NEW YORK (AP) — Howard Stern will spend another three years on SiriusXM, telling listeners Tuesday that he’s “figured out a way to have it all.”
And reps confirmed that he’s not trolling us again like he did back in August when he brought on Andy Cohen as a fake replacement host. This time, he went the sincere route without providing many details of his latest contract extension.
“I am happy to announce that I have figured out a way to have it all. More free time and continuing to be on the radio. Yes, we are coming back for three years,” Stern said on air.
Stern, 71, said he was able to create a “more flexible schedule,” adding: “And I’m excited about it because you know what. I do still love radio.”
He made the announcement during his last show of the year. He’ll be back live on the air Jan. 5.
Stern joined what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in 2006. It helped make him one of the highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a game-changer for both the company and the nascent satellite radio industry.
He’s recently had newsy and intimate chats with Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen. In August, he tried to convince listeners that he had left by having Cohen at the top of “The Howard Stern Show” pretending to be his successor.
Stern said Tuesday he checked in with his co-host, Robin Quivers, to make sure “she was up for it” before deciding to stay on another three years.
“If Robin wasn’t up for it, then I wasn’t going to do it,” he said.
SiriusXM’s subscriber base has been slowly contracting, with the company reporting 33 million paid subscribers in the third quarter of 2025, some 100,000 fewer than the year before. It is battling a saturated satellite market and competition from free, ad-supported platforms like Spotify.
Stern rose to national fame in the 1980s. He had a 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.
He 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.
