RIley Martin Has Out-of-This-World Demands

February 15, 2007
Photo: The Howard Stern Show

Riley Martin called in to welcome Beth to “the zone of horror,” warning her he felt her marriage to Howard would eventually end. Riley then insisted that, as his program allegedly grew in popularity, Howard refused to promote it, but Howard responded that wasn’t the case. Riley next noted he felt the following three reasons were why his show wasn’t being promoted: (1) Howard was busy having “brain-damaged urchins stick foreign objects up their orifices”; (2) Howard was too rich to care about him; and (3) Howard was “vindictive, jealous and insecure.” As Riley continued to scream, Howard turned down his call for a few seconds and explained Riley was really upset that he didn’t pick up his calls right away, but Riley insisted he didn’t call in that often. Riley went on to say his was one of the most popular programs on SIRIUS, but Howard pointed out there was no way of really knowing that. Howard added he recently spoke to Mel Karmazin, the president of SIRIUS, and that Mel assured him if he found talent who could bring in subscribers, they’d be “paid handsomely.” Given this, Howard told Riley that if he was really attracting people to SIRIUS, Mel would be paying him accordingly. When Riley announced he was prepared to renegotiate his contract in March to get more money, Howard told him that, due to budgetary concerns at SIRIUS, he was pretty sure Riley would be getting less money for his future broadcasts once his deal was discussed. Upon hearing that, Riley replied, “If I’m producing for you, f’ing pay me,” which led Howard to advise him to shop his show to terrestrial radio stations to see if they’d be willing to pay him better.

Three Against One

Ralph got on the line and called Riley’s show “a novelty act,” but he didn’t agree with the assessment, and told Ralph “to duck” when someone “flew an airplane up his ass.” Riley also commented he would never “kowtow” to Howard, which he said was another reason why he wasn’t making as much money as he thought he should. Tim Sabean then came into the studio to refute Riley’s claim that he wasn’t getting paid what his contract stipulated, and acknowledged Riley called “all the time” in an attempt to get a richer contract. Jessica Hahn also called in to criticize Riley, causing him to advise her to find “another preacher to let her suck his d*ck.”