When did Howard Stern jump the shark?
I first became a huge Howard Stern fan when he was on WNBC here in New York. This was back in the early 1980s when he radically advanced the state of the art of humor on the radio. Despite his huge ratings he had endless clashes with the NBC brass, which led to his firing. Clearly, the hostile environment wasn't a radio "bit," it was real. Stern was always keeping it real. It was all such compelling radio Stern based his biopic movie, "Private Parts," mostly on that time period.
After the NBC canning the self-proclaimed "King of All Media" moved to another NYC station, WXRK, where he was more comfortable and still amazingly funny.
I'd say he jumped the shark when he divorced his wife Alison in 2001. After all of those years of lusting after his female guests he was a free man. Some male listeners expected to be in on Stern's exploits as a single man, but he clammed up. Or maybe it was when his head writer and sidekick Jackie Martling left the show, also in 2001. The energy level dropped a few more points.
If he didn't jump the shark after those losses, Stern surely did after the move to Sirius Satellite Radio. Great, he was rich and uncensored, but the edge was completely gone. To me at least, he seems like he'd rather be somewhere else, enjoying his wealth. He's in his 50s, and the shock jock schtick is wearing thin.
What do you think? Does Stern still have it or has his talent faded away?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
I have been a Stern listener for over 20 years. I used to listen when he was in Hartford on WCCC. Truthfully, I do not believe he has jumped the shark. The show on SIRIUS is edgier than ever and the content has gotten much better since he has gotten out from under the oppressive thumb of the FCC. The flow of the show has gotten more natural with the non-restrictive atmosphere of SIRIUS and I'm glad Jackie has left the show. Most listeners were sick of his whining about not being paid his worth. As a daily listener of the show, you should know that some details of Howard's single guy exploits do actually leak onto the airwaves (i.e. Angie Evehardt, Robin Givens,, etc...).
Howard's counterpart, Bubba the Love Sponge even complement's the SIRIUS channels lineup with some fresh outlook and perspective. I believe the show and the network are better than ever. Howard's honest, "slap in the face", perspective is not matched by anyone on the air right now and for the past twenty years. Can you name anyone with a larger more dedicated listener base? I really don't think so.
I think one can appreciate your comment from two sides:
1.- Howard has been pushing the envelope so hard for the last 20 years that there is very envelope left to push.
2.- You and I do not necessarily like all of the same things that we liked 20 years ago. (I would make an exception for sex, food and music).
So, has he jumped the shark? not necessarily, has he changed? Yes, have we changed? yes.
is he the king of paid radio? Undoubtedly
With a toddler in the car, I don't really listen to Howard as much as I used to. I went from being able to listen to him all day at work, to now only catching 10-15 minutes a day. That's more than enough for me. I guess I've mellowed in my old age. ;)
Stern puts on a 4.5-5 hour show 4 days a week, and his schedule is murder...i can't even contemplate why he's been doing it this way for so many years, but you have to admire his tenacity. For a guy who has the pressure to constantly be on his game (the fans are extremely demanding) and push the envelope, and who is up at 4-5am at least 4 days a week, he's rarely sick, his work ethic is unbelievable and his dedication to providing a quality product to his fans is to be admired.
His interviews on Sirius have been nothing short of brilliant: if you can try to get his interview with Chris Rock, or when he had Darryl Hall on the show, it was riveting...the addition of George Takei as the announcer is just brilliant...I actually find myself wondering every couple of months "when's George coming back, we need to hear that laugh again."
It seems to me that you could easily sling **** at Howard for a lot of his past transgressions: for a long time at KROCK he was simply skating along and turning his show into a forum for strippers and he would really bully people in interviews... it was truly hard to listen to...but he's really past a lot of that schtick, and can concentrate more on refining some of his actual talents, like writing bits, creating situations, and doing quality interviews. The bottom line is that for the amount of hours that he is on the air over the course of a year, he's giving you a lot of value for your dollars in terms of content and laughs and generally competent interviews.
But the reality is...he's simply not reaching the size of market that he used to once he made the jump to satellite. And since the sales for Satellite radios has not exactly been the same as sales for DVD players or HD-TV sales (to put it kindly), he won't be as relevant to the mainstream as he used to be.
To say that "he's the main reason why the government is holding up the merger" between XM and Sirius is laughable. Truth is: both Satellite companies are money losers. It cost a lot of money to launch satellites, put in an infrastructure, etc. They thought Howard and others would convince people to pay for radio. Guess what...people were perfectly content to stick with thier iPods and not pony up for a new device which included a monthly subscription cost. If Howard were pulling in the millions of subscribers that was necessary to make Satellite radio a viable business, there would be no reason to even consider a merger in the first place (his huge salary doesn't help the beancounters books either).
Howard may be relevant to his fanbase...which I used to be a member of. But when I listened to him, his comedy was great for the price...free. But judging by the market, he jumped the shark when he started to charge $12.95 a month.
- by sonecent May 7, 2008 5:02 PM PDT
- Howard is hardlye entertaining. He is VERY one dimensional. I would never pay for radio, with commercials to boot!
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