Howard Stern signed to another 5 years with Sirius XM. The self proclaimed “King of All Media” will be 71 when his contract ends. Stern got another contract after he sued his employer, Sirius/XM!
I was a Howard Stern fan for decades. When his Channel 9 (WWOR) show came out, I got to watch it on both Friday and Saturday! No doubt Stern did some great radio. He knew how to connect to the working man. The cop, firefighter, garbage man, welder, electrician, plumber, bartender, delivery driver and so on. I remember going to one job listening to Stern in the car and two nerds in my office were cracking up over Scott and Todd on WPLJ. Scott and Todd did bit radio with fake prank calls and other horseshit radio. Nothing was off limits with Stern.
In the late 90’s CBS radio owned both Stern and Opie and Anthony. CBS owned both AM and PM drive time in New York. CBS also owned 1010 WINS and News radio 880! There was another side of Stern nobody saw. Stern was always talking about the First Amendment and freedom of speech. But only his right to free speech. While at CBS he went to CBS boss Mel Karmazin to have his colleagues on WNEW Opie and Anthony not say anything about Stern or his show. Meanwhile Stern could trash Opie and Anthony until the cows came home. And both Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia loved Stern.
When Opie and Anthony went to XM Satellite Radio and Stern went to Sirius, Stern had no power over Hughes and Cumia until Sirius bought out XM radio. Then it was just like it was at CBS. Guess who was at SiriusXM as boss? Mel Karmazin!
Stern also ventured into television. He was Executive Producer for the FX comedy series, Son of the Beach. He was also a judge on the show America got Talent, where Stern was as mean and vicious as Paula Abdul. The King of All Media did not make any impact on television.
In 2014 SiriusXM fired Anthony Cumia for tweets. Everyone knows Stern had a hand either directly or indirectly in Cumia’s departure. Sirius was under contract to pay Stern a boatload of money. Cumia was getting paid approximately 3 million per year. You do the math. One of Stern’s quirks was that when he walked from the elevator to his wing of Sirius/XM, the hallway had to be cleared and no one was allowed to talk to him.
Then a few years later, Cumia’s former partner, Gregg “Opie” Hughes decided to sneak in Howard’s wing of the facility. Rumor had it that Stern was pissed. Huges is eventually fired for filming a staffer sitting on the toilet a short time later.
Since his tenure at Sirius Stern’s programming has gone to shit. Back in the day, Stern did skits in blackface and trashed Rosie O’Donnell. Today, Stern chums up to O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres and goes on The View. The Howard Stern of 1989 would trash Howard of 2020, maybe. It’s hard to tell who the real Howard Stern is.The Blue Collar Sten is gone. Its now Hollywood Howard.
Stern has had an army of people working for him. Robin Quivers, Fred Norris, Jackie Martling, John Melendez, Steve Grillo, KC Armstrong, Gary Dell’Abate, Artie Lange, and so on. The ones that leave the Stern Show have absolutely nothing nice to say about Stern. His former employees say that Stern never stood up for them once. As Stern was getting bigger, he was reaping the rewards. His production team was left in the dust. Stern had a show on the old E! network. Stern got a seven figure contract. The rest of the staff were earning $10,000. Per year. Billy West was a member of various actors unions. He could not accept a paltry contract as he would be violating his end of the collective bargaining agreement if he accepted less than union scale. “Stuttering” John Melendez was able to get a gig on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno making six figures! Again, Stern is pissed. I don’t why. It should have been a proud moment for Stern. But Stern boycotts Leno. For the Liberty News family we promote the shit out of ventures outside LNR. Like Mike Garren has a morning show at Tuneinradio.us from 7 to 9 Eastern!
The real Howard Stern came out in 2018. Howard’s Engineer, Scott Salem aka Scott the Engineer worked for Stern for 30 years. He had a wife dying of cancer. Salem needed $52,000 to continue his wife’s treatment. Salem started a Go Fund Me page to raise the money. Salem went to the Stern camp to ask for help and promote the Go Fund Me Page. Not only did Stern not give a nickel (which he was not obligated to do so) and not only did Stern not mention the Go Fund Me Page on the air, but Salem was told that he couldn’t even use the name Scott The Engineer on the Go Fund Me page! Fortunately Gregg “Opie” Hughes donated and promoted the Go Fund Me Page! Unfortunately Mrs. Salem passed shortly afterward.
Finally, I’ll let Howard Stern say what he thought of people like Don Imus working in radio in their 60’s.
SEVEN FIVE RADIO 