Howard Stern cancelled? SiriusXM CEO breaks silence on shock jock’s fate

When it comes to Howard Stern’s fate at SiriusXM it appears that rumors of his demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

Because, just weeks after it was rumored that the satellite radio and streaming company would “cancel” Stern — his contract is up at year’s end so, despite all of the rumors, it was never really going to be a cancellation — The Hollywood Reporter said it was revealed Wednesday at a Bank of America Conference that SiriusXM executive believe they will “get to the right place” with Stern.

Scott Greenstein, the president and chief content officer for SiriusXM made that revelation at the conference, according to the outlet.

“So Howard, for all these years and right up until now, is as important a content, single piece of content as we’ve had from the sense of being a lightning rod to get awareness for the service and publicity and all of that,” Greenstein said. “He’s the best interviewer out there, period, bar none. And we’ve always had a series, as all of you know, of renewals. With any talent at that level, you’re always going to have an extended period of negotiations. We’ve been pretty lucky all these years. We’d love them to stay. It certainly has to make sense, but we feel pretty good that we’ve done this before, and we’ll see where it goes.”

“I think he’s been core to our platform for over 20 years,” CEO and director Jennifer Witz added. “So I’m confident we’ll get to the right place.”

It should be noted that Stern, 71, as also flirted for several years with the idea of retiring at the end of his current deal.

The Hollywood Reporter said that Stern’s current five-year deal, which runs up at the end of the year, pays him $100 million a year.