After great speculation, King of All Media Howard Stern settled in at SiriusXM — the most lucrative home he has ever had. Stern professed his abiding love for SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer, calling Meyer his “life partner.” As Meyer predicted. Stern made the announcement on his SiriusXM show Tuesday morning. The “life partner” description is literal — the licensing and development part of Stern’s deal is a 12-year contract that would make him 73 years old when it expired. He’ll continue to host the Howard Stern Show on Sirius for another five years.
Much of Stern’s bargaining power was thought to lie in his ownership of his own back catalog. The Stern catalog includes 30 years of material from Stern’s shows at various media outlets. SiriusXM acquired the licensing rights to all this material throughout the duration of the contract. Video will be a big part of the new way SiriusXM will use Stern, with a big streaming component being part of the deal. The shock jock’s successful four-year stint on TV as an American Idol judge, a job he left after last season, proved Stern’s allure as an on-camera personality. Stern said, “if you are not listening to SiriusXM and The Howard Stern Show, then you are really more like a zombie, a rotting corpse monster, living half a life, deadened and blackened inside.” This was welcome news to listeners, each of whom heard it on SiriusXM.
