Stern's Sirius Bonus
In keeping with tradition, Sirius Satellite Radio gifted Howard Stern with paper for his one-year anniversary: nearly 83 million pieces of it.
The shock jock has received an $82.9 million stock bonus from his censor-free bosses for helping the satellite service exceed its subscriber goal for the year by more than 2 million.
In 2004, when Sirius was hashing out the final terms of its contract with Stern, both sides agreed that if annual subscriptions surpassed 3.5 million, Stern would receive an incremental stock bonus. Last week, the company announced a year-end tally of more than 6 million paying listeners.
And as far as Sirius is concerned, more subscribers equal bigger paydays.
"The decision to bring Howard Stern to Sirius required a very significant commitment and we are very pleased that our investment has dramatically paid off," Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius, said on Tuesday.
As is Stern, most likely.
Per the FCC foe's contract with Sirius, Stern has earnings potential in the multimillion range. The radio vet will continue to be rewarded with major payouts each time he exceeds target subscriber figures—with each bonus being in addition to his annual $100 million payday.
Still, while Stern has exceeded nearly double the number of subscribers than was first estimated, his salacious brand of humor is reaching less than half the audience that his terrestrial gig was in 2005, when his show was heard by roughly 12 million people a day.
And while Stern's stock bonus is a nice boon to the personality's bank account, Sirius' stock price has dropped dramatically—from $6.57 to $3.76—since Stern joined the company last year.
Not that Stern is too concerned.
"It's been a great year and the show is better than ever," Stern said. "I can do whatever I want and say whatever I want."
The morning show host today celebrates his one-year anniversary on the paid airwaves, and followed up his regular live Howard Stern Show with a rebroadcast of his Sirius debut.
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