Howard Stern broke my heart today and I’m not sure I will fully recover. He announced that, starting next week, he will reduce his show from four days per week to three days per week. When Stern re-signed with Sirius, he warned listeners that he’d change his schedule, which means this arrangement was negotiated months ago. My guess is that Stern wanted to keep this announcement a secret until the dust settled on his contract re-negotiation. I understand that Howard Stern is the only entertainer of his caliber that has to produce this much original content. Letterman, for example, is on the air for one hour per day, and he has an entire machine behind him. Stern has a much smaller machine, and he’s producing 16 hours of original content per week. That being said, I’m still devastated. According to Stern, “The option was either leave or work a few less days, and I thought it was better to stay on the air.” Yes — I’d prefer to have some of Stern than none of Stern. But I want all of Stern. Is that too much to ask?