Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin recently spoke about life after Howard Stern if the shock jock does not renew his contract with the satellite radio company.
Stern brought an estimated 2 million listeners to Sirius since 2006, but it costs the satellite radio company $100 million a year to keep him, said Bloomberg.
Karmazin told Bloomberg that if Stern leaves Sirius, it will use that $100 million per year towards other programming. But it won’t try to replace him with one personality.
“You don’t try to replace Howard,” Karmazin said. “I don’t think there’s a radio personality that’s out there that we would bring in and say to the Howard Stern fans ‘let us introduce you to this new talent.”
Instead Sirius XM would try to beef up programming for multiple audiences, even expanding its classical music selection or opera selection. Or it might add programming in a new area for the company.
Karmazin confirmed there’s no deal yet with Stern whose contract expires at the end of the year.
There are reports that Stern may introduce his own online service.
Source: Bloomberg and Business Insider
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