I've been a fan since 1991. Still am, even though I don't listen as much as I used to.
During that time, I remember:
His first day on in Los Angeles. He fought with the press just about all morning and vowed to bury Mark & Brian at KLOS. The local industry thought that a major FM station time-shifting a morning drive show from New York was pure insanity. It was, kinda.
18 months later, he came to L.A. to have their "funeral". He crushed them in the ratings.
The Philadelphia feud with the "Zookeeper", John DeBella. That one got nasty and took much longer to accomplish. But he eventually had his "funeral", too. Stern owned this town. No other show even came close to matching his ratings for years. It's kinda sad when you think about how far WYSP has fallen since then...
The Chicago disaster when then-WLUP-AM picked up the show. That was not a good day. The local press was vicious. So was Mancow.
The nastiest on-air feud he ever had with anyone by far was with Mancow. He threatened to have sex with Stern's wife, while Stern threatened to "dig up his dead father and fist his skull". Mancow's father died from cancer about one year prior. If there ever was a moment of the show where I felt he went overboard, this was it.
Other radio feuds included:
Some guy named Flannigan in Cleveland
Brother Wease in Rochester
Bob & Tom in Indy, or anywhere else
Imus
Tom Leykis
The Greaseman
Bubba the Love Sponge
Opie & Anthony
Don & Mike
Other notable feuds:
Chevy Chase
OJ Simpson
Tom Snyder
Wally George
Jay Thomas
Bon Jovi
Andrew Dice Clay
Snapple (yes, Snapple)
The "Ukrop boys" in Richmond.
Richmond was by far the single biggest market disaster of the show. It wasn't because of lack of listeners; it was because the local advertisers, Ukrops especially, hated him. In fact, Ukrops hated him so much, one of the "boys" actually bought the station he was on, primarily to take him off the air. Pretty hilarious and unbelievable if you think about it...
Then there was the Private Parts hype. Very fun times for us fans. Probably the peak of the radio show... During this time, he had about 50 affilates with a total weekly cume of 22 million listeners. Because of media fragmentation, this is unlikely to ever happen again.
As a fan of the show, I remember:
*Instantly bonding with other Stern fans, talking about the show and our favorite parts of it.
Being criticized by others, wondering how I could "listen to such garbage".
Going to Private Parts in an absolutely packed out theater.
*Literally pulling off the Beltway one morning after hearing "Ol' Black OJ" for the first time because I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. I don't think I was the only one, either...
*My friend calling me later that day just to see if I heard that segment of the show.
*Sitting in traffic trying to cross the Wilson Bridge, hear something funny happen on the show, and seeing people in other vehicles laughing.
*Major news happening, and wonder what Howard was gonna say about it the next day.
You people who never had Stern in your local market, you have no idea how deprived you were...
Now, here's a theoretical discussion:
If Stern comes back to terrestrial in syndication form, It's a given that he will have clearance in every major market, and the smaller ones he did well in. How many of you programmers would seriously consider picking up the show this next go-round? I'm interested in seeing if he would have a decent shot of landing a WV affiliate this time.
Thoughts?
* The power that terrestrial radio still has that no other form of media does. Axing talent that could have this ability just to save a few dollars short-circuits this potential, IMO. Nobody will talk about an automated jukebox.
