"Here’s the truth: SiriusXM and my team have been talking about how we go forward in the future," Stern said.

Howard Stern, the popular and highly paid radio host, returned to SiriusXM's airwaves Monday after trolling listeners into thinking he had departed his long-running show.

A number of news outlets, including The Associated Press, Variety and others, quickly published articles reporting Stern’s departure from SiriusXM before Stern got on the air to reveal the prank.