1990s, his show was widely
distributed.
As an example, in one well known
episodes, he persuaded a female caller
to have s-- with him on the air, over
the telephone. 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
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
National Airport to the 14th Street
Bridge. He was making light of the crash
of an Air Florida flight into the 14th
Street Bridge in
Washington D.C one-day earlier and
as a result of this bit he was fired by
DC101.
Stern's rude and crude style of
entertainment (which many listeners
support nonetheless) has earned him the
sobriquet of "shock
jock." Stern jokingly refered to
himself as the "King Of All Media" -- a
parody of
Michael Jackson's claiming of the
title "King of Pop." To his fans this
title is true, as they have been loyal
consumers of his books, pay-per-view
events and movies. In his own mind Stern
represents the future, where public
moral standards will be much lower than
now, in keeping with a longstanding
trend. His show is frequently the
subject of complaints by various
listeners (and occasionally ethnic
groups) who find his deliveries
offensive - which he goes out of his way
to encourage. Radio stations airing his
show have occasionally been subjected to
fines for violating
FCC requirements due to the content
of the show, but the parent conglomerate
(Infinity Broadcasting, a subsidiary of
Viacom) that hosts Stern's show
seems to consider these fines a
necessary price to pay, in order to
support Stern's continuing popularity.
In
1992 the FCC fined Infinity
Broadcasting $600,000 after Stern
discussed
masturbating to a picture of Aunt
Jemima. His
April 21,
1999 show drew angry criticism 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 s-- 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 s--? If I was
going to kill some people, I'd take them
out with s--."
In
1994 Stern embarked on a political
campaign for Governor of the state of
New York formally announcing his
candidacy under the
Libertarian Party ticket. Although
he fulfilled the necessary requirements
and ran a legally authorized campaign,
most outside observers saw his run for
office as little more than a
publicity stunt.
In spite of the crude content of his
show, many radio listeners consider
Stern's delivery to be far from the
worst quality radio aired today. 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. In
2002 fellow Infinity Broadcasting
Corporation jocks Opie and Anthony had
their nationally syndicated
WNEW-FM "extreme talk" show
cancelled after they encouraged a couple
to engage in s-- at Saint
Patrick's Cathedral in New York City,
then airing a running commentary of the
act on their show. Stern, his supporters
note, has not gone out of his way to
offend the general public in this
manner.
The number of commercials aired
during his radio show has greatly
increased from the 1980s to the present.
In
1997 Stern's loosely
autobiographical book, Private
Parts, was adapted to film. The
movie did well at box offices and in
video release, garnering a total of over
$60 million. He proclaimed that his next
movie would be
The Adventures of Fartman, but
this never materialized.
Being one of those personalities that
people either love or hate, but nobody
is neutral about, 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.
In
2002, Stern's production company
Howard Stern Productions acquired the
rights to the
1982 movie
Porky's and the
1978 movie Rock 'N' Roll High
School. Stern was a producer for the TV
Series
Son of the Beach.
See also:
seven dirty words,
Robin Quivers,
Artie Lange,
Baba Booey, Gary Dell'Abate,
Hank the angry drunken dwarf
Howard Stern is
also the name of the lawyer and personal
advisor of
Anna Nicole Smith. Additionally he
co-stars on her TV show, the eponymous
The Anna Nicole Show. The identical
name is coincidental.