Howard Stern staffer reveals how radio host lost millions of listeners… and why ratings for new season might continue to suffer

Howard Stern is set to address rumors of his show being canceled on September 2, answering the public’s biggest questions about the 20-year satellite radio run.   

An insider revealed to the Daily Mail days after reports about The Howard Stern Show ending later this year that the shocking news was just a publicity stunt and a ‘desperate hoax’ to ‘try and make Stern relevant again.’

Just days before his anticipated return, the 71-year-old shock jock teased the new season on Instragram, captioning a post: ‘Fired? Retiring? Canceled? Bye-Bye Booey? Howard Stern will speak. Tuesday, September 2. Only on @siriusxm #Howard100.’

Now, a former staffer, Steve Grillo, who released a book earlier this year about interning at The Howard Stern Show for seven years in the ’90s, is weighing in on Stern’s much-anticipated return and theorizes about the show’s ‘downfall’ of having 20 million listeners a day at the peak to now having figures as low as 125,000. 

‘Come September 2, I think it’s just going to be everybody’s tuning in, and then I think they’re going to get disappointed and tune right back out,’ Grillo, 52, claimed.

‘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 because it’s too far and in between… all of a sudden he’s going to come back and be that awesome rockstar that everybody listened to every day?’

Reports came out last month that Howard Stern’s long-running radio career on The Howard Stern will come to an end later this year when his $500million contract is up

An insider, however, claimed to the Daily Mail that the shocking news was just a publicity stunt and a ‘desperate hoax’ to ‘try and make Stern relevant again’

The Gorilla Parts: Top Shelf Stories From the Most Famous Stern Intern Ever author, who used to be a big fan of Stern, lost his interest in the show – like many others, as statistics show – and wishes the ‘old Howard Stern’ would return.

But, it’s something he doesn’t foresee. 

Instead, Grillo sees ‘lame promos’ for the September 2 return and believes, ‘It’s such a sad, pathetic version of what happened to this man.’

‘I think that if Old Howard Stern could go and jump in the time machine, he would punch him right in the face,’ he said.

The radio personality faced criticism from fans and celebrities for becoming too ‘woke’. Kanye West described him as an ‘irrelevant old man.’

In 2023 after hearing claims that he’s ‘not good anymore,’ Stern declared, ‘By the way, I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m woke. I’ll tell you how I feel about it. To me the opposite of woke, is being asleep.’

Grillo told the Daily Mail that Stern lost many listeners when he shared his political beliefs about now-President Donald Trump in September 2024.

‘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,’ he revealed on The Howard Stern Show.

Steve Grillo, author of Gorilla Parts and former Ther Howard Stern Show intern, spoke exclusively with the Daily Mail about the upcoming season and why ratings have suffered 

Steve Grillo worked for Howard Stern in the 1990s when there was a peak of 20 million listeners

Grillo can’t see Stern making a comeback ‘unless he decides to put on a leather jacket and a pair of black jeans… and was like, “I’m back baby”‘

He also stated at the time that he didn’t mind losing ‘half my listeners’ who disagree with his political views and compared Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. 

Grillo said, ‘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. 

‘And he turned his back on them by saying, “If you like a certain political person, I don’t want you listening to my show… That’s why he’s got 125,000 listeners.’

He continued, ‘People cared about what he said every single day, and then he turns on them… What kind of arrogance and stupidity is that?’

Grillo claims that Stern isn’t getting the same guidance that he did when he was working with his ‘superagent’ Don Buchwald, who passed away at age 88 in July 2024 due to natural causes.

‘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 (Chief Operating Officer) and that whole organization that he got involved in has drastically turned him into what he is right now,’ Grillo alleged.

‘Everything’s going downhill because I would guess that he doesn’t have the guidance that he did.’

The Daily Mail revealed in August that The Howard Stern Show’s 95-strong staff had been left blindsided by reports that Stern’s radio career would finish at year’s end.

Grillo claims Stern lost a lot of his listeners when he ‘turned his back on them’ last year and shared his political beliefs about now-President Donald Trump (pictured)

Stern told his listeners in September 2024, ‘I hate the people who vote for [Trump]. I think they’re stupid. I do. I’ll be honest with you, I have no respect for you’

An insider told the Daily Mail that Stern won’t be announcing that he’s retiring on September 2 since he ‘could’ve retired 10 years ago,’ and ‘he’s not planning on retiring any time soon’

A news alert received by the staff claimed the ‘King of All Media’ was on the verge of walking away from SiriusXM altogether because the station couldn’t come close to meeting his financial demands for a new contract. 

Stern’s mammoth $500million five-year contract with SiriusXM expires at the end of the year… which would end his 20-year run on Sirius since he moved to the channel in 2006. 

An insider, who spoke to the Daily Mail, revealed that the cancellation news was just a ‘desperate hoax’ since ‘they’re desperately trying to make [the news] to go viral to try to boost his numbers for his return on September 2.’

‘It was something they came up with on a viral scale to get people to tune in again. The numbers are so pathetic that they don’t know what to do,’ they continued.

The insider noted that Stern won’t be announcing that he’s retiring come Tuesday since he ‘could’ve retired 10 years ago,’ and ‘he’s not planning on retiring any time soon.’

Weighing in, Grillo told the Daily Mail, ‘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. 

‘His contract is up in, I guess probably January… From my reliable source that’s been part of his contract since day one or the last time that they renewed his contract, that when he came to this point, he had an option for five years of freedom to do what he wants and still have his name on the door at Sirius.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Howard Stern’s rep and SiriusXM for comment.