Stuttering John Sues SiriusXM

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 9:59am CT

Stuttering John Melendez

His name is John Melendez, but he's known to fans of the Howard Stern show as "Stuttering John." He was a longtime fixture on Stern's show but left in 2004 after over 15 years to become the announcer for NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." He's now suing SiriusXM for using his name, likeness and voice without permission on channels dedicated to Stern.

Melendez is accusing Sirius of exploiting his celebrity to attract more listeners and advertising and says the company responded to his recent cease-and-desist letter by marginalizing his contributions to Stern's show and threatening to take his current show, "The Stuttering John Podcast," off its Pandora streaming service. He estimates that more than 13,000 hours of "The Howard Stern Show" feature his voice, name and identity.

The New York Post reports that the complaint, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, seeks unspecified damages for Sirius' airing of old recordings of Melendez on two channels dedicated to Stern, which Melendez said violated California law and his right of publicity.

Neither Sirius nor an attorney for Melendez would make any immediate additional comments.