Howard Stern, podcaster?

HOWARD’S END? When Howard Stern's five-year deal with Sirius ends in December, the 56-year-old shock jock may want to cut his work load down from his current routine, which is four days a week, 39 weeks a year, notes N.Y. Daily News media reporter David Hinckley. Stern says he has loved Sirius and would like to stay. But late last week he said, "It's probably not going to happen." What could happen, he has suggested, is starting his own subscription podcast. "The problem with 'monetizing' the Internet," Talkers magazine editor Michael Harrison tells Hinckley, "is that almost everything there is available somewhere else, free. [But] Stern would be selling something not available anywhere else—himself." If Howard did three podcasts a week, charged $5 a month and got a million subscribers, he'd make $60 million a year. Sounds like a very appealing scenario to us. (9/8a)