After two decades, legendary 51 year old shock-jock Howard Stern has departed terrestrial radio for the new frontier of satellite radio.
He hosted his last show on WXRK, New York City, syndicated to 12 million listeners, last Friday with a bus caravan through the city.
Making a speech to a crowd of about 10,000 gathered under a steady drizzle, the self-proclaimed King of All Media thanked his fan base of strippers, various garbage men, his loyal and long-serving K-rock crew, plus High Pitch Eric, Hook Nose Mike, and Jeff the Drunk. Then he shouted from the top of a double-decker bus, “Long live the Howard Stern Show!”
After the broadcast ended Stern waved to the screaming gathering, many waving signs praising Stern and attacking the Federal Communications Commission, and the bus wound its way through midtown to an invites-only, post-show party at the Hard Rock Cafe, headlined by singer Sheryl Crow and hosted by Martha Stewart.
In recent years Stern became the center of First Amendment issues and censorship. Infinity Broadcasting paid $1.7 million in 1995 to settle FCC complaints against Stern. In April 2004, Clear Channel dropped Stern from six stations over his show’s content.
Stern has signed a five-year, $500 million contract to join Sirius Satellite Radio. He’s creating two new channels for Sirius, with the salaries, overhead and other programming costs coming out of his package.
Sirius is depending on Stern to reverse the company’s money-losing situation which may well work. Since he announced his move last year, the number of Sirius subscribers jumped from 600,000 to more than 2.2 million and is expected to hit 3 million by the end of this year.
Howard Stern starts on Sirius Satellite Radio Jan. 9.