Howard Stern will continue with his nearly 40-year long radio career on SiriusXM for at least another five years. This was the major announcement in mid-December. It made news everywhere and most of his fans were thrilled. Of course, some weren't, mostly the types who believe Howard has gone 'Hollywood' and isn't as mean... But this evolution is one of the reasons why Howard has broadened his base and attracted better guests to interview.
While a couple of Howard's staffers didn't want the show to continue, the vast majority were thrilled that they got to keep their high-paying jobs and continue to pal around with Howard on-air. After all, most of his staffers have been with him for decades... Yeah, they must REALLY like their job.
But none of these factors was a major component in why Howard spent the better part of two years trying to decide whether or not to continue. Actually, his choice to carry on with The Howard Stern Show had a lot to do with Jerry Seinfeld.
Yep, Jerry Seinfeld told Howard to keep the show going. Here's the down-low.
Howard's Secret Dinner With Jerry Seinfeld
For about a year, fans were guessing at what went down at the secret dinner between Howard Stern and Jerry Seinfeld. While Jerry's best known for having a close friendship with Larry David, he is also very close with Howard in his personal life. This is why he offered to take Howard to dinner and talk about his future.
Listeners of The Howard Stern Show found out about this dinner when Howard shared the story on radio about a year ago. However, he didn't give any of the details.
In fact, the only thing he said was that Jerry had offered to take Howard out for dinner without their wives (who are also friends) and just have a conversation about Howard's career. Not Jerry's career. Not anything else... Just what Howard planned to do moving forward. This is because Howard had made it known that he was toying with the idea of retiring, especially since there was a possibility of not doing anything more or different with his show.
Jerry was a great person to talk about this with as he ended his incredibly successful sitcom before it 'jumped the shark'.
After Howard made the announcement about continuing on for another five years, he finally told his audience what went down at that dinner with Jerry Seinfeld.
"Jerry was very gracious," Howard told his audience. "When Jerry and I sat down, he really asked me a lot of questions about what it is I would do if I retired and blah, blah, blah. And at that dinner, I did say, after speaking to Jerry, that I would continue on with my contract. Because we kind of came to the conclusion that I wasn't done with radio yet. I wasn't done with that phase of my life."
The Change In SiriusXM Management Caused Howard To Be Hesitant
Moving to satellite radio gave Howard Stern the chance to reevaluate his radio show and evolve as both a content provider and a person.
"Coming to SiriusXM has been a re-birth," Howard told his show's audience on December 8th, 2020 when he announced his new 5-year contract.
However, Howard was unsure of continuing his evolution when it was announced that the company's CEO Jim Meyer was retiring. Jim took a chance on Howard and allowed him the freedom to do what he wanted. After all, when Howard moved from terrestrial radio to satellite, it was a huge gamble... No one was sure that Howard's millions of followers would follow him to a company that they actually had to pay for... Howard had to make it work. He had to find a way to keep his fanbase. Ultimately, the success of SiriusXM was vital to Howard and Jim knew it.
Over the past 15 years, Howard has revolutionized satellite radio and turned a company that had roughly three million subscribers into one that had almost 35 million.
This fact isn't lost on the new CEO, Jennifer Witz. After meeting with her, Howard felt a lot more comfortable about continuing on, even without the man that gave him the freedom to build-up SiriusXM's subscriber base.
"[Jennifer's- really stoked. She has this great energy. She has great ideas," Howard said. "I believe she's the right person to take us into the future."
Howard, of course, has also been offered a huge amount of money to continue. But given that he is one of the most financially successful entertainers in the industry, this decision had very little to do with money.
"I don't really need the money to support my family at this point," Howard explained. "I did it because there is a need inside of me to keep broadcasting. That's the truth."
And that truth was something that Jerry Seinfeld helped Howard discover. It wasn't about the money. It wasn't the new SiriusXM CEO... It was about two hilarious entertainers talking about what really mattered to them.
"Jerry was very helpful. Very kind to do that. I was very moved by it. I thought it was incredible that somebody would take the time to discuss what I would do with the future."