by At the last-minute, defying conventional wisdom that he was heading to the Web, Howard Stern announced this morning that he had signed a five-year contract extension with Sirius/XM, which not only pleased his fans but also the satellite radio business that relies on Stern and his fans to stay afloat.
Stern's initial $500 million, five-year contract with Sirius was expiring this month. No word yet on how much it'll cost Sirius/XM to keep him on the radio, but the talk jock said he didn't expect another renewal come Dec. 31, 2015.
"I can say with almost certainty that this is my final five years on radio," Stern said on-air.
Sirius had about 600,000 subscribers before Stern signed on five years ago. After its merger with XM, the satellite radio company now has more than 20 million subscribers.
