Howard Stern Gets Sirius; MUSE Awards Honor NY Super Ladies
Howard Stern–surprise! (not)–is staying at Sirius XM Radio. He’s signed a five year deal. It wasn’t possible he was going back to regular radio. Sirius has thrived with him, and he’s thrived with them. So it’s a win-win. Now Howard will be heard on mobile devices, too. His last contract was for $500 million. Sirius, meantime, has grown massively to 20 million subscribers since it merged with XM. It’s must have in the car because–especially in New York–radio is so incredibly awful….
…Our pal Cindi Berger, who runs powerhouse PR firm PMK-BNC, was honored yesterday with a MUSE Award from New York Women in Film and Television. The other honorees were Vanessa Williams, Pat Kaufman–who runs the New York State film office, Abbe Raven of A&E Television. Marsha Hunt, who’s 93, received a lifetime humanitarian award. 
(She’s not the Marsha Hunt from the Mick Jagger days–whatever happened to her?) Cindi started as the receptionist at PMK in the days of Lois Smith and Pat Kingsley and worked her way up with integrity and determination. She also is famous for handling all the divas, from Barbara Walters to Mariah Carey and Rosie O’Donnell. They all love her! And Pat Kaufman is the pixie from North Carolina who gets things done. She’s the reason so many films shoot in New York state and not in Canada. Congrats to them all!
Get it right! The $500 mil deal was for the whole show, meaning production costs including salaries for himself and all the staff. Howard said that himself on the show. So his cut was probably 20% of the $500 or $20 mil/yr sounds about right.
My husband and I bought a Sirius radio before the first Stern deal was announced. I had never listened and figured he was a sexist jerk, but I’m one of his biggest fans now. He gets a bad rap and not enough respect for all he accomplished in radio and on satellite.
He’s a great interviewer, his takes on current events are always something I look forward to and the staff and others he has surrounded himself with have made many dark days brighter.
Now if we can only get Artie Lange back. He is sorely missed.