Many of my readers will be surprised that I am a Howard Stern. He was a part of my growing up in the 1990s. You never knew what was going to come out of Stern's mouth. 1994 was a lot different than 2024. Howard Stern is a lot different now. Before Stern went mainstream there was just something so wrong about him that you had to listen to him. It is impossible to listen to him now and talk about the latest cat he saved with his young wife or the latest interview he had with the boring Bruce Springstein. When did he change? Here is the timeline:
December 2009: Amid continuing addiction issues, Artie Lange departs the Howard Stern Show. The show chooses not to fill the "Artie Chair"
January 2011: At the start of a new contract with SiriusXM, the show drops from airing regularly 4 days a week (Monday to Thursday) to airing regularly 3 days a week (Monday to Wednesday).April 2012: Stern and Buchwald's lawsuit against SiriusXM (over claims that SiriusXM did not pay them annual subscriber bonuses after Sirius merged with XM and absorbed XM's subscribers) is dismissed "with prejudice." Though Stern continues working with SiriusXM and signs (at least) two 5-year renewals with the company, it has been suggested by fans that this leaves Stern bitter and less willing to develop original content for his channels.
2012: Marci Turk, with no previous radio experience, is hired as Chief Operating Officer of the Howard Stern Show. Unlike other staff members, she is rarely referenced on air. In media profiles since her hiring, Turk has been credited with "softening" the image of Stern and his show and attracting bigger-name celebrities to come on as guests.
October 2012: Longtime regular Gilbert Gottfried makes his final appearance on the show, though rumors persist that he was ostensibly banned for spitting on cupcakes in the hallway during a previous appearance in November 2010. Gilbert later reveals in interviews that he was told by Baba Booey that the show "doesn't book stand-ups" anymore. Please note that Amy Schumer is a regular guest on the show over the next decade.
December 2012: Though the video is not leaked until 2019, Stern addresses his staff at "Revolution 2013" that has become known as "The Pelican Brief." During the nearly hour-long presentation, Stern lectures his staff on numerous topics, including how to attract more "A-list" celebrities to the show. This includes the often-ridiculed suggestion that he created the careers of major stars like Jerry Seinfeld and that the staff should create fake Twitter accounts to encourage celebrities to go on the Stern show.
December 2013: Howard TV is discontinued. Stern hypes its upcoming replacement, "Howard 360", which is eventually revealed to be simply video clips from the show on the SiriusXM app. Notable Howard TV personalities that contributed to the show, such as Scott DePace, are gone from the show.
September 2014: Eric the Actor, whose calls regularly took up hours of airtime, dies. C-level callers like Bobo and Hanzi are soon elevated, likely to fill Eric's usual airtime. Hanzi is banned from the show in April 2016.
January 16, 2015: The Wrap-Up Show officially becomes the Jon and Gary call-in show with the occasional D-level guest that rarely features anything but Jon and Gary talking about how great the show was that day. Other staff members are banned from sitting in on the show.
May 2019: Stern publishes a book of interview transcripts, Howard Stern Comes Again. Promotion for the book further pushes the "World's Greatest Interviewer" angle. In the book and promotional interviews, Stern cites a disastrous interview with Robin Williams as one of his biggest regrets (and that he tried to apologize to Williams before he died), though no one can find such an interview as it is described by Stern. The book sells 147,000 copies in its first week. In contrast, Private Parts sold over 1 million copies in its first 3 weeks.
March 2020: As a result of COVID-19, the Howard Stern Show staff begins "broadcasting" from their homes. Listeners suspect that some content and interviews are pre-taped, and the staff continues to work from home long after many other prominent broadcasters have returned to their studios. Robin's News, a staple of the show from decades, is abruptly ended. As of March 2021, the show is still being broadcast from home...
RIP: The Howard Stern Show...
I stopped listening to Howard when he became political. He is miserable!!!
ReplyDeleteI was a huge fan. When my son went off to college,( 1992) he was the #1 single player for Duke (tennis)
DeleteThe team traveled by bus constantly over his 4 years. I wouid spend hours recording the show, removing commercials , and mailing the tapes down to my son. The tapes were played while the boys traveled around the country playing in tournaments.
It was a blast for me to do it for the kids and the kids loved listening; they were so grateful.
I continued to listen to the show for a long time after that.
I was listening to the show on 9/11. I’ll never forget Howard announcing that he saw smoke coming out of one of the towers. That’s when I learned what happened ( my son was on the 86th floor of the North Tower! )
I’ll never forget Howard yelling for days after the attack that “Bush better go after the ones who did this to us!”
He made a bet that Bush wouldn’t have the nerve to do anything. He was very surprised when Bush DID do something. But then he turned against Bush for doing something. It was pretty shocking, really.
After that, Howard started to turn against Bush and in time he became, not just a liberal, but a far left liberal. It got to the point where Howard was no longer funny. He had such hatred toward anyone or anything that was conservative, that it became unlistenable unless maybe if you were a liberal. .
My son, ( the tennis player who is now 49) said that he still turns the show on when he’s in the car. But gradually, he had to give up on it. Howard has turned his show into an anti conservative show ; an anti Trump show. There is no longer any humor; no place for good debates. It’s sad.
Not only did I stop listening to Howard Stern I dropped the whole Xm Sirius subscription
ReplyDeleteThe late great Johnny Carson of the tonight show was "apoltical" . His jokes where never aimed at the staunchly "liberal", nor were they aimed at attacking "reublican". Late night staring with Letterman, and now with Kimmel, and recently fired Colbert wears their liberalism and ass-kissing lips all over the DNC, along the liberal mainstream media does. Stern will follow Colbert and be let go because of this!
ReplyDeleteStern has 4th stage Trump Derangement Syndrome and like the recently fired Colbert will be let go because if his incessant liberalism. The late great tonight show host Johnny Carson was "apolitical", never knew from his monologues who he voted for. Did wear his "liberalism "on their sleeves, starting with uber liberal Letterman, now with Kimmel, and the fired Colbert!
ReplyDeleteHe’s still on the air? Crazy. Who cares
ReplyDeleteNever heard of him
ReplyDelete