Howard Stern will address rumors about the future of his show on September 2, following months of speculation about the end of his 20-year satellite radio career.

An insider told the Daily Mail that reports of Stern's departure were "a desperate hoax" aimed to "try and make Stern relevant again." The 71-year-old shock jock teased his return on social media, writing:

Drop in Listenership

Steve Grillo, a former Stern intern and author of "Gorilla Parts: Top Shelf Stories From the Most Famous Stern Intern Ever," said the show has lost millions of listeners since its peak. "People listened to whatever he said, and those people were the hard working people that wanted a change in this country and made him famous and made him rich," Grillo said. Stern's ratings once hit 20 million daily listeners. Today, figures have dropped to roughly 125,000.

Grillo attributed part of the decline to Stern's political comments. In September 2024, Stern told his audience, "I don't agree with Trump politically, I don't think he should be anywhere near the White House. I don't hate the guy. I hate the people who vote for him. I think they're stupid. I do. I'll be honest with you, I have no respect for you." Stern also said he didn't mind losing "half my listeners" who disagreed with him.

Grillo said the host's change in tone and the absence of past mentors has hurt the show. "There were times in his career that he was guided by geniuses like Don and Mel Karmazin and, now not having those people around, and then being taken in by this Marci Turk and that whole organization that he got involved in has drastically turned him into what he is right now," he said.

Grillo added he doesn't expect a full-scale comeback. "Unless he decides to put on a leather jacket and a pair of black jeans and then come back and was like, 'I'm back baby,' which I highly doubt he's going to do... all of a sudden he's going to come back and be that awesome rockstar that everybody listened to every day?"

Contract and Publicity Moves

Stern's $500 million contract with SiriusXM expires at year-end. An insider told the Daily Mail that the cancellation story was meant to create viral buzz. "The numbers are so pathetic that they don't know what to do," the source said. Stern is not planning to retire, with the insider noting he "could've retired 10 years ago."

Grillo criticized the recent marketing strategy.

"Now he's trying to develop an audience again through this whole entire awful hoax campaign of, 'Did he get fired? Did he not get fired?' He's going to come on and announce that there's five more years of more creative b******t that he's going to be able to do, but that's already been in place," he said.

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