At the end of the day, history will show that Howard was better on regular radio. He was better when he had an enemy - the FCC, censorship, Dead Air Dave, Tom Chiasano, etc. He was better when he was angry, a chip on his shoulder for being told no. Finding a way to push their boundaries. Carefully having to reinvent his language and behavior into something we all spoke to get around the rules, etc. It was fun for all us, like teenagers manipulating their clueless parents. Having the rules forced upon him gave him angry and forced him to be more creative. Now the teenager is grown up and can so all the things he couldn't do before - watch porn, use profanity, leave pizza boxes lying all around - anything he wants. With satellite, the parents are gone, the rules are gone but the fun is too. He can walk up to the school and vandalize it with no one their to chase him off. Boring.
I loved Howard too, but 5 more years? Of what? 1 or 2 shows every three weeks or so with 28 seconds of funny material and then coddling some cocksucker celebrity? Or 5 more years of Marianne and Bobo making stupid calls every day and fat ass Jon hein telling us how great and innovative Howard is because Jeff's Lump/toupee/sheets/dick/ called in to make a "joke"? Get fucking real. I don't give a fuck that Howard Stern is proud that his wife turned him into the Crazy Cat Lady.
Plus, he can cling to "when I announced I was coming over, Sirius only had 600,000 subscribers, now we have 20 million" meaning in his mind, he already won, game over, no reason to hustle take a knee and run out out the clock to the end of your contract
I hope there will be a morning zoo with Booey, Sal and Richard replacing Howard....Ronnie could do celebrity interviews