As we reported last week, Howard Stern and CBS Radio have settled the lawsuit launched by his former bosses at CBS Radio. CBS sued the radio giant last February, accusing him of violating his contract by improperly using his airtime on CBS stations to promote his January 2006 move to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. Though the details of the settlement remained confidential, one thing has been announced: as part of the settlement, Stern has wrangled back his master tapes from the last 20 years of his terrestrial radio program. Sirius agreed to pay $2 million to CBS Radio in return for the rights to the recordings. When you think about it, it’s really not a settlement at all, as Stern had offered to buy back the masters for around that amount from the get-go, before CBS even launched the suit. So while, CBS will spin this as a settlement, what actually happened is that they backed down from their frivolous lawsuit entirely AND sold Stern back his masters for the reasonable price he once offered them. In other words, CBS got bitch-slapped! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Msnbc.com: Howard Stern regains rights to old shows