Stern has a Lot of Things to Say

NY- CBS may want to silence Howard Stern, but the shock jock is vowing never to shut up.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily News, Stern revealed that CBS attorneys fired off a letter asking him not to speak publicly about their legal war.

He also alleged CBS threatened to pull advertising from the trade paper Daily Variety unless its editors killed a favorable piece about him.

"I don't think they expected me to talk about it," Stern told The News. "Obviously not - why are they sending me a letter to say shut the f--- up?"

"I'm one of those guys that really gets affected when somebody calls me a fraud," he said. "I feel like, 'Wow, is the world going to think I did something wrong?' I'm worried about that. I don't like it, and it's really, really stressful because I fixate on it, and I'm angry about it."

"For chrissakes, this is my reputation," he said. "This is scary s--- to me."

A CBS spokesman confirmed the network sent the letter after a lawsuit was filed last month charging Stern, his agent Don Buchwald and Sirius Satellite Radio with multiple breaches of the shock jock's contract with CBS Radio.

"As for Variety," the spokesman said, "we have never threatened to pull any advertising from that publication, ever."

Daily Variety editor Tim Gray called the claim that pressure had been placed on the paper "ridiculous."

CBS maintains Stern had a secret $220 million deal to hype Sirius subscriptions while he was still working for CBS, essentially stealing commercial time - a charge Stern adamantly denies.

"If [CBS Radio boss] Joel [Hollander] said to me once, 'Do not talk about it,' that would have been the end of it," Stern told The News. "I didn't defy any rule."

"I would rather not deal with it," he said. "But I do feel at least I'm speaking out and that makes me sleep at night. If I wasn't, I would feel like a victim, and I don't want to be a victim."

Saying he might have been naive, Stern, who left CBS in December, acknowledged that he's surprised at how he has been treated by his old bosses.

"I had a sense I did something really great for that company for 20 years," he said. "I gave up my f-----g life, my whole f-----g personal life, I sacrificed for that company...and they made money. The thank-you is unbelievable - a frivolous lawsuit."

Stern called the suit a personal vendetta by CBS CEO Les Moonves.

"If I understood any of the merits of it, I swear to you, I'd sit here and say, 'Maybe I did something wrong,'" Stern said. "My lawyer said, 'Remember one thing: You did nothing wrong.'"

But CBS insiders say corporate brass sent letters to Stern during his last 14 months at the company asking him to stop promoting Sirius on the air.

CBS' spokesman said Stern and "his public relations minions continue to indulge in any falsehood or evasion that will get him the publicity and attention he can no longer attract on satellite radio."

Still, since the suit was filed, Stern has found supporters in some unlikely places. After he went on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" and said former "Evening News" anchor Dan Rather was also mistreated by Moonves, Rather called.

"He was very supportive," Stern said, declining to give specifics. "I was so pleased that he had called."

So what does Stern want from CBS now, other than for the suit to go away?

"I'd like an apology," he said. "That's what I'd like."