Howard Stern - The King Of Ephemeral Comedy

Howard Stern has been a juggernaut of comedy since his humble beginnings in 1973 when he was pursuing a communications degree at Boston University. Foreshadowing a career of controversy and cutting edge comedy, Howard’s first radio show, The King Schmaltz Bagel Hour on the college’s radio station WTBU was canceled midway through its premier show for airing a comedy bit billed as Godzilla Goes to Harlem and there was no looking back.

Since then, Stern has gone on to become the ringmaster of a veritable comedy circus that has produced more hours of comedy [close to 30,000) than all of his peers, (including David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel) combined. With stints at WNBC [’82 to ’85], WXRK [’85 to ’05] and Sirius [’06 to ’25], Stern has managed to parlay his marathon morning radio shows (which sometimes went on for more than five hours] into well over 3,000 episodes of TV shows which aired on a variety of broadcast outlets including E!, Channel 9, CBS and On Demand. As impressive as this output of comedy is, it’s astonishing that most of it has disappeared into the ether over the years, as if it never happened. To make matters worse for the Stern fan, his long running Sirius show, which is essentially the only outlet for Stern show content these days, could come to an end this week as Stern keeps his fans in the dark as to whether he will re-sign with Sirius after his contract is up at the end this year. In light of this momentous week, I think this is a good time to look back on Stern’s illustrious broadcasting career, take stock of his massive library of shows and try to also figure out just why all of this content, over fifty years worth, is not available to the millions of fans who have been listening to the show over all these years.

WNBC - 1982 to 1985

WNBC Library - 600 Four Hour Shows

For many years, The Howard Stern radio show was the best kept secret among a small, but growing group comedy fans, broadcasting on a series of small radio stations before making it’s big market debut in 1982 on WNBC in New York, hosting the lucrative afternoon drive time slot from 3p-7p. It was at WNBC where Stern built his radio family including Fred [aka Eric] Norris and Robyn Quivers who he had worked with on his previous station WWDC in Washington. While at WNBC, Stern added his executive producer Gary [aka Baba Booey] Dell'Abate and eventual head writer Jackie [aka the Joke Man] Martling.

From L to R; Jackie Martling, Scott The Engineer, Howard Stern, Billy West, Fred Norris, Robin Quivers, Gary Dell'Abate and Stuttering John [Sitting]

In 1982, WNBC was a tightly formatted, AM top forty radio station that still hewed close to the ethos of the 60s and 70s top forty New York stations that Stern grew up listening to. There wasn’t much time or leeway for the DJ’s to perform other than give the time and weather and some clever intros to the top forty songs of the day while making sure they didn’t step on the song’s vocal. In spite of all these constraints, Howard would make great efforts to squeeze in comedy segments like the one involving the Virgin Mary in a singles bar, much to the chagrin of station management, especially his program director Kevin [aka Pig Virus] Metheny. All of this was brilliantly documented in Stern’s 1993 best seller Private Parts and the movie of the same name which featured Stern playing himself. Fun fact, Stern is in good company of public personalities who have played themselves in Hollywood biopics which for some reason are all sports legends including Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Mohammed Ali! Stern’s time at WNBC ended in September of 1985 after mounting arguments over the show’s content with station management.

One segment in particular, Bestiality Dial-a-Date led to then NBC chairman Grant Tinker finally pulling the plug on the show. Stern did not have television cameras in the studio during this period so all that remains of the over six hundred, four hour radio shows are scattered air checks and fan made tapes which are rare and much sought after.

WXRK Part 1 - 1985 to 1994

WXRK Library - 2,100 Four Hour Radio Shows

It didn’t take long for Howard’s agent, Don [aka Super-Agent] Buchwald to parlay Stern’s headline making firing into a lucrative afternoon show on Infinity Broadcasting’s owned New York FM station WXRK. The station had just made the switch in formats from Disco to Rock, a format better suited to Stern’s ever evolving radio show which went against the grain of most FM stations’ standard slogan “less talk and more rock.” I think it’s safe to say that this was truly the beginning of golden age of  The Howard Stern show with the addition of Jackie Martling as the head writer and comedian Billy West providing a series of spot on voices for bits that were pre-scripted like Larry Fine At Woodstock and adlibbing rants on newsmakers of the day like  Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, spewing a series of over the top parodies of her actual racists public comments. Since the show was live and very much in the moment with commentary on pop culture and news of the day, Martling would constantly be writing jokes, comments and one liners that he would hand to both Stern and West to help keep the comedy constantly flowing. It wasn’t long before Martling himself became a major character on the show, becoming comedy fodder for the rest of the crew which soon included Stuttering John Melendez.

Howard Stern's Private Parts is released in 1993 and debuted at number one on the NY Times best seller list, selling 220 thousand copies within hours of it's release.

The list of memorable moments on the show during those twenty years is way too long to list here but suffice it to say it was truly spectacular. Unshackled by the restraints of having to play music, Stern was able to fill his entire show with comedy (some of it scripted but more often than not off the cuff.) Among the highlights would be the drama between comedian Pat Cooper and his estranged family (egged on by Stern) in 1989 which played out on the air in a Jerry Springer way, long before Springer had his show. Another seminal moment was the origin of the phrase Baba Booey, in 1990. This was a master class in ball busting by Howard, Jackie, Fred and Robyn after Gary mispronounced the name of Quick Draw McGraw cartoon character Baba Looey while discussing his animation cel collection. Over the years, the phrase has become a part of pop culture, often blurted out by Stern fans in the middle of live events, most famously during ABC’s live coverage of the OJ Simpson car chase. In between all of these spontaneous bursts of comedy, Howard would often do live, irreverent commercial reads for local sponsors like Roselli Movers where Howard would make the claim that that Mama Roselli herself would carry the furniture "cushioned by her finely matted back hair" and E, Vincent Luggage [in the voice of local radio legend Cousin Brucie.] The evolution of the show during the early K-Rock years earned Howard a promotion to the more lucrative morning show slot in 1986 and the then unheard of syndication of the live show in what would eventually cover 60 markets and over 20 million listeners. Not bad for a morning radio show which proudly did not adhere to any of the morning radio show staples like time, traffic, weather and local news.

It was during these years that the show introduced a growing group of real life characters who they referred to as Whack Packers, a mixed bag of over the top, loyal listeners like Mary Ann From Brooklyn, Bobo and Sour Shoes, various afflicted personalities like Crack Head Bob, and Beetlejuice and delusional, wanna be celebrities like Marc Harris who single handedly provided hundreds of hours of comedy fodder for the now most popular morning show in radio in the country. It’s a shame that Stern didn’t allow TV camera’s into the studio until June of ’94 which once again leaves us with just air checks and fan recordings for over two thousand radio shows which for many days averaged five hours.

 

FOX TV’s The Howard Stern Show 1987

Howard had made no secret of wanting his show, or a version of it on TV as far back as the early eighties. In 1986, Elton John was a guest on the radio show and Howard got him to perform an original song Why Isn't Howard Stern on TV? with music by Elton and lyrics by Howard and his team. Howard’s wish almost came through in 1987 when he was courted by the Fox network as a possible replacement for the soon to be canceled Late Show with Joan Rivers. Howard shot five one hour pilots with Robyn as his co-host and the unlikely duo of Mountain guitarist Leslie West as the show’s bandleader and Las Vegas performed Steve Rossi as its announcer. Fox decided not to pick up the show so Howard would have to wait a few more years before conquering that medium. Like most TV pilots, the show is unavailable to watch but you might find some clips on YouTube.

FOX TV Library - 5 One Hour TV Shows

E! The Howard Stern Interview Show - 1992 to 1993

E! Interview Show Library - 35 Half Hour E! TV Shows

In 1991, Howard was approached by Comedy Central [full disclosure, I was in programming at the time and I set up the meeting with the blessing of my boss Bob Kreek who headed up our struggling little cable network and was a huge Stern fan himself.] Our idea was to place hidden cameras in the WXRK studio and edit the radio show highlights into half hour TV shows. Kreek and I met with Howard and his agent Don Buchwald and they both felt that having a camera in the studio would change the nature of the show so they passed on it. One of our competitors, the E! Network had a better idea by offering Stern a half hour, one on one interview show that could be taped around his schedule. This became The Howard Stern Interview Show which found Stern [alone without any connection to the radio show] in an intimate setting, with a great line up of guests including Gary Shandling, Joan Rivers, Ozzy Osbourne and most memorably, after the fact, Phil Hartman with his wife Brynn in 1993, five years before the murder/suicide that rocked the entertainment world. Howard was still honing his TV persona but the one thing that made him and the interviews stand out was just how fearless he was in the type of questions he asked. On the premier episode, just minutes into the interview with Gary Shandling, Howard brings up The Larry Sanders Show, telling Shandling “…it’s a funny show except it gets critical success but not ratings success, why has that been the Gary Shandling history?” Stern taped a total of thirty five half hours which have not been available to watch since their original broadcast.

The Channel 9 Show  - 1990 to 1993

Channel 9 Library - 69 One Hour TV Shows

WOR was a local, New Jersey independent TV station that also covered all of New York. It was what was known as a superstation at the time because its feed was also available throughout the country via cable TV. I can’t even imagine what possessed Howard to take on the challenge of producing a weekly, one hour variety show [airing against SNL no less] while still hosting his four hour daily radio show but the results were some of the best late night television of its day and although it was low in production value it was often just as funny as SNL. Some of the more surreal comedy segments included a parody of Gilligan’s Island featuring original cast members Bob Denver [Gilligan], Dawn Wells [Mary Ann] and Stern as Ginger resorting to cannibalism and eating the Skipper. Homeless Hollywood Squares featured two homeless contestants playing against an celebrities including Gene Rayburn, JP Morgan and white supremacist Daniel Carver. Things get even more surreal when Stern, in full Bob Hope prosthetics [thanks to Howard’s long time stylist Ralph Cirella] interviews the real Bob Hope and pitching him a slew of NSFW work jokes that Hope gamely plays along with. This is just a small sample of why the scarcity of these sixty nine, one hour Channel 9 shows have made them the holy grail of many Stern show fans over the years.

WXRK Part 2 - 1994 to 2005

E! TV Library - 2000+ Half Hour TV Shows

Having already established a good working relationship with E!, Howard finally allowed robotic, hidden TV cameras in the studio in June of ’94 for the launch of the nightly, half hour E! Show which was a mix of the morning show’s interviews with celebrities, rock stars, whack packers and sometimes controversial guests like white supremacist Daniel Carver. By the way, the TV cameras were only hidden for aesthetic reasons and ensured that the guests would not self-conscious. In fact, many guests over the years would even forget they were on live radio thanks to Howard’s unique, disarmingly honest and sometimes relentless pursuit of radio gold in the way of celebrity revelations.  During this period, Stuttering John emerged as a contributor to the show thanks to Stern’s idea to make him the show’s correspondent, covering a variety of celebrity press conferences and red carpet events. Jackie, Howard and Fred would write a series of increasingly inappropriate questions that Stuttering John had no problem repeating to the celebrities like asking baseball hall of fame Ted Williams if he “ever farted in a catcher’s face” or asking Gennifer Flowers “did Governor Clinton use a condom” at a live press conference broadcast on C-Span.

Howard Stern's second book, Miss America is released in 1995 and also debuted at number one on the NY Times best seller list.

There were some significant changes during this period of time with Stern show regular Billy West leaving

in 1995 followed by Jackie Martling in 2001. Martling’s exit left a huge gap not just because he was the head writer but he was also a full blown character on the show who got as easily as he gave. Before they found a replacement for what was referred to as the “Jackie chair” a series of comedians sat in on the show including Joe Rogan and Jimmy Kimmel who had both yet to make their own huge marks on entertainment. Comedian Artie Lange turned out to be a worthy replacement for Jackie and perfect for the show in his own way. He didn’t contribute as writer like Jackie but was more vocal in the studio, often chiming in with commentary which would egg on Howard even more. Much like Jackie, his personal life (which in his case involved gambling and a love for food) became an easy target for the show and while Jackie was missed by the hard core fans, Artie helped take the show to a new level. Speaking of personal lives on the show, in 1999 Howard dropped a major bombshell when he announced the separation (and eventual divorce) from his wife Allison. Howard’s home life [married with three daughters] was a huge part of his radio persona up to that point and this new phase would inform the show in the years to come.

Howard Stern's movie Private Parts opens at number one in 1997

It was also during this period when Donald Trump became a frequent guest, often freely answering Howard’s most inappropriate questions and even volunteering that as the owner of the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants he was allowed to freely walk into the dressing rooms; “No men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. ... ‘Is everyone OK?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody OK?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that.”

As the self-proclaimed King Of All Media (which was Howard’s tongue in cheek response at the time to Michael Jackson’s serious claim as the King Of Pop), Howard had actually lived up to his title. He was a NY Times best-selling author twice over with Private Parts and Miss America, and the Private Parts movie was the number one film the week it opened as was the movie’s soundtrack, something no other movie had ever achieved, He had conquered radio on both AM and FM and was regularly on TV so really what was left? It turns out there was a new frontier on the horizon in the form of satellite radio which saw two companies, XM and Sirius launch in 2002. In 2004, a full year before his contract was up at WXRK, Howard announced he was leaving for Sirius radio in January ’06.

The CBS Show - 1998 to 2001

CBS Library - 84 One Hour TV Shows

It’s funny how things in the entrainment business can change so radically which is what happened when

Infinity Broadcasting, the parent company of Howard Stern’s growing radio empire merged with CBS in 1998, resulting in Infinity CEO Mel Karmazin now overseeing CBS. Karmazin was the one who stood behind Stern through the various FCC battles he faced and while supportive, was known as a tough boss who kept his eye on the bottom line. At that time, I was working at CBS Television as the head of Late Night on the east coast, overseeing the Late Show with David Letterman and the idea that Howard was now part of the CBS family was exciting for those at the company who were huge fans of the show. One morning, I had a chance encounter with Karmazin in the lobby of the CBS Black Rock headquarters in New York where I introduced myself and half kiddingly mentioned “hey, we have to find a way to get Howard on the network.”

It didn’t take long for that to escalate into a meeting in Don Buchwald’s office with my by boss (and fellow Stern fan) Mitch Semel and Howard himself. Mitch and I really didn’t have a clear idea on what kind of show Stern would do for CBS or even where and when it would air on the network as both Letterman and Tom Snyder filled the day-part. We weren’t even convinced that Howard would could find the time to host a new show as he was already stretched thin with the morning radio show and was already well represented on TV with the E! Show. We told ourselves it was just an informational meeting anyway and much to our surprise, we left the meeting with a working idea, a Saturday night, one hour show, syndicated by CBS Eyemark that would air on all of the CBS owned and operated stations which would cover all the major markets and sold to independent stations in all of the other markets.

The show would be a re-cap of the week’s radio shows with lots of behind the scene’s footage, including pitch meetings and all of the action in the studio during commercial breaks. We leaned into that to help us differentiate from the E! Show. We also needed to make it clear this was not an original late night show so Mitch and I pitched Howard on calling it the Howard Stern Radio Show which is exactly what it was. Howard loved the idea and we officially announced the show in August of ’98 with a live press conference which aired on WCBS-TV in New York. Now in retrospect this was an insane idea since you never really know how press conferences can go especially with an aggressive New York media press pool and a possibly defensive Howard who often had harsh words for these very same people who he felt unfairly covered him over the years. We fully trusted that Howard would follow the FCC guidelines but we didn’t factor in the circus that often followed Howard. Thanks to his friendship with Stern, Norm Macdonald agreed to host the press conference which added another layer of drama to the proceedings. Norm was still very much in the news after NBC head Don Ohlmeyer had Lorne Michaels fire Norm that past December because of the constant OJ Simpson jokes on Weekend Update. Having Norm there also amplified the industry talk that the new CBS show was going to topple SNL, something none of us even contemplated.

Howard made a grand entrance escorted by a bikini clad woman who he introduced as Tiffany in honor of CBS’ reputation as the Tiffany network. Howard, who was flanked by Fred, Jackie and Robin on the dais, did a brilliant job fielding questions from the press pool which in classic Stern show fashion also included many of whack packers including Hank The Dwarf (in a pink bunny suit) and Crack Head Bob also asking questions.

As much as we tried to manage expectations, the critics wrote it off as a rehash of E! show. The ratings were strong in the first season but the viewers were expecting much more than we could deliver and the show ended (by mutual agreement) after 84 one hour shows.

Sirius - 2005 to 2025?

Sirius Library - 1800 Three Hour Radio Shows

Howard’s move to Sirius was not a smooth transition, at least behind the scenes. WXRK management

(and by extension CBS) allowed Howard to finish out his contract, which still had a year remaining, knowing full well that he was leaving for a competitor. That didn’t stop CBS from suing Howard during his first year at Sirius, claiming he stood to gain financially [from Sirius stock which was part of his compensation package] by promoting Sirius which he was still on WXRK. The suit was settled and Howard made an otherwise easy transition to satellite radio with two channel’s dedicated to his show. Howard 100 aired the live morning show and was repeated throughout the day and Howard 101 had a mix of original shows from “friends of the family” like Jay Thomas and even Jackie Martling. These shows aired among classic Stern show clips along with repeats of his growing library of Sirius shows.

Howard’s personal life (and those of the staff) were still a huge part of the show including his marriage to Beth Ostrosky in 2008, Artie leaving the show for personal reasons in 2009 and Robyn’s battle with cancer which she went  public with on the show in 2013…thankfully she’s been in remission since then. Sadly, Howard also lost three important people in his life who were all a huge part of the show both on air and behind the scenes; Howard’s agent Don Buchwald, his father Ben Stern and Ralph Cirella, his long time stylist and radio foil.

Sirius Library - 1100+ One Hour TV Shows

Thankfully Howard continued to allow cameras in the studio from day one and made the TV version available, billed as Howard TV, as a subscription-based, video-on-demand channel. Howard continued with his extracurricular TV activities when he announced he was joining the judges panel on America’s Got Talent in 2012. Howard was on that show for four seasons and the reviews were excellent allowing him to grow his audience, and a mainstream one at that, as people finally were able to see a more measured, kinder and empathetic version of Howard.

Howard’s growing popularity on Sirius and AGT opened the door for more A-list bookings including Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld and old friends like David Letterman. The whack packers were also still a big part of the show in the early Sirius years but as time went on several prominent ones passed away including Eric the Actor, Crackhead Bob, Joey Boots, Fred the Elephant Boy, and Riley Martin.

Howard Stern's releases his third best best seller Howard Stern Comes Again in 2019

In more recent years, Howard released another NY Times best seller, Howard Stern Comes Again, landed

coveted interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Paul McCartney and became an important stop on the campaign trail for a select group of political heavy weights including Hillary Clinton, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. Interestingly, Trump’s last appearance on the show was when he called into high at the height of his 2015 campaign, when his election still seemed very unlikely. Howard has avoided having him on the show or even talking about him in the years since.

So Will He Or Won’t He?

As we come to the end of 2025, Howard has only three shows left on his contract this week and it’s anybody’s guess as to whether he will resign with Sirius or what he will end up doing afterwards if he doesn’t. Long time listeners have been through this dance before as the same scenario played on his three previous Sirius contract renewals in ’10, ’15 and ’20, but for some reason this year feels different. The popularity of podcasting in recent years has certainly clouded the issue as Sirius has leaned heavily into that world, signing deals and offering channels [and a lot of money] to three of the most popular podcasts; SmartLess, hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, Call Her Daddy hosted by Alex Cooper, and Conan Needs A Friend hosted by Conan O’Brien.

Much has been made of the fact that these podcasts have broken new ground when the reality is that Howard has been doing exactly what these podcasts are doing for fifty years, only live and much longer in length. For example, the formats of two hugely popular podcasts hosted by Marc Maron and Conan O’Brien take a page directly from the Stern show playbook in their own fun and unique way. Maron would start his show the same way as Howard did with his version of “here’s the latest on what’s going on with me” with the only difference being Howard’s version was live and much longer before he would get to his first interview. Conan does something different than Maron but comes even closer to the Stern show by including his executive assistant, Sona Movsesian, and producer, Matt Gourley in the studio. Conan does about fifteen minutes of business including live commercial reads like Howard did and talks about the things going on in his life with Sona in the Robyn Quivers roll and Matt in a combination of Artie and Gary rolls with both of them adding to the conversation and sometimes being the target of Conan’s comedy, much like how Howard interacts with Robyn and Gary during the show.

So the two big questions remain, will Howard resign with Sirius and will we ever be able to get access to The Howard Stern library that remains unavailable. My money is on Howard resigning but presenting his show in a different format that leans into the podcast model of one hour interviews [with Robyn as co-host] and an opening monologue of sorts. As for making more of the library available, I don’t think that will happen anytime soon but there could be a world where a streamer like Netflix does a deal with Howard that gives them access to the 2000+  E! Show half hours and the 1100+ On Demand one hour shows. I know a big (and legitimate) concern has been how do they deal with some of the NSFW content in this new world order. I think that can be easily accomplished and with that many episodes to edit from, you would still end up with well over a thousand shows.  Another outlet is Samsung Smart TVs which recently launched two new FAST channels [Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television] that broadcast Letterman’s NBC and CBS’ library of shows as well as Conan’s NBC and TBS shows 24/7.

As for all of that audio only content from the WNBC and early WXRK days, there is gold in them there hills that can be presented as a podcast series with compilation episodes built around themes and they can even animate a lot of the more outrageous audio segments and create a separate TV show just based on that. Given all of the digital outlets available these days there is no better time to make the case that Playboy model Stacy Rucker made in one of the more memorable songs dedicated to the show; I Want More Howard Stern.