A prank that shocked listeners of Howard Stern‘s SiriusXM radio show last year has now become reality — and this time, it’s no joke.
On Tuesday, September 1, the radio icon passed his satellite radio channel to Andy Cohen, which will no longer feature Stern’s content but is now the new home of Cohen’s Radio Andy channel.
Goodbye to Howard 101
In a video shared by SiriusXM, the two radio hosts appear together, with Stern officially handing Cohen the keys to his Howard 101 channel.
“Last year we pranked the world. We made everybody think that I was taking over Howard 100. It was the best morning. Now the carrot is being dangled that Radio Andy will be taking over 101. Is this a prank? Am I being pranked?” Cohen asks Stern in the video.
“No, you are not being pranked. And Andy has been gracious enough to take over 101. And I have one request: please continue the tradition of doing a lot of gay antics,” Stern replies.
Howard 100 Remains
Last year, Stern pulled a prank to mock reports that he was being fired by SiriusXM, with Cohen appearing on the air to tell viewers that Stern had not renewed his contract, and he’d be taking over Stern’s show on his Howard 100 channel. Stern later appeared to reveal the whole thing was a practical joke, but also announced he’d be cutting back to just two weekly shows.
As Stern’s listeners know, the Howard 101 channel had featured vintage content culled from Stern’s decades-long career.
That content had ranged from his stint at DC 101 in Washington, D.C. back in the early 1980s, through his brief-but-controversial tenure at WNBC in New York, and then his decades at K-Rock before coming to Sirius in 2001, prior to the satellite radio firm’s merger with then-competitor XM.
“Any chance I could get 100, and you take 101?” Cohen asks in the video.
“No, I’m not giving up 100,” Stern responds, confirming he’ll be maintaining control of his Howard 100 channel.
A Downsized Schedule for Stern
GettyThe channel changeover comes amid the former “America’s Got Talent” judge’s revelation that he’s scaling back to just one show per week.
An earlier report claimed that SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” had laid off a dozen staffers as the one-time radio shock jock prepared to reduce his workload to just one show per week.
On Monday, August 31, SiriusXM confirmed Stern would indeed be stepping back to just one show per week when he returns from his summer hiatus on September 14.
The Hollywood Reporter points out that Stern’s single weekly show will now be adapted into a streamable television episode for HBO Max, which will include “extras” for fans
“The Howard Stern Show on HBO Max” will make its debut on the streamer on September 17, with subsequent episodes arriving each Thursday.
“There’s simply no one like Howard, and the start of his new season is another exciting chapter in an extraordinary run,” Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s president and chief content officer, said in a statement to THR.
“For more than two decades at SiriusXM, he’s continued to evolve, surprise audiences and deliver the kind of conversations and moments that only Howard can,” Greenstein continued. “We are proud that Howard chose to continue with SiriusXM through 2028 for his exclusive live show and deep library of classic Howard, and that Howard, HBO Max and SiriusXM have now teamed up to create a compelling new video version of his show.”
