SiriusXM and my team have been talking about how we
go forward in the future. They’ve approached me, they’ve sat down with
me like they normally do, and they’re fantastic,” Stern said.
Stern joining what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in 2006 made him
one of the highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a
game-changer for both the company and the nascent satellite radio
industry. His importance was highlighted on the SiriusXM homepage — tabs
included For You, Music, Talk & Podcasts, Sports and Howard.
SiriusXM in the years after Stern joined has become home to top podcasts
“Call Her Daddy,” “SmartLess,” “Freakonomics Radio,” “Last Podcast on
the Left,” “99% Invisible” and “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and
features such personalities as Trevor Noah, Kevin Hart and Stephen A.
Smith.
But SiriusXM’s subscriber base has been slowly contracting, with the
company reporting 33 million paid subscribers in the second quarter of
2025, a net loss of 68,000 from the first quarter and 100,000 fewer than
the same period in 2024. It is a battling a saturated satellite market
and competition from free, ad-supported platforms like Spotify.
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Howard Stern speaks at the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction
Ceremonies in Cleveland, on April 14, 2018. (Photo by Michael Zorn/Invision/AP,
File)
 Stern extended his contract with
SiriusXM twice before, in 2010 and again in 2020 with a five-year,
$500 million deal, Forbes reported. He’s recently had newsy and
intimate chats with Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen.
“He’s been with me and the company going on two decades, and so he’s
pretty happy, but he’s also able, like many great artists, to stop
whenever he wants,” SiriusXM president and chief content officer
Scott Greenstein told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “Nobody will
ever replace them. We would never try to replace them.”
Stern, who has liked to call himself the King of All Media, rose to
national fame in the 1980s during his 20-year stint at the then-WXRK
in New York. At its peak, “The Howard Stern Show” was syndicated in
60 markets and drew over 20 million listeners. Stern was lured to
satellite radio by the lucrative payday and a lack of censorship,
following bruising indecency battles with the Federal Communications
Commission and skittish radio executives. His past on-air bits had
included parading strippers through his New York studio and
persuading the band then known as The Dixie Chicks to reveal
intimate details about their sex lives.
His 1997 film “Private Parts” became a box office hit and offered a
raw, humorous look at his rise to fame. He has also authored several
bestselling books and served as a judge on “America’s Got Talent”
from 2012 to 2015.
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