Howard Stern Offers Surprise Farewells

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Howard Stern delivered an atypical shock on his Friday radio broadcast. "The show is over," he announced. "It's over."

The onetime "King of All Media" and full-time shock jock, 50, predicted that a Federal Communications Communication crackdown on indecency -- which was spurred by Janet Jackson's breast-baring Super Bowl stunt -- will ultimately force his salacious syndicated show off the dial.

"I'm guessing that sometime next week will be my last show on this station," said Stern, adding that he expected the FCC to hit him with a whopping indecency fine, reports the Associated Press. "There's a cultural war going on. The religious right is winning. We're losing."

He added: "The plug is about to be pulled on me. I'm saying my goodbyes now. There's nothing you can do about it ... Vote George Bush out of office. That's all I ask. Remember me when you go to the voting booth."

A call by AP requesting comment that was placed to Infinity Broadcasting, which syndicates Stern's show, was not returned over the weekend. Clear Channel Communications yanked Stern from stations in San Diego, Pittsburgh, Rochester, N.Y., Louisville, Ky., and Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 25. The company said the suspension would last until the Stern show met its programming guidelines.

On Friday, Stern devoted the first two and a half hours of his show to his anticipated demise, a change of pace from the usual fare of naked women and toilet humor.

"This time they have to fire me," Stern said. "I'm through. I'm a dead man walking."

On Thursday, Clear Channel paid a record $755,000 fine levied last month by the FCC for indecent material aired by several of its stations, says AP.