THE RETURN OF STERN

Rumors are rife the Sirius Satellite Radio star will re-emerge in New York on WPLJ or WABC, just as his competitors Opie & Anthony did in adding several CBS Radio outlets to their shows on XM.

Persistent industry chatter says "some sort of mega-deal's brewing among Sirius chief Mel Karmazin, Stern and Mel's longtime associate Farid Suleman," according to trade mag Inside Radio. Suleman currently runs Citadel Broadcasting, which is acquiring Disney/ABC's radio division, including N.Y. stations WPLJ and WABC.

Inside Radio insists the rumors "just won't die, despite what Stern and Sirius have said in the past." Stern has been kvetching on-air about published reports that he's lost his influence and is no longer a "watercooler topic" since he bolted from CBS for Sirius in a $500 million deal last January.

His celebrity-guest bookings have all but dried up, while the N.Y. Post's Page Six reported last week that since his move to pay radio, traffic to Stern's web site was down a whopping 71% and his search-engine action plunged a staggering 90%.

"Terrestrial radio is so scared of this broadcast that they've even hired a full-time publicist to slander and disparage me and try to make me look like a failure," Stern told his listeners last week, insisting he would never return to traditional broadcasting.

Apparently, he's thinking twice about that.