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Official: Diamond Dave Gets Howard's Job
The rumors were true: I can tell you exclusively that sometime next month, Infinity Broadcasting will announce that David Lee Roth is taking over for Howard Stern.
The one-time lead singer of Van Halen will assume the microphone in New York and several other markets where Stern's show is heard. Still not set is where Adam Carolla, former co-host of “The Man Show,” will be in place, but sources close to the action tell me that Roth and Carolla will not be together.
Roth is represented by the all-knowing, all-seeing Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood, so you know he has an ironclad contract.
The president of programming for Infinity Broadcasting, which owns Stern's show, said last winter that there wouldn't be one person replacing the notorious shock jock. And he was right. Roth and Carolla will divide up the territories so that no one person can regain Stern's monopoly of the airwaves. Carolla will likely have the West Coast.
Now comes the interesting part: so far, Roth has no on-air team assembled. He doesn't have a sidekick like Robin Quivers or any of the other necessary cast members to pull off a three- or four-hour comedy show, but I was assured that's all being finalized right now, and that by the time of the announcement Roth will be ready.
Last July, there were rumors abound concerning Roth replacing Stern when one of the regulars on his show blabbed it in an online column. According to Billboard, that same regular--Chaunce Hayden--was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission because he'd been in Stern's studio on October 6, 2004, the day Stern announced he was leaving his show to go to Sirius Satellite Radio.
What's not happening is any relinquishing by Stern of his powerful mount until the end of the year, and it's not only because Roth and Carolla don't have their acts ready. Stern's contract doesn't run out until December and Infinity isn't about to let him go early. On the other hand, Direct TV--which, ironically, has a deal with Sirius's competitor, XM--should be offering Stern's show soon if they aren't already.
And Stern already has a presence at Sirius, where he's launching a couple of “channels” under his own banner soon. Don't expect it to be all Howard Stern all the time. He's too smart for that. My guess is there will be lots of interesting, thought provoking stuff at a much cooler level than you might expect.
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