Howard Stern

File:Howardstern1.jpg

"King of all media" Howard Stern, circa 2000.

File:H100logofist.jpg

Howard 100 Logo

Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and TV personality, humorist and author.

The self-proclaimed "King of All Media" (the title was a joking reference to Michael Jackson's self-appelation "The King of Pop") has been dubbed a shock jock for his highly controversial use of scatological, sexual, and racial humor, and exploitation of his guests. However, Stern and many of his fans hate the term “Shock Jock.” Stern said himself, “The show is never about shocking people. We are about having fun.” Some of his commentaries are perceived by many to include bigoted, misanthropic and misogynistic remarks about various religious and ethnic groups, women, and men - though one of his trademarks is that he makes fun of everyone equally, even himself. He is both the highest-paid radio personality in the United States and the most fined personality in radio broadcast history—facts that he seems to take pride in.

He is most well known for his national radio show, which for many years was syndicated on FM radio stations (and a few AM stations) throughout the United States, until his last broadcast via terrestrial radio on December 16, 2005. After a brief hiatus, he began broadcasting via the Sirius subscription-based satellite radio service on January 9, 2006.

His national television shows include The Howard Stern Show on WWOR-TV, which ran in the early 1990s; Howard Stern, which ran from 1994-2005 on E!; and The Howard Stern Radio Show, which ran from 1998-2001 in syndication. The Howard Stern Show was a weekly skit-driven show that was produced in the Secaucus, NJ studios of WWOR-TV and shown in selected markets. The other shows were produced from video footage of his live radio broadcast.

Since November 18, 2005, Howard Stern on Demand has been available on television through the iN DEMAND video on demand service that various cable TV systems offer. Currently, this includes uncensored versions of shows which previously aired on E!; video from his Sirius show will be available starting in April 2006.

Biography

Howard Stern was born into a Jewish family in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York. His father Ben worked at a radio station and Howard developed an interest in broadcasting as a child when he would accompany his father to work.

Stern often joked that his parents "abused" him as a child, and the strong possibility of frequent verbal abuse was confirmed when Stern played old family recordings during a 1990 broadcast. Many pieces of those old recordings have become soundbites, with such paternal gems as "I told you not to be stupid, you moron" and "Shut up! Sit down!" being screamed at a young (under ten years old) Howard.

These old recordings were later used in a parody commercial for the "Ben Stern School of Broadcasting" which specialized in graduating self-loathing and emotionally disturbed workaholic media leaders.

He said that his mother ran her house with "the intensity of Hitler" and that his father often called him a moron. However, he has also stated that this was just part of his gimmick and that his parents were warm, loving and supportive.

Stern attended Roosevelt Junior High School, where he was one of the few white students in a predominantly African American school, until 1969. Stern's family then moved and he attended South Side High School, where he graduated in 1972 [1]. In 1976 he received his Bachelor's degree in communications from Boston University, where he had worked as a volunteer at the college radio station.

File:STERN.jpg

Stern handing out Sirius radios during a promotion in 2005.

After graduation, he worked as a disc jockey for an obscure station in Briarcliff Manor, New York, WRNW-FM, playing disco music. He discovered a talent for Lenny Bruce-type comedy, and developed a wide-ranging confrontational style. In 1978, Stern landed his first morning show job in Hartford, CT at WCCC-FM and WCCC-AM where he was hired by station owner Sy Dresner. The radio station had a progressive rock format that lent itself nicely to developing Howard's "free-form" personality. Dresner, in fact, pushed Stern to use the telephone as a tool to create on-air material. Also, it was at the Hartford radio station where Howard also met his future show writer and producer, Fred Norris, who was working as an overnight DJ. It seemed evident that Stern was on his way to stardom as he gathered public attention for a number of on-air antics while in Hartford, CT. He earned news headlines after calling Japanese officials on the air in a attempt to get ex-Beatle Paul McCartney out of jail and had Connecticut motorists protesting gas prices with a headlight campaign. After Dresner held off on giving Stern a $25 raise, Stern decided to head off to a Detroit rock station for more money. (Years later in 1995, WCCC Radio Program Director Ron Dresner, Sy's son, brought Howard's show back to southern New England via syndication on WCCC Radio). In Detroit, Howard migrated to FM radio station in Detroit (WWWW known as W4), unfortunately W4 made promises such as a new studio to Howard that they couldn't keep. Soon after Howard's arrival, W4 switched its format from rock to country music. Howard would head to Washington, D.C. (putting in a year at DC101 and making it the #1 station in town in the process), and returned to New York in 1982 to work at NBC's flagship AM radio station WNBC. Also working at NBC was David Letterman, who became a fan of Stern's radio show. Stern's guest appearance on Late Night with David Letterman on June 19, 1984, launched Stern into the national spotlight and gave his radio show unprecedented exposure. Stern would appear on Letterman's show many times thereafter.

Stern and his crew were fired from NBC in 1985, ostensibly in response to a particularly outrageous sketch -- "Bestiality Dial-A-Date" -- although relations between station management and Stern were strained from the beginning. He quickly returned to the FM band by joining local rival station WXRK, premiering on November 18, 1985 and returning permanently to morning drive in February 1986. Stern's show was syndicated nationwide starting in 1986 by Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio). The program made great sport of feuding with other cities' top-rated DJs, but soon enough, Stern's broadcast was #1 in such important markets as Philadelphia and Los Angeles, among several others. His Arbitron numbers remain strongest in the country's #1 radio market, New York, where his morning ratings more than triple his station's average numbers the rest of the day.

Although both his parents are Jewish, Stern has long claimed on his show to be "a half-Jew". His Hebrew name is Tzvi; his paternal grandparents, Froim and Anna (Gallar) Stern, and maternal grandparents, Sol and Esther (Reich) Schiffman, were Jews from Austria-Hungary who emigrated to America at about the same time.

On June 4, 1978, Stern married his college sweetheart, Alison Berns, at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts; they have three daughters: Emily Beth (b. 1984), Deborah Jennifer (b. 1987) and Ashley Jade (b. 1993). A hallmark of Stern's humor was that he often expressed how tempted he was by the strippers, porn stars, and lesbians who appeared on his show, but always insisted that he had to be faithful to his wife. In October of 1999, Stern announced that Alison was divorcing him, due to the fact that he was a workaholic. The couple's divorce proceeding resulted in a settlement, and Alison remarried in 2001 to David Simon, CEO of the Simon Property Group.

Since early 2000 Stern has been dating model Beth Ostrosky, who is 19 years younger than him. Ostrosky has appeared in the men's magazine FHM several times, and in early June of 2005, the editor-at-large of the magazine, Jake Bronstein, was fired after he commented that Ostrosky is only famous because she dates Stern. It has been alleged that Stern pressured FHM to fire him. Stern has vehemently denied these rumors, citing Bronstein's comments about FHM airbrushing many of its photographs as the true reason behind Bronstein's termination.

On December 28, 2005, Howard 100 News reported on a rumor that Stern had married Ostrosky since his December 16, 2005 terrestrial radio finale. However, on January 9, his first day on satellite radio, Stern revealed he was not married, but only after temporarily fooling his broadcast crew, including lifelong co-host Robin Quivers, into thinking he and Ostrosky had tied the knot during a Mexico vacation.

Radio Show

File:Hsternshowonsirius.jpg

Howard Stern Show.

His early broadcasting years included working at WTBU, Boston University's campus radio station. Following graduation in 1976, Stern moved to WRNW. During his time at WRNW, he lived in a monastery.

Following WRNW was WCCC in Hartford, then WWWW ("W4") in Detroit. With each station, he improved in ratings and skill, finally moving on to WWDC-FM.

In one archetypical example of his radio show, documented in his autobiographical movie Private Parts, he persuaded a female caller to have phone sex with him on the air. He made deep buzzing noises into his microphone, and had her sit on a speaker with the subwoofer control turned up until she reached an on-the-air orgasm. Another notable incident at WWDC-FM (DC101 Radio) in Washington D.C. occurred the day after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into a Washington bridge on January 13, 1982, killing 78 people. On the air, Stern made a call to Air Florida Airlines and asked what the fare was for a one-way ticket from Washington National Airport to the 14th Street Bridge. Though exceptionally crass and politically incorrect, Stern's attempt to connect the tragedy with airline finances is a biting satire of any situation which places profits ahead of public safety.

That June 29, Stern was fired from DC101 radio after being suspended for criticizing his station management and two other radio stations. Stern's lawyer alleged, "It's our view that the real reason they've fired Stern is they would like to get new DC101 DJs 'The GreaseMan' and 'Adam Smasher' on the air as soon as possible, and hope the audience forgets about Howard, and that's a perfectly rational business judgment."

When he joined WNBC in 1981, his first show was an overnight program where he introduced the character Lance Eluction, New York's first gay disc jockey, partially in retaliation for being forced to do a "practice show" which he considered to be the ultimate insult since he had already demonstrated his talent by being top of the market in Washington. There were over 5,000 telephone calls to NBC's switchboard during that overnight call. The segment was re-enacted for Private Parts, though Stern didn't mention that he and Fred were suspended for three days after this, their first NBC broadcast.

Early in his career, before he was allowed to adopt his all-talk format, he was required to play records and would frequently irritate station management by tunelessly singing along.

Stern referred to himself as the "King Of All Media," a parody of Michael Jackson's claim to the title "King of Pop." To his subjects this title is true, as they have been loyal consumers of The King's radio shows, television shows, books, pay-per-view events and movies.

Fines have occasionally been issued against radio stations airing his show, generally for violating FCC requirements regarding content. Still, the parent conglomerate that hosted Stern's show, Viacom (of which Infinity Broadcasting, now CBS Radio was a subsidiary before Viacom and CBS Corporation were split), seemed to consider these fines a necessary price to pay in order to support Stern's continuing popularity.

As of November 2004, the show, typically airing in the morning, was syndicated on 45 radio stations all across the U.S. (27 owned by Infinity/CBS Radio), down from Stern's peak syndication of 62 stations. The stations are not allowed to stream the show over the internet.

1990s

File:Howardsternvoiceofamerica.jpg

Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh illustrated on cover of Time Magazine.

In 1992, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Infinity Broadcasting $600,000 after Stern discussed masturbating to a picture of Aunt Jemima. His exact statement was "The closest I came to making love to a black woman was I, uh, masturbated to a picture of Aunt Jemima on a pancake box. I splooged right on her kerchief." (Stern has since revealed on the air that he did make love to a black woman between his divorce and meeting his girlfriend Beth.)

In 1994, Stern embarked on a political campaign for Governor of New York, formally announcing his candidacy under the Libertarian Party ticket. Although he legally qualified for the office and campaigned for a short time after his nomination, many viewed the run for office as nothing more than a publicity stunt. He subsequently withdrew his candidacy because he did not want to comply with the financial disclosure requirements for candidates. He claimed that he had ultimately decided to support the Republican, George Pataki, who wound up winning over incumbent Mario Cuomo, and Stern was seen shaking Pataki's hand on television in congratulation.

In March of 1995, one day before the funeral of slain Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, Stern played the sounds of gunshots in the background over some of her music. He also made comments that were considered racist by many people, such as "Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul", and "Spanish people have the worst taste in music...they have no depth." After pressure from his radio station, Stern gave an on-air apology a week later in Spanish.

In 1997, Stern's autobiographical book, Private Parts, was adapted to film. The movie did moderately well at box offices and in video release, garnering a total of over $60 million. He had also announced plans for a film provisionally titled The Adventures of Fartman based on a character created for his appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1992, but later revealed that this was a spur-of-the-moment comment that he had made when pressed about his film career, and to date, no production on any such film has begun.

On his September 2, 1997 show, Stern went into an anti-French rant to commemorate his show's first broadcast in Canada. He said "I've been picking on the French people for 15 years. I don't like French people. I felt that during World War II, France betrayed us. I believe that what they did was the most cowardly act. That when the Nazis marched into France, the French bent over... When I was over in France recently, Americans are looked at as dirt, as filth. We are the people that liberated them during WWII. They would be Nazis, they would be under the Nazi regime right now. They should only be kissing our asses, singing our praises." [2]

Being a personality that most people either love or hate, he has had his share of stalkers and death threats. On January 15, 1998 Lance Carvin, who had been stalking Stern, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for threatening to kill Stern and his family.

His April 21, 1999 show drew angry criticism and official "censure" from the Colorado State Legislature for his comment regarding the motives of the two male students who murdered 12 classmates and one teacher in the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado:

"There were some really good-looking girls running out with their hands over their heads. Did those kids try to have sex with any of the good-looking girls? They didn't even do that? At least if you're going to kill yourself and kill all the kids, why wouldn't you have some sex? If I was going to kill some people, I'd take them out with sex."

Stern did not apologize for his words but instead argued that his comments were an attempt to figure out what was wrong with the two attackers.

Also in 1997, Stern's show aired for the first time in Canada, appearing on CILQ ("Q107") in Toronto and CHOM in Montreal. His first broadcast included a song "Hail to the king, Howard Stern, Howard Stern" over which Stern commented that "I'll be saying penis internationally" and "Canada was discovered by a French polack... he invented the recipe for ice". He also played a parody version of the Canadian national anthem ("Oh Canada! Howard Stern has conquered your land... The CRTC / Has said / They'll try / To get us off the air..."), over which he made many comments including "It's an angry language" about French.

Both stations eventually cancelled Stern's show, CHOM in 1998 and CILQ in November 2001, after frequent listener complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council and the CRTC; for most of the time that the stations did air Stern's program, they were required to monitor the show for offensive content through the use of broadcast delays. Stern has commented on-air that the Canadian government disapproved of his use of the ethnic slur polack, and that was one of the reasons why his show is no longer broadcast in Canada. It should be noted that The Howard Stern Show was the highest rated program during its time in Toronto. Many of his fans continued to listen Stern via a carrier station in Buffalo, New York.

2000s

The number of commercials aired during his radio show has greatly increased from the 1980s compared to later years. Later, during his first week on Sirius radio in 2006, he frequently commented on his frustration of stations having 20+ minute long commercial breaks during his show.

It was officially announced on March 5, 2001 that longtime show regular Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling had left the radio show after failed contract negotiations. Over the next several months, various comedians auditioned in the "Jackie Chair" for the job. After auditioning himself, it was eventually announced that comedian Artie Lange was the permanent replacement.

Stern was on the air in his New York City studio during the September 11, 2001 attacks, and stayed on the air with his cast/crew while many other broadcasters fled the city. His live reporting was the first news of the incident for many East Coast residents. Crew member K.C. Armstrong was the notable exception, as he left the city immediately and refused to return for several days. Stern and the rest of the cast/crew continued to broadcast over the subsequent days following the disaster. The show had a somewhat subdued tone, with many listeners calling in to share their own stories of survival or personal loss. As other comedy performers like David Letterman and Jon Stewart later returned to the air, many with emotionally-charged monologues, Stern complained that his real-time response to the tragedy was not given its due.

In 2002, Stern's production company Howard Stern Productions acquired the rights to the 1982 movie Porky's and the 1979 movie Rock 'n' Roll High School. Stern was a producer of the short-lived TV series Son of the Beach.

Despite the provocative content of Stern's show, or perhaps because of it, many listeners and critics consider Stern to be a talented on-air personality and formidable interviewer. (He informed listeners early in 2004 that the ABC television network was in talks with him to produce an interview special.) His popularity has given rise to a number of rival "shock jocks" who have attempted to outdo Stern in terms of offensiveness and rudeness, but these rivals have yet to challenge Stern's ratings.

On February 25, 2004, Clear Channel Communications "indefinitely suspended" him from six markets because of alleged indecency involving sexual and racist dialogue during his show. The show in question featured Rick Solomon, whose claims to fame include a publicly released home video showing him having sex with Paris Hilton. During this broadcast Stern held, what could be considered, a sexually-provocative and racially insensitive interview with Solomon, asking him graphic questions about anal sex and making light of a caller's use of the word "nigger". Clear Channel president John Hogan said, "Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content, and Howard Stern's show blew right through it...it was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African-Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency." The move came only a day after Clear Channel fired Bubba the Love Sponge for similar reasons. This is considered by Stern to be part of a wide-ranging backlash against obscenity triggered by the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy. Because Clear Channel and some of its executives have donated over $200,000 to the Republican Party, Stern claims the company was trying to penalize him for his harsh criticisms of President George W. Bush [3].

Although Stern was one of the few celebrities who initially publicly supported Bush sending U.S. troops into Iraq at the time, Stern changed his mind in 2004 and turned against Bush, citing as his main reasons both the debacle that he and many others believed Iraq had become, and Bush's personal ties to Clear Channel Communications, the media giant who had just "indefinitely suspended" him. Stern sarcastically noted the "odd coincidence" that he was suspended literally within weeks of having publicly denounced Bush. Additionally, he endorsed John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, and urged his listeners to vote for him.

This is only the latest in a long string of political endorsements Stern has made, having earlier supported former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, among others. In an on-air stunt, Stern promised then-gubernatorial candidate Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey that he would endorse her candidacy if she promised to name a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike after him if she were elected. She won and kept her promise, although one of her successors, Democrat Jim McGreevey, later claimed impropriety by Whitman and revoked the "honor."

In an April Fools joke on his audience in 2004, Stern replaced the first hour and a half of his show with fictional radio show "Cross and Lopez: The Fun Without The Filth" and playing recent pop music which broke WXRK's rock format. The beginning of the show started with station manager Tom Chiasano reading that "due to recent actions by the FCC, the Howard Stern Show will no longer be aired". Stern's toll-free call-in line (at the time, 1-800-44-STERN) was announced as 1-800-447-8376; incensed Stern fans who fell for the gag called in to insult Cross and Lopez and demand Howard's return. When Stern took back the airwaves, he did so with a barrage of flatulence.

On April 8, 2004, Clear Channel Communications announced it would "permanently terminate" its relationship with Stern [4] after being fined $500,000 by the FCC. However, on July 19, Stern returned to four of the six markets Clear Channel booted him from, and added five new ones to the roster - this time on Infinity-owned stations. In late August, he returned to a fifth market, Miami, on an independent station. His return was greeted with controversy as the Miami Dolphins threatened to revoke their broadcast deal with the station in question if the station did not fire him.

Throughout the Spring of 2004, Stern was a very vocal and staunch critic of Mel Gibson and his religious epic, The Passion of the Christ. He called the film a "kook festival for a robotic freak audience" and even linked his radio suspension to the film, claiming that it was causing a "religious frenzy" and that anyone who went to see the movie is "stupid and ignorant". At one point Stern said that "Mel Gibson makes Hitler look like Gandhi."

An often-recurring tirade against the religious right in general is that they are "the American Taliban" and want nothing more than to destroy the civil liberties of anyone who isn't like them. Stern most often launches into this tirade during any discussion of broadcast indecency or gay rights. Stern is a noted advocate of gay marriage (though as with any identifiable group, he makes merciless fun of gays and lesbians).

The Move to Satellite Radio

File:Siriuslogocleanup.jpg

Sirius Logo.

On October 6, 2004, Stern announced on his show that he signed a five-year, $500 million deal with the satellite radio service Sirius. The deal, which took effect on January 1, 2006, enabled Stern to broadcast his show without the content restrictions imposed by the FCC. Stern's move to satellite radio has been compared with Milton Berle's move to television in 1948 - both Stern and Berle are/were the leading radio personalities of their times (Related: Milton Berle was an occasional guest on the Howard Stern Show).

In addition, the Sirius deal gave Stern two channels of his own, "Howard 100" and "Howard 101." Both of these channels launched in October 2005. Although Stern himself was not able to broadcast on Sirius until his Infinity contract expired, he had been producing content to fill the otherwise dead air. Shows have included a live, 24-hour broadcast of Wack Pack member "Wendy the Retard," another 24-hour broadcast of "High Pitch Erik" which featured the weighing of his excrement, and auditions of other Wack Packers for their own permanent shows. A legitimate news team of award-winning journalists was put together to launch "Howard 100 News," a nightly broadcast of "all things Howard." Stern also announced fellow shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge would have his own nightly talk show starting in January on one of his stations. Howard himself is only heard four days a week, Monday through Thursday, live.

This move has been met with much controversy, as Stern talked about his move to Sirius on his show, even telling listeners how to purchase Sirius equipment and subscriptions. To promote this latest venture, Stern held a rally in New York where he gave out coupons for free or discounted Sirius equipment. His impending move to Sirius resulted in some radio stations censoring him every time he mentioned the words "Sirius" or "satellite radio". In one incident, Farid Suleman of Citadel Broadcasting went so far as to have billed Stern $200,000 for the plugs he'd given Sirius on his show. Stern's response was, "Keep sending me bills. Like I'm going to pay 'em," which he publicly stated on his show. Stern and his colleagues, and even callers, began to "censor" themselves by saying "eh-ehhh-eh" instead of "Sirius" or "satellite radio."

On April 6, 2005, Stern pleaded on-air for Infinity Broadcasting to let him out of his contract, citing the reason of possible prosecution, per U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr.'s recommendation. FMQB.com quoted Stern as saying about his current employer, "They're holding me to the contract and I'm afraid to break the contract, because I don't want to ever do anything illegal or wrong. I'm very, very clear on that. I'm a pretty honest guy. I try to live by the laws, but it seems like I'm being set up." [5] It must also be added that within Stern's contract with Viacom/Infinity, if he were to have been fired or his show cancelled, his employer would have had to pay out a twenty million dollar fee as a result of this early termination to him and his production company.

On June 22, 2005, it was announced that production of the Howard Stern television show on E! would be ending. The last new episode was taped on July 1 and aired on July 8. E! continued to rerun the show until December 31, 2005.

On October 25, 2005, Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio) announced Stern's replacements on every station it owned that broadcasted Stern. These replacements include:

• David Lee Roth will be broadcast in such cities as New York City, Philadelphia and Boston
• Adam Carolla will be broadcast in such cities as Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego and Las Vegas
• Rover's Morning Glory in Chicago, Rochester, and Cleveland.
• CNN news radio in Houston
• Jack FM music in Sacramento, Buffalo and Fresno
• The Sports Junkies in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

It was announced on November 7, 2005, that Infinity Broadcasting suspended Stern from going live on air on November 8 2005, because Stern was promoting his move to Sirius radio too much.

It was revealed in the December 12, 2005 issue of New York Magazine that XM Satellite Radio was prepared to offer Howard a $30 million dollar per-year contract in 2003. XM executives were slow to close the deal, giving Sirius the chance it needed. XM instead signed the Opie & Anthony Show, hoping to secure their fanbase before Howard's satellite debut in 2006.

When asked why he picked Sirius over the competitor, XM, Howard replied that he "always liked the underdog. Every radio station I ever went to was a toilet bowl." He has also stated that during very preliminary negotiations with XM, he found the management to be slow and unresponsive while Sirius was "nimble". Stern's budget with Sirius, including all operating costs, is $500 million for the 5 year contract.

Goodbye to terrestrial radio

Howard's last show on conventional AM/FM "terrestrial" radio was on December 16, 2005. The show was on the streets of New York below K-Rock, simulcast live accompanied by video on the Internet through Yahoo!, with several thousand fans in attendance at the scene. The studio segment of the show ended with Stern and company each saying a final farewell, then leaving the studio for the street stage, with Stern being the last to leave. Many members of the show's "Wack Pack" gave speeches and Staind performed. Speeches were given by each member of the show: Gary, Artie, Fred, Robin, and finally Howard, who frequently referred to himself and his fans as "the last of a dying breed." During his speech, Stern thanked the NYPD and dedicated the show to Sgt. Keith Manning, a friend of the show currently serving in Iraq. He concluded with the fan favorite catchphrase "F Jackie." Stern was then bussed to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, where Martha Stewart (who also has her own Sirius talk channel) was on hand to induct Howard Stern into the Sirius family. Much of the show took place at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York where Sheryl Crow performed and mentioned on stage the debt America and musicians should pay towards Stern.

True to the last broadcast, much of Stern's final statements were bleeped/edited-out on the radio and even on the Yahoo internet broadcast. These statements largely pertained to Stern's animosity towards Clear Channel and the future at Sirius.

As a response to Stern leaving FM radio, many of the radio stations under ownership of CBS Radio, including K-Rock in New York, changed their format from music to a hot talk format. Select stations were rebranded "Free FM". Stern's flagship station changed its name from 92.3 K-Rock to 92.3 Free FM. Stern himself was a harsh critic of the "Free FM" format in his last days on terrestrial radio, arguing that the name was a joke due to continued FCC and industry censorship.

Due to his former contract with Infinity Broadcasting, now CBS Radio, neither Stern nor anyone under contract from his show could be heard on Sirius before January 1, 2006. On January 1, 2006, Stern did a commercial free segment on his two stations Howard 100 and Howard 101 playing clips from his days as a child, to working at WTBU (Boston University college radio), WCCC, W4, WWDC, WNBC, and WXRK. On January 3 and January 5, 2006, Stern and other members of his show conducted live test broadcasts, 70-minute and 130-minute respectively, in which he tested, live and on-air, various components of his new studio including audio levels, call-in functions, and studio ease-of-use. Various callers congratulated Stern on his new venture, although he reiterated that the broadcast was nothing more than a test designed to give users a sneak peek, and not an actual show. He made a point to reaffirm the first show, technically clean but completely uncensored, would take place on January 9, 2006.

There has been some controversy among his fans as to the poor availability of the Sirius signal in many buildings, where many of his fans listen from. As of this writing, Sirius has not begun streaming his show online (the company streams all of its music content and some select talk programming), however, they have indicated they will be doing so shortly.

The Howard Stern Show debuted on Sirius, on January 9, 2006. The "Howard 100 Heartbeat" broke away to Also Sprach Zarathustra tunefully performed with flatulence. Howard's theme music, Tortured Man, played a few bars before George Takei introduced himself as the show's new announcer. Callers were soon invited to call into the show using their new toll-free line, 1-888-9-ASSHOLE. During the show, Stern revealed that there were 180,000 Sirius receivers activated the day before his inaugural broadcast. He also revealed that he was not married, squashing rumors which appeared (and he happily fed) during his hiatus. One of his first radio acts on Sirius included the Pat O'Brien sex tapes.

Sirius Canada does not currently carry Stern's program. Despite popular perception that Stern was banned by the CRTC, this is not, in fact, the case — Sirius Canada in fact chose not to carry Stern because of the possibility of a future issue with the CRTC. Josef Radomski, a Canadian writer, announced on the January 11, 2006 show that he has started an online petition to bring Stern to Sirius Canada.

Television shows

• The Howard Stern Show (WWOR show): 69 episodes; July 14, 1990–Aug 1, 1992; often called "The Channel 9 Show" because WWOR is Channel 9 in the New York metropolitan area.
• The Howard Stern Interview (E! show): 36 episodes; 1992–1993
• Howard Stern (E! show): 2,278 episodes; 1994–July 8, 2005
• The Howard Stern Radio Show (syndicated): 1998–2001
• Howard Stern on Demand (iN DEMAND): Uncensored E! shows available since November 18, 2005; new shows available April 2006

Cast and crew of the Howard Stern show

• Robin Quivers (Does the news segment for the show and is also Howard's co-host and close friend)
• Gary Dell'Abate (Stern's producer; also frequently referred to as "Baba Booey" due to an inside joke stemming from his mispronunciation of the name "Baba Louie")
• Fred Norris (Stern's sound effects and show timekeeper; aka Eric Norris)
• Artie Lange (comedian/co-host)
• Benjy Bronk (writer)
• Ralph Cirella (Stern's stylist and close friend)
• Richard Christy (writer)
• Ronnie Mund (aka Ronnie The Limo Driver, longtime friend and bodyguard)
• Sal the Stockbroker (writer)
• JD Harmeyer (media producer and Supertwink star; known as 'Daba' which is short for 'Cheesy Dabadass')
• George Takei (Howard Stern Show Announcer)
• Scott DePace (On Demand producer, Former E! show producer)
• Scott Salem (aka Scott the Engineer, Stern's studio engineer)
• Laura Lackner (Howard's long-time executive assistant)

Regulars on the Howard Stern show

• Beth Ostrosky
• Ben and Ray Stern
• Andrea Brooke Ownbey (Miss Howard Stern)
• Angry Black
• Dominic Barbera
• Ed Torian
• Beetlejuice the Dwarf
• Big Black
• Blue Iris
• Bong Hit Eric
• Dr. Sal Calabro
• Captain Janks
• Adam Carolla
• Chaunce Hayden
• Ralph Cirella
• Cliff Palate
• Heidi Cortez
• Crackhead Bob
• Crazy Alice
• Crazy Cabbie
• Daniel Carver
• Double A
• Doug Stanhope
• Elephant Boy
• Elliot Offen
• Eric the Midget
• Fruity Nutcake (Rappin' Granny)
• Gary Garver
• Gary The Retard
• Gilbert Gottfried
• Donald Trump
• High Pitch Eric
• Hook Nose Mike
• Jeff The Drunk
• Jenna Jameson
• Jessica Hahn
• The Jesus Twins
• Touch-Tone Terrorists
• Jimmy Kimmel
• Joey Boots
• John the Stutterer
• King of All Blacks
• Maryanne from Brooklyn
• Mike Walker
• Nicole Bass
• Pamela Anderson
• Vinny Favale
• Wendy the Retard
• Yucko the Clown
• Evil Dave Letterman

Former cast and crew

• Dead Dave (mid-80's, succeeded Howard and Gary as show's celebrity interviewer, a job he passed on to Stuttering John in 1988)
• Billy West (1994 - 1995)
• Steve Grillo
• Jackie Martling (left March 2001)
• John Melendez (Stuttering John) (left March 2004 to work on The Tonight Show)
• KC Armstrong (fired September 2004 over drug abuse)
• Tom Chiusano (WXRK Station General Manager, aka Tom Cheap-Ass-ano)
• Steve Freid (audio engineer at WXRK, appeared as Wood-Yee and in Supertwink)

Former Regulars and Celebrity Guests

• Alison Stern (Howard's 1st wife; since their split, she no longer calls in to show)
• Bigfoot (Died Aug 9, 2005)
• Bill Maher (angry at the show staff, refuses to appear anymore)
• Bob Hope (Died July 27, 2003)
• Crackhead Bob (no longer appears)
• Gina Girl (no longer appears)
• Gina Man (no longer appears)
• Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf (Died Sept 4, 2001)
• Jerry Seinfeld (angry at show staff, refuses to appear anymore)
• Pat Cooper (no longer appears)
• Richard Simmons (angry, refuses to appear)
• Rodney Dangerfield (Died October 5, 2004)
• Sam Kinison (Died Apr 10, 1992)
• Ted the Janitor (deceased)
• Tiny Tim (Died Nov 30, 1996)
• The Ramones (most members deceased)

Celebrity Guests

(Frequent guests appear in the Regulars lists above)

• AC/DC
• Ace Frehley
• Alec Baldwin
• Andy Dick
• Al Michaels
• Al Sharpton
• Anna Nicole Smith
• Alan Thicke
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Adam West
• Bob Guccione
• Buddy Hackett
• Carol Alt
• Cast of American Idol
• Courtney Love
• Christine Todd Whitman
• Dave Chappelle
• Dave Grohl
• David Letterman
• Ebert and Roeper
• Elton John
• Ed McMahon
• Grandpa Al Lewis
• Gene Simmons
• George Pataki
• Henry Rollins
• Hugh Hefner
• Jim Carrey
• Johnny Depp
• John F. Kennedy Jr.
• Johnny Knoxville
• Julian Lennon
• Jim McGreevey
• Joan Rivers
• Jerry Seinfeld
• John Stamos
• Jon Stewart
• James Woods
• Kathy Griffin
• Luke Perry
• Maria Menounos
• Milton Berle
• Melissa Rivers
• Mr. T
• Nikki Ziering
• Ozzy Osbourne and his family
• Paul McCartney
• Pat Cooper
• Queer Eye for the Straight Guy Cast
• Ringo Starr
• Sam Kinison
• Sean Lennon
• Whoopi Goldberg
• William Shatner
• Yasmine Bleeth

Musical Artists Performances

• AC/DC- "You Shook Me All Night Long"
• Aerosmith- "Pink"
• Beck- "Where it's At" and "Novocain" (both 1997)
• Pat Benatar
• Blues Traveler- "This is Beetle" (2005)
• Belinda Carlisle & Jane Wiedlin- "Has the Whole World Lost its Head" (1995)
• Coolio- "Gangsta's Paradise"
• Christopher Cross- "Sailing" (1995)
• Sheryl Crow- "Strong Enough"
• Roger Daltrey- "Days of Light" and "Behind Blue Eyes" (both 1992)
• Dido- "Thank You"
• Corey Feldman- "Former Child Actor" (2002)
• Noel Gallagher- "Wonderwall"
• Goo Goo Dolls- "Iris" (while Stern and the rest of the staff danced with gay men, in a running bit started when Stern called the song "gay")
• Dave Grohl- "Everlong" and "Hero"
• Hum - "Stars" (1996)
• Cyndi Lauper- "True Colors"
• Nils Lofgren- "Sticks and Stones" (1991, on Stern's channel 9 TV show)
• Duff McKagan- "Believe in Me" (1993)
• John Mellencamp- medley
• Alanis Morissette
• Iggy Pop- "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (1990, on Stern's channel 9 TV show)
• Porno for Pyros- "Pets" and "Porpoise Head"
• Billy Preston
• Annie Previn- "Torn"
• Gavin Rossdale- "Glycerine" (1995)
• Smashing Pumpkins- "Perfect" (1998)
• Staind- "This is Beetle" (2005)
• Sting- "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" (1993)
• Stone Temple Pilots- "Vaseline" (1996)
• James Taylor- "Carolina in my Mind" and "Woodstock"
• Velvet Revolver (2004)
• The Wallflowers- "6th Avenue Heartache" and "One Headlight"
• Joe Walsh- "Goodnight Irene"
• Stevie Wonder
• Yes- "I've Seen All Good People" and "Roundabout" (1996)

Frequent Show Games and Bits

(Discontinued games and bits are noted as historical. Winning a game usually gives a cash prize, losing usually involves nudity or humiliation.)

• Robin's News (daily ending of the show, Robin reads the news and they discuss or make fun of it)
• Guess Who's The Jew (historical)
• Lesbian Dial-a-Date (historical)
• Lesbian Dating Game (historical)
• The Stupid Bowl
• Daniel Carver's KKK Movie Review (historical)
• The Homeless Game and many variants, often played with call-in guests
• The Gossip Game with Mike Walker from the National Enquirer
• The F-Emmies
• Stump The Booey (song recognition contest against Gary; getting a question wrong requires removing an article of clothing, Gary usually wins)
• Stump The Perv (guests compete against Richard Christie, Richard usually wins)
• Win Fred's Money (timed trivia contest; losing to Fred involves nudity, Fred usually wins)

Common Show Sayings and Soundbites

(Discontinued sayings and soundbites are noted as historical. Fred is sufficiently quick at choosing and inserting soundbites that Stern can and often does hold bidirectional conversations with the show's soundbites.)

• "Hey Now!" (Stern's greeting, based on Hank from The Larry Sanders Show)
• "Bababooey" (used as everything from a nickname to a drop-in Stern reference during phony telephone calls)
• "Oh my!" (George Takei)
• "I would love to." (O.J. Simpson)
• "Look out!" (O.J. Simpson)
• "It happens" (O.J. Simpson)
• "I love to / touch / black / wang." (cut-together George Takei)
• "How 'bout a reach-around?" (Mike Walker)
• "Eff Jackie!" (historical)
• "Shut up! Sit down!" (Stern's father screaming at him in an old family recording)
• "I told you not to be stupid, you moron." (Stern's father yelling at him in an old family recording)
• "Vodka straight up, thank you!"
• Long and comical scream of an anonymous man being tasered, taken from an unknown episode of Cops
• Jeff The Drunk coughing up a lung, often played when Bong Hit Eric calls in
• "Thank you." Uttered by bubble-voiced Andrea "Miss Howard Stern" Ownby.
• "Gravitas" (Kiefer Sutherland when asked his favorite word by James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio)
• "Nigger" (Kiefer Sutherland when asked his LEAST favorite word by Lipton; Stern staff have interchanged gravitas and nigger and turned them into a song.)
• "Suck my beep-beep-beep" (Pat O'Brien answering machine messages turned into a parody of Buster Poindexter's song "Hot, Hot, Hot" - Stern has promised to play an uncensored version of this song on January 9, 2006 - his first day on Sirius)
• "It's not funny; it's not fun." (Billy Crystal after Stuttering John ambushed him)
• "Fuck me, Nigger"...(Sound clip from a Todd Solondz film, Storytelling_(film) (2001), in which an older African-American Professor[portrayed by actor Robert Wisdom], while having sex with a younger white female student [portrayed by actress Selma Blair], repeatedly instructs the woman to say "Fuck me, Nigger"...)
• "Nigga, please" (From an on-air appearance by deceased rapper, Ol' Dirty Bastard)
• "Shut up...Shut UP...SHUT UP!!!!" (Jack Nicholson as the President of the United States in the Tim Burton film "Mars Attacks!")
• "Home? I have no home! Hunted. Despised! I vill build an army of Atomic supermen to conquer the vorld!" (Actor Martin Landau portraying Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's film "Ed Wood")
• "I loved it soooooo much! I'm going to see it twice more!"
• "Puh-leeeze!" (Henry Hill - former Mob associate; central charcter in Martin Scorcese's film, Goodfellas, based on author Nicholas Pileggi's novel, Wiseguys)
• "Sssssssscott!" (
• "F-you!" (Wood Yi)
• "You dick!" (Wood Yi)
• "This is terrible!" (Wood Yi)
• "It doesn't matter!" (screamed by an irate caller with some sort of Caribbean accent)
• "Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" (Robert DeNiro, taken from the film The King of Comedy).
• "I don't care, do you think I care?"
• "Yeeeeah!" (Kenneth Keith Kallenbach)
• "That's Hot" (Paris Hilton)

See also

• Howard 100
• Sirius Satellite Radio

External links

• Howard Stern Official Web Site
• Howard Stern Biography - About.com
• Stern Fan Network
• Howard Stern at IMDb
• Marks Friggin (daily radio show summaries; extensive archive)
• King Of All Media Website (daily Howard Stern news digest)
• Howard Stern in Space December 2005 New York Magazine article
• Stern Discusses The Murder Of Selena
• The infamous "Bababooey"/ OJ chase call made to Peter Jennings; site requires free registration.