Radio and television personalities taking a summer break is nothing new, but Howard Stern‘s decision to take an even longer than usual break this year is leaving fans furious. Last week, Stern, 67, announced he would be taking a break from his SiriusXM show, which fans pay a premium to subscribe to, until September. Stern later defended the move, which comes less than a year after Stern signed a new contract reportedly worth $500 million.
Stern’s new contract reportedly includes a clause that allows him to take a long summer break from the end of June until early September, reports Page Six. The former America’s Got Talent judge signed a five-year extension with SiriusXM in December 2020. The financial terms were not disclosed, but he is reportedly being paid $100 million per year. This means Stern is being paid about $17 million for a two-month summer vacation each year.
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After Stern’s break was announced, his fans quickly took to social media to complain. “I pay $20 a month for SiriusXM and I’m not paying $40 for re-runs. All Stern fans should do this,” one fan ranted on Reddit. “If Sirius’ profit plummets because a bunch of Stern show listeners canceled at once I could see him back before September (or at least not pulling this s— again next summer). If I knew the new deal would be like this I would have rooted for Howard to retire.”
Others criticized Stern for the direction his show has gone in recent years. “Howard Stern is going on ‘vacation’ for the summer and nobody will even know the difference bc the show is the same low content crap every day anyway,” one person tweeted. “Howard Stern is taking a 75-day vacation from his 3 days a week show. He will be off starting next week until September. I can’t wrap my head around this,” another wrote.
Before signing off for two months, Stern defended his long break. “When this last contract was up, I took a look at my life and was like well OK, maybe it’s time,” he said, reports Mediate. “But when they came up with this plan of instead of doing 112 shows, do 100, I thought OK I could do that and I can still be connected to my fans.” Although Stern is now doing the show from his home studio, he said he still believes he and his team produces the “Best radio around” and apologized to his fans who have written to him for more shows.
Stern has been with SiriusXM since October 2004, when he was inspired to leave traditional radio to avoid the FCC’s broadcasting regulations. Stern left terrestrial radio for good in December 2005. He has had a reduced schedule for over a decade, as his December 2010 deal allowed him to do just three live shows a week. During the coronavirus pandemic, Stern began broadcasting from his home in the Hamptons, where he lives with his wife Beth.
“He’s not the shock jock out here, he’s just Howard. He has substantially mellowed,” a source who spends time with Stern told Page Six. “He doesn’t want to party, he wants to stay home. He and Beth are more interested in rescue animals, art, photography, and living a happy, healthy life.”
