Howard Stern

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Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954 in Roosevelt, New York) is an American radio personality.

The self-proclaimed "King of All Media" has been dubbed a shock jock for his highly controversial use of scatological and "sexist" humor. Some of his commentaries are perceived by many to include bigoted and misogynistic remarks about various religious and ethnic groups and women. He is both the highest-paid radio personality in the United States and the most fined personality in radio broadcast history�facts, as his fans know, he takes pride in.

His television shows include: "The Howard Stern Show" (1990-2005) and "The Howard Stern Radio Show" (1998-2001).

Contents

Biography

In 1976, Stern received his Bachelor's degree in communications from Boston University, where he had worked as a volunteer at the college radio station.

After graduation, he worked as a disc jockey for an obscure station in Westchester County, New York playing rock music. He discovered a talent for Lenny Bruce-type comedy, and developed a wide-ranging confrontational style. He migrated to FM radio stations in Detroit and Washington, D.C., and returned to New York in 1982 to work at NBC's flagship AM radio station WNBC-AM. 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 in response to a particularly outrageous sketch � "Bestiality Dial-A-Date" � and 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 in the 1990s by Infinity Broadcasting.

Although both his parents are Jewish, Stern has 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 (b. 1984), Deborah (b. 1987) and Ashley Jade (b. 1993). In October of 1999, Stern announced that Alison was divorcing him, due to the fact that he is a workaholic. The couple's divorce proceeding resulted in a settlement, and Alison remarried in 2001 to David Lobosco. Since early 2000 Stern has been dating model Beth Ostrosky, who is 19 years younger than he. 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.

Radio Show

In one typical example of his radio show, 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 volume turned up until she reached an on-the-air orgasm. Another notable episode was on WWDC-FM (DC101 Radio) in Washington D.C. in which Stern called Air Florida Airlines and asked what the fare was for a one-way ticket from Washington National Airport to the 14th Street Bridge (on the Potomac River less than 1 mile from the airport). He was making light of the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 one day earlier, on January 13, 1982, which had killed 78 persons (both onboard the airplane and in vehicles stopped in traffic on the bridge). That June 29, Stern was fired from DC-101 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 DC-101 deejays '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."

Stern has also shown the ability to take society's misfits and turn them into celebrities through The Wack Pack. Wack Pack members are able to parlay their exposure on Stern's show into personal appearances at clubs and even the occasional movie.

Stern referred to himself as the "King Of All Media," a parody of Michael Jackson's claiming of the title "King of Pop." To his subjects this title is true, as they have been loyal consumers of The King's books, pay-per-view events and movies. Stern believes he represents the future of America, where, in keeping with a longstanding trend, public moral standards will continue to loosen. His show is frequently the subject of complaints by various listeners who find his deliveries offensive - something he deliberately encourages. Fines have occasionally been issued against radio stations airing his show, generally for violating FCC requirements regarding content. Still, the parent conglomerate that hosts Stern's show, Infinity Broadcasting (a subsidiary of Viacom), seems 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, is syndicated on 45 radio stations all across the U.S. (27 owned by Infinity Broadcasting), down from Stern's peak syndication of 62 stations. The stations are not allowed to stream the show over the internet.

1990s

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 "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 did it right on her kerchief"

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 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.

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. As of 2005, this project has not even begun pre-production.

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 in Toronto and CHOM in Montreal. Both stations cancelled Stern's show in 2000 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.

2000s

The number of commercials aired during his radio show has greatly increased from the 1980s to the present.

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.

Howard 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. Mr. 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 was furious at the glowing response they received in the press. He had been on the air the whole time without any positive reaction. This reinforced his long-held belief that there is a bias against him in the mainstream media.

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 for the 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 imitation "shock jocks" who attempt to outdo Stern in terms of offensiveness and rudeness, but these imitators have found themselves with more troubles to worry about than listener ratings, they had to now worry about a gag-order that was placed on them from Stern so that they could not mention Howard's name anymore. Despite Stern's ratings, it can be seen as hypocritical that Stern always encourages freedom of speech. In 2002 fellow Infinity Broadcasting Corporation shock-jocks Opie and Anthony had their nationally syndicated WNEW-FM "extreme talk" show cancelled after they encouraged a couple to engage in sexual intercourse at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, then taking the phone call of the couple having sex on their show. Stern then proceeded to severely criticize the two while they were suspended and subsequently dismissed from Infinity. Stern, his supporters note, while has had vulgar bits has not gone out of his way to offend the general public in this manner. Stern in recent years has not mentioned the duo as much, Opie and Anthony have returned to the airways on XM Satellite Radio a rival to SIRUS.

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 Salomon, whose claims to fame include a publicly released home video showing him having sex with Paris Hilton. During this broadcast Stern held, would could be considered, a sexually-provocative and racially insensitive interview with Soloman, 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 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, [1].

He endorsed John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, and urged his listeners to vote for him. Some political and media analyst have said that he is one of the many celebrities that alienated voters into not voting for Kerry.[2]

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."

On February 27 of 2004, long-time Stern show regular John Melendez left the show to become the on-air announcer for The Tonight Show. Stern has consistently claimed the move is an attempt by Jay Leno to steal ideas from Howard's show. It should be noted, however, that this is not an a-typical accusation by Stern and he does claim to have invented many ideas that have been stolen or modified by others with out credit.

On April 8, 2004, Clear Channel Communications announced it would "permanently terminate" its relationship with the shock jock [3] after being fined $500,000 by the FCC. However, on July 19, Stern returned to four of the six markets Clear Channel booted him off of, 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. Here, as is often typical with Stern, 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 goes to see the movie is "stupid and ignorant". At one point Stern said that "Mel Gibson makes Hitler look like Gandhi".

Incidentally, President Bush's religious beliefs were one of the reasons Stern became so opposed to him. Stern said "Bush being born again is the source of Bush forcing his morals on this country, he's ruining America." Stern also said that "Bush needs to stop talking to Jesus."

On October 6, 2004, Stern announced on his show that he has signed a five year, $500 million deal with the satellite radio service Sirius. The deal, which takes effect on January 1, 2006, would enable Stern to broadcast his show without, as of present, the content restrictions imposed by the FCC. In addition, the deal would also enable Stern to program two additional Sirius channels, one of which would be available at an extra charge to subscribers.

This move has been met with much controversy, as Stern has been talking about his move to Sirius on his show, even telling listeners how to purchase Sirius equipment and subscriptions. Stern even held a rally in New York where he gave out coupons for free or discounted Sirius equipment. His impending move to Sirius has resulted in some radio stations censoring him every time he mentions the words "Sirius" or "satellite radio". In one incident, Farid Suleman of Citadel broadcasting has gone so far as to have billed Stern $200,000 for the plugs he's 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.

On April 6, 2005, Stern pleaded on-air for Infinity Broadcasting to let him out of his contract, citing the reason of possible prosecution as 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." Full Story

On June 22, 2005, Stern announced that his E! television show was ending, and the last new episode was taped on July 1 to be aired on July 8, 2005. E! will continue to reruns of the show indefinitely. Full Story

Politics

Although Stern used to be a self-proclaimed libertarian, in recent years he has abandoned that philosophy and embraced positions that are in direct opposition to libertarian ideology, such as government regulation of corporations, radical environmentalism, gun control, income redistribution through higher taxation, and government funding for abortion and embryonic stem cell research that involves the killing and cloning of human embryos. He also considers Ralph Nader to be one of his heroes. He is also a supporter of Michael Moore and was very vocal in his endorsement of Moore's propaganda filmed that was released in June of 2004. Moore was even a guest on Stern's show the week of the film's release and called into the show a day before the 2004 Election. Stern is now considered by many conservatives, libertarians, and moderates/centrists to represent the far-left of the political spectrum.

During a week vacation in February of 2004 he had read Al Franken's anti-Bush book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. He told his listeners "If you read this book, you will never vote for George W. Bush. I think this guy is a religious fanatic and a Jesus freak, and he is just hell-bent on getting some sort of bizzaro agenda through -- like a country-club agenda -- so that his father will finally be proud of him ... I don't know much about Kerry, but I think I'm one of those 'Anybody but Bush' guys now. I don't think G.W. is going to win. What do you think about that?"

Enemies

  • Opie and Anthony-- A long standing feud with the Opie and Anthony Show has came to fruition as of late. On a recent appearance on the Sean Hannity Show in an interview, Sean asked Howard if he had them silenced or gagged from mentioning Howard on their program. Howard quickly affirmed that the rumors were true, and further stated that while he was a champion of free speech, he was a champion solely of 'his' free speech, stating "It doesn't matter, as long as I win, and you know what? I win." and "I believe in censorship when it benefits me." The two shows have been at odds ever since said gag order was in place. [4]
  • Mancow Muller-- Simply because, Stern said he would "skull fuck" Mancow's recently deceased father.)
  • Anna Nicole Smith-- After a terrestrial show where he became very angry when she politely asked if cameras for her show could come into the studio.
  • Les Moonves-- The head of CBS who orchestrated the multi-million dollar breach of contract lawsuit against Howard and agent Don Buchwald because Stern consistently promoted Sirius while working for CBS, which was a blatant violation of his contract.
  • Don Imus -- Howard has long hated Imus, whom he worked with at WNBC in the 1980's, and has often berated the radio talk show host for being a senior citizen and still in talk radio. Ironically, Imus himself has on numerous occasion said that he harbors no ill will toward Stern, is a fan, and even frequently defends Stern.

Television Shows

  • WWOR Show: 69 Episodes - July 14, 1990 - Aug 1, 1992
  • E! Cable Show: 1994-July 8, 2005
  • The Howard Stern Radio Show (syndicated): 1998-2001

Cast & Crew of the Howard Stern show

Regulars on the Howard Stern show

Former Cast & Crew

External links

WARNING: Some sites may contain potentially offensive content


References

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