Howard Stern’s Sad, Predictable End Game

The King of All Media deserved a better fate, but he has only himself to blame.

Howard Stern’s dwindling radio empire will be reduced to one new episode a week following the Labor Day holiday. A show that once ruled terrestrial radio and revolutionized broadcasting is now an afterthought, a place holder for Stern reruns.

The news comes after Stern’s contentious contract squabble with SiriusXM last year. That resulted in a three-year deal with no announced price tag.

He’s earned a quasi-retirement, but he’s hardly going out on top. The Stern of the last decade bares little resemblance to the cutting-edge cad who made radio cool. He’s become a parody of his old self, betraying the principles that made him an industry legend.

The man whose celebrity feuds were the stuff of legends is now as safe as a bubble-wrapped hummel figurine.

He should have quit a long time ago.

He’s already a forgotten name in the media landscape, surpassed by a new generation of talkers – Joe Rogan, Alex Cooper, Charlamagne tha God and that “SmartLess” trio (Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett).

The old Stern would have declared war on the Rogans and Coopers who threaten his audio supremacy. This version would rather talk about chess.

The fire in his belly went out long ago, but that’s not the only reason for his shocking decline.

RELATED: SAYING GOODBYE TO KING OF ALL MEDIA

Let’s start with Stern’s famous free speech battles. The shock jock raged against the FCC in the 1990s, battered by indecency fines that threatened his ribald showcase.

He relished the fight, beating his chest and saying what pleased him whenever it pleased him. Come and take me off the air. He even made merch out of the free speech slugfest – the 1991 box set “Crucified by the FCC” featured unexpurgated Stern bits.

The new, not-so-improved Stern sat by as Cancel Culture ravaged comedy, forcing stand-ups to watch what they say, or else. Veteran comics like John Cleese, Bill Maher and Rob Schneider fought back while Stern kept a low profile.

He also said little about conservatives being chased off college campuses or otherwise silenced. The Twitter Files scandal? What’s that?

Would George Carlin have stayed quiet during these speech-chilling episodes?

Unlikely.

Stern even embraced the woke mind virus. while admitting he didn’t know the word’s meaning.

“And if woke means I can’t get behind Trump, which is what I think it means, or that I support people who want to be transgender or I’m for the vaccine, dude, call me woke as you f***ing want.”

The old Stern complained about married life, shredded egotistical stars and mocked sterile TV fare. He later divorced his longtime wife, Alison Stern, cozied up to A-listers like Jimmy Kimmel and became a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” the epitome of toothless TV.

Now, we didn’t want a 60-something Stern to keep throwing bologna slices at naked strippers. He still could have matured while maintaining his edge.

And then came a global pandemic. COVID-19 turned him into a germaphobe. He stopped socializing and hunkered down, hermit style, at home. He got the virus anyway.

Stern mostly avoided partisan bickering during his glory days, pinging from Left to Right depending on the cause. He was a fierce gun rights advocate who held socially liberal beliefs. He wasn’t easily pinned down, nor did he obsess over the latest Beltway business (except during his 1994 New York gubernatorial run).

Yet he eventually drifted to the far Left, hailing MSNBC as his beloved news network. And, when Democrats needed a milquetoast interviewer to lob softballs at President Joe Biden, Stern did as told.

Embarrassing barely describes that fawning Q&A. His similarly obsequious Hillary Clinton interview proved nearly as bad.

Some Hollywood stars wisely knew when to call it quits. Think Johnny Carson, who left “The Tonight Show” in 1992 while still atop the late-night pile.

Jerry Seinfeld pulled the plug on his eponymous sitcom after nine glorious seasons. No clunkers. Director John Hughes stopped making teen comedies after a monumental run including “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club.”

Stern, in sharp contrast, never saw how far he had fallen. Now, his remaining listeners can hear him live just one day a week.

Longtime fans may sample the endless reruns to remember why Stern once dubbed himself the King of All Media … and the nickname fit like a velvet glove.