Hello NY and everywhere else, I'm Bird and you're in the Birdcage. Since things are going better than expected with the NY Rangers I thought you wouldn't mind if I drifted away from hockey yet again and spit out a few words on what was in my opinion, an historic day.
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This past Friday morning, millions of radio listeners tuned in to the final regular radio broadcast of the Howard Stern show. Whether you are a fan or not, you have to acknowledge that Howard is a broadcast pioneer who changed the way programmers programmed and he changed the way listeners listened. I was always amazed that his listeners spent incredible amounts of time listening to his show. Not only did his arbitron ratings soar in each market he broadcast in, the average time a listener spent listening to the show far exceeded any other broadcast since television replaced radio as the main source of entertainment.
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I first heard the show when Howard was on WNBC in NY. He employed "Boy" Gary who had cut his teeth (pardon the pun) at WLIR, a station that I worked at. Back in those days it was strange to tune in to AM radio for someone like me as I was very involved in the emergence of the new wave/punk movement. Pushing the envelope as he did, Howard was fired in late '84 while I was just starting my career at WLIR. While I was all about the music, a buddy of mine at WLIR got me interested in comedy. "Famous" Bob Helman was writing comedy for Larry the Duck at 92.7, WLIR and the day it was announced that Howard had been hired at 92.3 K-Rock in NY Bob and I quickly agreed that there would be more focus on the music in the mornings as going against Howard would be a ratings suicide.
From his first K-ROCK broadcast we knew that Howard was going to succeed. I realize that his humor was not for everyone but found it interesting that even those who claimed to hate him were tuning in. He then had his show simulcast at WYSP in Philadelphia. Howard began a ratings war with former WLIR DJ John Debella and basically kicked his ass. The jump to a national broadcast would soon follow. In city after city, Howard and his show quickly grabbed high ratings and advertising dollars. He was generating big money and used that to expand his envelope pushing broadcasts.
In 1986 I accepted a job in Pittsburgh at WXXP. I'm very proud to have been the first music director to "add" Sam Kinnison's first comedy record, "Louder Than Hell". Sam would have sold a ton of records anyway, but it's kinda cool that I was the first to list his recording on an industry top new add list. However, it was Howard that had the ability to bring a comedian like Sam on the air and the result was some of the best radio I ever heard. I still laugh when I think about the time Sam called Ted Kennedy the "Shemp" of the Kennedy's. The outrageous broadcasts with Sam and many other comedians, musicians and other people of interest became the talk of each city it was broadcast in. Of course, the humor was at times less than tasteful to some and complaints to the FCC piled up. Fines were issued and Howard's parent company tried to rein in the show. Because of the huge amount of advertising dollars involved they let Howard get close to the line and crossing that line occurred.....it was inevitable.
I always admired Howard for killing off the Morning Zoo shows which I always found to be horrible radio. While I didn't always enjoy Howard's humor I understood that I could just select a different station at any time. Others however would get very offended. I still don't understand why they didn't just turn the radio off.
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I had the pleasure of meeting Howard and Robin a few times and I have to say, they were very nice to me. Not that they'd remember me but we once met at a Gabe Kaplan show. The last time I saw Robin was at a performance of The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway. While Robin claimed to remember me I'm sure she was just being polite. She was also kind enough to pose for a picture with my wife. I mention this as I want you to understand that off-air, members of the Howard Stern Show were regular people. Well, I once recorded Stuttering John's band in a studio on Long Island and I guess "regular" is not the best description. But he was fun to deal with and didn't pull any of that "Don't you know who I am" stuff that some famous people I've interacted with have done.
A buddy of mine, Derek Panza trained Stuttering John for a boxing match for the show. John fought Crazy Cabbie....and won. I enjoyed hearing Derek on the show as they promoted the fight and got a real kick out of watching the match.
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So, as Howard and the rest of the show's members were finishing their final broadcast I found myself feeling a weird kind of emotion. I always thought that Howard's success had allowed me to do some things in radio that might not have been possible had he not torn down some of those barriers. It'll be interesting to see how his move to Sirius satellite will pan out. Radio in my opinion is theatre of the mind, meaning that each listener got their own mental image from the broadcast. With no restrictions on language or content, Howard will be challenged to keep his show funny. A graphic description might not be as entertaining as a more restricted description. Leaving less to the listeners imagination could take the humor out of the bit. Who knows.....we'll see I guess.
So long to the regular Radio broadcasts of the Howard Stern show. Thanks for the two plus decades of wild radio. I enjoyed it and millions of others did too. For better or worse Howard changed radio broadcasting. I salute him for doing so.
----}- Bird
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