Live Blogging Howard Stern

Eddie Murphy was a mystery guest and Howard was talking to him. Eddie laughed with his distinctive laugh while Howard was talking about how big he was, Howard then picked up some phone calls and asked the people if they wanted to take a guess at who it was in the studio. He was giving away tubes of Preparation H as gifts for the winner, the first caller got it right when he said it was Eddie Murphy. Howard talked to Murphy about living in Roosevelt, Long Island which is where he grew up too. Howard and Robin told Eddie how funny he was and how great his new album was. Howard continued talking to Eddie about his work on Saturday Night Live. They talked about his Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood bit and things like that. Howard said that Eddie is a genius in his opinion. Eddie didn’t have much of anything to say during the interview. Howard said he thought he was going to be able to get him on a roll but that didn’t happen. He said that his lips were brown from kissing his ass so much.

Howard came up with the idea to do the Bathroom Olympics, Robin liked the idea so Howard got some contestants on the phone to play along with them. He got a woman on the line and said they’d play for an album and a tube of ”Prep H.” Howard told her that he was going to jump up, run out of the studio and run to the bathroom, it was about 15 yards away. He asked the woman how long it was going to take him to do that. She guessed 7 minutes, then she changed her mind to 10 minutes. Another caller guessed that it was going to take 66 seconds, and the third caller said 2 minutes and 5 seconds. Howard took a two way radio with him so he could talk while doing it, he was back in 2 minutes and 7 seconds. Caller number three had one….

Howard’s wife gave birth to their first daughter on May 7, 1983 which was an exciting highlight in his life, Howard vowed to be the best dad he could be and give her a great life. Shortly after Randy Baungarten started working at WNBC. Robin said that those were the good years there at NBC because Randy understood the show, and was interested in letting the talent do the things that would let the talent be successful. Randy paired up Howard Stern and Imus in a TV commercial, because Imus and Howard pissed off a lot of people and they were going to have them apologize to the audience in the commercial. Imus and Howard didn’t have any lines in the commercial, they just stood there as Randy did his thing and apologized to the audience. Imus received a gold Rolex for appearing in that commercial. Howard said that he remembers doing the commercial and what a pain in the ass Imus was that day, nobody on the show liked Imus, Robin said he was a drunk, he was dirty insulting and had scabs all over his nose. Imus went to Howard’s boss and said to stop Robin from insulting him, however Imus used to insult Robin racially on air by calling her a negro and spearchucker! Howard said that he got Imus on the phone again and this wasn’t a bit they were doing, it was really him. Howard talked to Imus and asked him what he’s doing calling in. Imus said that the reason Howard had Robin there is because they have a new affirmative action program going on there. Howard mentioned something about Imus’ show and Imus hung up on him.

Jackie the Joke Man Martling joined the show in February of 1983, Howard said he didn’t remember exactly how it came about but he and Fred thought it would be cool to have Martling come in and do something once a week. Fred said that they had the Stump the Joke Man thing that they did and that Jackie would get almost every joke right when the listeners would call in with them. Martling would come in and he’d write jokes for Howard and pass the notes to him. Jackie said that he wasn’t sure when that started happening but he remembered Howard doing the “Mama Lookaboobooday” character on the show. Al Rosenberg said that if Martling laughed at a joke during the show, you knew that he wrote it, if he didn’t laugh, it was something Fred or Howard wrote.

Howard used to call his mom often while on the air in New York, both his parents had gone on air to do a few shows with Howard. Seems Imus thought it was a great idea doing that, so much so that he called Howard’s mom because he wanted a mom on his show! Howard talks about being so close to his mom now that she can reach him at anytime, one time he called to tell her that he will wear what he wants to, he said he is wearing jeans to the Bar Mitzvah. Howard seemed to have the power to turn regular people into celebrities. Fred talked about how Janie the Cleaning Lady was one of the nicest people in the world, she would just do her job and didn’t complain about it. They played a clip where Janie the Cleaning Lady was talking about her hang over from partying the night before and she ended up reading a fan letter she got about her appearing on the show. Howard also had Bob Hope on the show and he decided to interview him as a out of the closet Stern, Bob Hope was a bit confused and did not find it amusing at all. Kevin Metheny Howard’s old boss, was talking about how he was trying to keep Howard under control but he was actually trying to keep him out of trouble. He said that he was trying to get the Standards and Practices people to lighten up back then and Howard probably didn’t know about that. Al Rosenberg talked about Howard using the word smegma on the air one day and how they got into trouble with management after that, Howard also did a gay spoof of ”2001 A Space Odyssey” called ”2010 A Gay Space Odyssey.”

Robin said that she almost didn’t get on the air because Howard got thrown off the air for doing a ”Virgin Mary Kong” bit that caused a lot of controversy. Fred talked about that bit and how he might have to take the blame, or credit, for that. He said that video games were really hot at the time so he figured that they could have Howard’s God character playing the game during his weather report. On October 18, 1982 Robin came back to the Stern Show and never left again. It was a nightmare for Robin to come there to NBC because they were trying to turn her into an NBC newswoman and that’s not what she does. Fred said that Robin already had her own delivery that they wanted to change. Howard said that they really did a number on her and wanted her to quit. Joe Piscopo was saying that he remembers hearing about Howard coming to NBC and working in the same building that they were doing Saturday Night Live in. He said that Howard asked him to come on the show and they had a great time going back and forth on the air that first day.

After loosing his job in DC Howard moved to WNBC in New York, Howard said he had wanted to go to WPLJ but they wanted him to play music during the show, at night. He said he couldn’t do that and ended up taking the job at WNBC. Howard said that Fred and Robin were supposed to be hired to work with him but he took it as a handshake deal, and he didn’t know that they were going to screw him over, he said they later refused to hire Robin. Howard said he told Robin that he was going to get to New York and hire her somehow. Howard talked about how WNBC didn’t want him there from day one. He said that they didn’t even let him do his first show in the afternoons like he was supposed to. They told him to practice on overnights…. Howard said that management wasn’t even awake at that time so he decided to do some gargling before a song while trying to do the call letters the way that he was supposed to do them. Howard described what he was doing with the gargling and how it was supposed to sound like he was gargling his semen. A lot of people were upset by Howard’s joke and the whole gay character episode. Howard talked about how Al Rosenberg used to work for Imus but he was fired because Imus wanted to hire his girlfriend to work with him. He said that Imus was a real douche bag broadcaster back then and he said he’d love to have Al work on his show. He said that Al was doing the best radio of his career at the time and Imus actually asked him to do his characters on his show. He said it was great torture for Imus to have Al doing great stuff on his show and not on Imus’ show. Howard eventually got his way with the station and Robin returned to be on the air with Howard and Fred.

When the Air Florida crash in DC happened it was rumored that Howard called the airlines and asked for a price on a one way ticket from Duluth to the 14th Street bridge, which is where the jet crashed. Howard never made that call even though it was reported by Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters and David Brenner it was not a real call even though many thought it was. There was a huge fallout after that!

On January 12, 1982 Robin hosted Howard’s first on air birthday show, Joan Jett called to tell him to lick her Pro-Keds and wish him a happy birthday while calling him a pencil necked geek, Howard got a kick out of that! Mayor Marion Barry also called to wish him a Happy Birthday, Howard tried to get him to come into the studio, however the Mayor stated he was very busy that morning. The birthday show has been tradition ever since.

The ratings continue to grow for Howard and the station, he said he would do anything to keep the ratings up, things were nuts. Howard recounts the day he was coming up in the elevator and a Spanish guy hops in with a machine gun in his hand and demands that he bring him up to the studio. Howard figured it was all over at that point, he got up to his floor and they took the gun away from him and figured out it was a toy gun, they were going to call the cops but Howard decided that he wanted the guy to be his sportscaster for the day. They did some crazy stuff together, he once told Fred that he was going to have to wear a dress to the live show they were doing but Fred said he wasn’t going to do it., he was doing a weird voice and demanding that he wasn’t going to wear one, which led to a fake fight where Fred was supposedly attacking Howard. Howard told him he’d talk to him about it later and told Fred to get out of there. Howard was making it sound like Fred was attacking his leg and breathing down his neck.
Denise Oliver talks about the first ratings book that they got after Howard and Robin started and it was really big news, she said she got a call from someone at Arbitron who congratulated her for the ratings before she even saw them. Howard and Robin had tripled the morning ratings for the station, Howard said they were getting an 8 share in the morning which is phenomenal, they were only getting about a 1 before that. Howard said that 8 share was nothing to him, he figured that it should be a 100 share and he was motivated to keep the show going and making it even bigger.

In 1981 Fred Norris joins Howard and Robin in DC and has been with Howard ever since. Fred said that he saw the show explode around that time and it was the most exciting time of his life. He said that he still can’t believe how big Howard had become and how quickly things were happening back then. Fred said that he was blown away by the way people were treating them and how they were like the three musketeers at the time. They were in DC together when Princess Dianna married Prince Charles and they decided to do a show pretending they were all at the wedding. Fred also said that gay humor has always been a big part of the show and some people probably think that they were actually gay themselves, they played a clip of Out of the Closet on The Stern Show with the Gay Hulk character.

Tuesday’s on Howard’s show were a group of guys called “The Think Tank”, Howard said that they were just a few guys who would sit in on the show a few days a week. They were just a bunch of regular guys who, Robin said that she only remembered one of the guy’s names, Steve, the other guys from the Think Tank talked about how they didn’t know what was going on with the show or if they were even on the air. They also had an attorney in the Think Tank that was a lawyer who helped George Carlin out with his case against the FCC and the 7 dirty words. Some of the guys from the Think Tank talked about what they did back then and then they went into a clip where Howard was taking phone calls and talking to those guys. Howard was doing a weird creepy voice and someone else was banging a drum and cymbal and laughing for no reason.

Howard used to call Robin’s mom to talk to her on air, he went on to tell her that her daughter is very nice but she’s always trying to hug and kiss him. Robin’s mother said she thought she taught her better than that. Howard eventually stopped calling her mom due to a strained relationship between Robin and her parents. Howard’s mom talks about how Howard’s career really took off in DC, so much so that people were talking about hearing him on the radio and it was getting back to his parents who were thrilled that he was making a name of himself. Howard then appeared on Petey Greene’s radio show, Greene was a black man with many church going black ladies for listeners, Howard showed up with a black painted face, Robin said she couldn’t believe it! Greene called him a “cracker”, Greene told him that he would never put on white face and appear on a show like Howard did. Jim Forbes said people were talking about how some people had a problem with Howard’s racial humor, even if Greene didn’t, Robin was one of them. She said that she did have a problem with Howard in the beginning but she eventually got over it and realized that it was her own problem.

Petey Greene “How to eat a Watermelon”

After WWWW in Detroit went to being a country station, Howard and Alison moved to Washington DC, this is when Howard met Robin Quivers. Denise Oliver heard Robin on the radio and was very interested in her, however Robin had moved around so much in she really wasn’t interested until Oliver played a tape of Howard for Robin to listen to he was interviewing a prostitute. Robin had never heard anyone like that on the radio, Robin was very interested and agreed to work with him. The two hit it off immediately, making a great team together. Howard also talked about his first Lesbian Dial-A-Date that happened on DC-101.

In the 1980’s things started getting wild, Howard passed out drunk on the show and when he came to there were people hanging around doing blow, he also started wrestling women, they talked to a belly dancer that used to do Howard’s show back then. She talked about what she used to do for Howard’s show and how they had people drinking beer at 8 in the morning back then. She mentioned Howard’s look and how geeky he was at the time, and also about having her bra pop off during an appearance she was making. Howard also called a woman in Scotland Yard and asked for someone to talk to him about the John Bonham case. She put someone on the phone and Howard told him who he was and why he was calling. ..He brought up the John Bonham death and wanted to find out more information. The cop over there didn’t know anything about it and Howard actually knew more. Howard gave the cop the information he knew since the guy was clueless. Howard seemed to be forming his personality and creating his niche as a radio personality.

Howard said he had to interview Steve Perry, Howard hated him, Perry’s first comment to Howard was hey it’s Big Bird! He interviewed Billy Squier while in Detroit, Howard said he was a cool guy. Howard later hired a dominatrixIrene DeCook as the leather weather girl, she wore leather everyday.

After a year at WCCC Howard asked for a 25 dollar raise and his boss said he had to think about it, it was then that Howard realized it was time to leave Hartford. It was shortly afterwards he received a letter from Dwight Burkhard in Columbus, Ohio showing interest, however they ended up working out a deal with the morning guy and didn’t need Howard. Later he found out there was an opening in Detroit, he called Burkhard who said you do not want to work in Detroit it’s a dump. Howard did end up hearing from the station manager in Detroit who flew to Hartford and offered him the job. He left for Detroit to work for WWWW it was in an old funeral home, Howard said it was awful. On his first day the overnight guy kept referring to him as Big Bird. Howard called Ford company and tried to get everyone the day off because it was his first day on the air in Detroit, Howard it seems made a huge impact on the air, the phones were lighting up wondering who this guy was. He was living there without his wife Alison, and living in a horrible place, he would go to work and then go right home. Dick Hungate, his boss in Detroit once told him not to take a lot of calls from women on air because he would look wimpy.

Dick Hungate

Howard moved on to station WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut and it was there that he met Fred Norris one morning during shift change. The two of them hit it off, Norris would stay and do some voices during the crossover. Howard worked Mon-Sat four hour shifts and Saturday was a six hour shift, Norris said Howard had no one to help him and what mess he would create with records that is when Norris decided to help him out with the records. Howard also had to do public affair shows during which Howard would turn the conversation to sex…

Fred Norris

Howard marries Alison in 1978, in 1979 he starts thinking about moving on. One morning he switched shifts with the morning guy and took the Neil Young song Four Strong Winds and turned it into a fart song, well the owner heard the bit and within a month he was out of there.

When new owners took over WRNW Howard took over as the new program director but still keeping his spot as a DJ. His coworkers couldn’t believe it because he was such a conservative, however they said he did a great job! Howard also worked briefly as a Disco DJ in a Tarrytown club, he only lasted a few weeks because he didn’t know anything about disco. Howard reminisces about Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band movie he was sent to broadcast the premiere, he said it was awful, no one liked the movie, someone told him to blow off, he was bombing and his coworker didn’t even throw him a lifeline.

The Song Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

While working at WRNW he was living at a Monastery for a hundred dollars a month, as long as he was living there he had to adhere to the vow of silence while in the Monastery. A coworker commented on how Howard practiced Transcendental Meditation in his car behind the station before the show, they used to joke that he was levitating in his car.

1977 Howard started his first professional job at radio station WRNW Briarcliff Manor, New York. The studio was extremely tiny, it has been described as a small bedroom. Howard said it was difficult because he said he was not a good straight announcer. His coworker described him as very quiet in the beginning towards the staff. Howard describes his first day as a disaster, he said he hit the board and it fell apart, he had to call the engineer who came in and yelled at him, Howard said he almost got fired that first day because he also called the program director and woke him up on New Year’s morning, his only day off! The music director said she used to get everyone a copy of new albums like the Ramones and Elvis Costello. She remembers when the song Alison came out she thought Howard would love it since he was so in love with his girl Alison, however when she played it for him he said “Oh no I can’t play that”.

Howard used to work at a camp as a dishwasher, his friend tells the story of Howard creating a bottleneck in dishes, he could not keep up and ended up with swill flying everywhere including in his long hair, it was a disgusting mess. Howard and his buddy Kenny used to pull many pranks on each other, one of Howard’s favorite tricks was lighting his farts on fire, he once blew up the toilet bowl, sending porcelain shrapnel everywhere!

Howard’s mother would hand wash his underwear in the sink if she found some duty stains, she would call Howard in and say “Howard what is this?” and ask why it was happening then she would show him what she had to do to clean them, then she would leave them soaking in the sink for everyone to see!!! Howard’s mom called in to deny the story, she told him he is making up bugameisters (sp). Howard then recounted step by step the whole underwear cleaning story.

Skid Marks

Howard had a rough time in High school, all of the white families had moved out and Howard’s family was the only white family left on the block. Howard used to get beat up a lot by the other kids in school who happened to be black, Howard’s mother couldn’t understand why they would beat up on the one white kid who still lived in their neighborhood. In 1969 the end of his freshman year, his family moved to Rockville Centre, he had a tough time finding his niche there, and was still getting his ass kicked by other kids. According to friends he was awkward and had no athletic ability. Howard said he looked liked Tiny Tim, he had long hair but his mother would not let him wear jeans, so he wore slacks and loafers with his long hair.