Howard’s Stern Warning

HOWARD’S STERN WARNING

Rattled shock jock may be facing the axe

Howard, with longtime cohost Robin Quivers in 1995, signed a new contract with SiriusXM in December

Shock jock Howard Stern is up to his neck in drama as rumors reach a fever pitch that his self-named radio show could get cut by SiriusXM — and wife Beth Ostrosky is working overtime behind the scenes to soothe the worrywart’s stressed-out spirits, sources say.

Howard, 72, is reportedly shifting toward producing just one four-hour original show per week and mining his vast archives of previous broadcasts as filler. As part of the change, spies say 12 members of his team were kicked to the curb in a cost-cutting move, and some have accused Howard of running the show like a dictator who didn’t even want folks to look at him!

Wife Beth is trying to keep the radio yakker’s spirits up, insiders say

An insider confides, “Howard has begrudgingly accepted that it’s time to scale things back, but now there are all these rumors that it may end up flat-out canceled, and that’s doing nothing for his mood.

“He still wants to work, and he wants to go out on his terms. So having to play this waiting game where he feels like the bosses are holding his future in their hands and capriciously deciding his fate is a nightmare.”

While the self-proclaimed King of All Media is said to currently be taking home $100 million a year — and even inked a new contract for himself in December — sources say the aging yakker is tied up in knots about what tomorrow may hold.

“It’s the first time in many, many years that he’s powerless like this, and that’s probably the hardest part for him to accept,” the insider explains.

According to the tipster, the mounting uncertainty cast a “dark cloud” over the Mouth That Roars during his summer break, and Beth — whom he wed in October 2008 — has been desperately trying to brighten her hubby’s spirits.

“Normally he’s the life and soul of the party, but he’s just so preoccupied it’s hard for him to relax,” the insider shares. “Poor Beth is trying to help, but it’s very difficult because he’s such a ball of stress right now. It’s to the point where she’s tiptoeing around him, which is not the way things usually are at all.”

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