Ouch! Howard Stern's Former Staffers Claim He's A Cheapskate And 'Worse Than Ellen Degeneres' To Work With
Howard Stern’s staffers have accused the legendary radio personality of being a “scrooge” who did very little in helping his former engineer, Scott Salem, raise money to save the life of his late wife, Robin.
Salem, who had been working for The Howard Stern Show for more than three decades, approached bosses behind the scenes in 2018, stressing that after treatment costs and insurance bills, their finances had been greatly affected by his partner’s costly medications.
Salem asked his team whether he had their permission to open up a GoFundMe page in the hopes of raising $50,000 for his partner, to which chief operating officer Marci Turk agreed to, but only under the condition that he would make no mention of the show or Stern in his post, Daily Mail claimed.
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He complied to the agreement and went on to pull in more than $73,000 from fans of the show — but, according to The New York Post, Stern wasn’t happy about the move, particularly when staffers had asked him why he didn’t offer up the sum from his $650 million fortune.
After all, the year prior to Salem’s request, Stern had made an eye-watering $90 million, according to Forbes, which made him the seventh highest-earning celebrity in America thanks to his popular radio show and lucrative endorsement deals.
Interestingly enough, it wasn’t long after Salem had earned the GoFundMe money when he was sent to work on another floor in the studio, consequently removing him from making any further on-air appearances on Stern’s show.
The two reportedly stopped talking, and when Salem’s wife died in June 2018, Stern couldn’t even find it in himself to offer his condolences in person and wrote his colleague an email instead.
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At the 2019 Christmas party with staffers, Salem’s new partner was said to have tried to record some of Stern’s comments, which later led to an incident with Turk.
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Salem learned about his firing from the show weeks later, ending his lengthy run on the radio show but to say that he was heated about the boot would have been an understatement.
Radio star John Melendez, who worked with Stern for six years between 1998 and 2004, said: “This has really bothered me. It’s really sad. His wife ends up dying. Howard doesn’t even go downstairs and offer Scott his condolences. Everyone falls from grace with Howard.”
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“For the record, Scott never bad mouthed Howard to me. Prob cuz he’s afraid & classy. But I’m Unafraid & classless So I say. Shame on u Howard,” Stern’s former employee and popular radio personality, Artie Lange, tweeted back in 2018.
“Ask yourself why all of ur ex loyal servants hate u! Just sad.”
Meanwhile, The New York Post quotes its sources saying that Stern is "worse than Ellen (DeGeneres)" when it comes to working with his staff.
News of Stern’s alleged behavior behind the scenes of his radio show comes just days after the 66-year-old reportedly inked a $100 million five-year deal with Sirius, which has increased the star’s net worth to an astounding $750 million.