Howard vs. Mel

HOWARD VS. MEL: Once the best of friends and successful business partners, Howard Stern and Mel Karmazin’s romance has considerably cooled in light of the King of All Media’s current lawsuit against employer Sirius XM. As can be heard in his on-air rants, it’s getting increasingly personal, and today, Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com revealed affidavits supporting the chill. Stern and his agent Don Buchwald have sued to collect a stipulated bonus on reaching a certain level of subscribers, now numbering 20 million. Management claims the original deal did not include the subscriptions added when Sirius and XM merged, and that their star attraction was paid a bonus at that time. The DJ recently inked a new five-year deal to remain at the satellite radio station through 2016, telling his listeners, without his presence, the Sirius XM merger never would've happened, and he's got a point. At the very least, the brouhaha should make for some interesting radio, for the three days a week Stern shows up, that is. (6/28p)