Howard Stern is an American radio and television personality, producer, author, actor, comedian, and photographer, best known for his radio show. Here are 50 interesting things to know about Stern -
He was born as Howard Allan Stern on January 12, 1954 to Bernard and Ray Stern.
His father was a co-owner of Auro Recording Inc, a studio in Manhattan where cartoons and commercials were produced.
He also has a younger sister, Ellen who according to him is very quiet, exactly opposite to himself.
He started his interest in Radio at an early age of five. However he himself has stated that as a youngster he would seldom listen to radio.
He cites his visits to his father’s recording studio as the main reason for him being in this field. He witnessed Wally Cox, Don Adams and Larry Storch at work, all known for their voice on Air.
In 1955 their family moved to Roosevelt, NY on long Island. HE began his schooling in Washington-Rose Elementary School and then Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School.
In 1960’s he was beaten up a few times by black students. Those days Roosevelt was dominated by black community. He remembered that only a handful of white students were left in school.
Subsequently his family moved to Rockville Centre, a nearby village. He joined Southside High School.
He began his college studies in Boston University in 1972. He began to visit University Radio station and played music, hosted interviews and even news.
He co-hosted a comedy program called “The King Schmaltz Bagel Hour” with his fellow students. Unfortunately it was cancelled in its first broadcast for another show named “Godzilla Goes to Harlem.”
He completed his diploma at Radio Engineering Institute of Electronics in Fredericksburg, Virginia and earned his radio telephone operator license. This certificate was important in those days to be a radio broadcaster.
He landed his first radio job at WNTN in Newton, Massachusetts from Aug to Dec 1975. He took production duties, news casting and air shifts.
In 1976 he graduated Magna Cum Laude in communications. In the next six months he taught students basic electronics in preparation for FCC exam.
In his quest for a job after graduation he had declined an offer to work at WRNW, a rock station in Briarcliff Manor, New York. He was nervous and unsure of his future in this industry.
He joined Benton & Bowles, a New York advertising agency for a marketing role. He lasted for only three hour as their personal department thought he wasn’t suitable and fired him.
Berns encouraged him to contact WRNW for work which he had declined previously. On December 1976, he agreed to work cover shifts for $96 per week. He became station’s production and program director for an increased salary at $250.
Stern applied for a job in Radio and Records in 1979 which advertised for a “wild, fun morning guy.” He sent an audition tape featuring Robert Klien and Cheese and Chong records with one liner and flutulense routines.
He was hired for the same salary he received in his previous work but worked intense schedule. He would be on Air for four hours and the next four hours producing commercial. He also hosted Sunday Morning public affairs show.
During Energy Crisis in 1979 he had urged the listeners to boycott Shell Oil Company for two days. This stunt turned media attention towards him.
In 1980 he left WCCC when his demand for pay increase was rejected.
He later joined WWWW, a rock station in Detroit, Michigan as a morning guy. The management was very happy with his audition tape and recruited him on April 21, 1980.
The station found it very difficult to compete with other three rock stations and hence changed to Country Music. He was annoyed with this and lasted only two weeks.
He received “Billboard” award for “Album-Oriented Rock Personality of the Year for Major Market” and “Drake-Chenault” Top Five Talent Search during his stay in Detroit.
He moved to Washington D.C in 1981 to host morning shows at rock station WWDC. He paired with robin Quivers, a newscaster from WFBR, Baltimore.
Quiver thought she would just do a news and go but Stern wanted his co-worker to be more live and humorous. It was huge success. He became the second highest rated morning show host in the area by January 1982.
Impressed with his success NBC offered Stern to work afternoons at WNBC in New York. He signed a five year contract worth $1 million in March 1982. This resulted in his termination from WWDC as his relationship with the management worsened.
During his tenure in WWDC he had tripled the station’s morning rating. “The Washington” magazine named him the best Disc Jockey in the area.
He also released an album named “50 Ways to Rank Your Mother” which was re-released in November 1994 under the name “Unclean Beaver.”
On April 2, 1982 a news report featuring Stern was aired on NBC magazine’s “shock Radio.” This prompted the NBC management to discuss about cancelling his contract.
He began his afternoon program in September 1982 under close monitoring by the management. He was advised to stay away from sexual and religious discussions.
He started a discussion on “Virgin Mary Kong” featuring a video game shere group pf men pursue the Virgin Mary around bar in Jerusalem. He was suspended for several days.
The station hired an attorney whose main objective was to cut Stern off the microphone if he ventured into restricted offensive areas to discuss.
Stern had nicknamed his program director Kevin Metheny as “pig Virus” since Kevin took the role of monitoring Stern’s discussions and cutting him off once he swayed away from out of line.
Stern and his partner Quivers were fired on September 30 1985. The management wanted him to change some of the elements of the program which were deemed inappropriate to audience.
Stern’s venture into television was in 1987 when Fox network required a replacement for The Late Show. Stern along with guitarist Leslie West and Steve Rossi as announcer tested his program among focus groups, but it never picked up.
In 1990 he hosted a late night show titled The Howard Stern Show on WWOR-TV featuring him and his radio show staff. The Show was a success nationwide and even managed to overtake The Saturday Night Live in the ratings.
In 1992 he described himself as the “King of All Media” following his increasing popularity as radio and television personality.
Stern was to act as Fartman a superhero originating from humour magazine. In 1992 he came to an agreement with New Line Cinema to release it. But it was cancelled in 1993 due to disagreement between Stern and New Line cinema.
Stern met his wife Alison Berns at Boston University. They married on June 4, 1978 in Brookline, Massachusetts.
They have three daughters Emily Beth, Debra Jenifer and Ashley Jade.
Stern was so engrossed with his work that his marriage took a bad turn. He got separated from his wife and moved to his own apartment in Upper West side of Manhattan. They divorced in year 2001.
Stern started dating model and television host Beth Ostrosky in 2000 a year before his divorce. They married on October 3, 2008 in New York city which was officiated by Mark Consuelos.
Stern started playing chess from an early age and played in Internet Chess Club. He has even taken lessons from the website’s founder Dan Heisman, a chess master. Stern achieved a rating of 1600.
Stern in a radio show called Staff Revelations Game had revealed about his surgery under his chin. He underwent Liposuction and Rhinoplasty in 1990.
In May 2013 he bought a home of 19000 sq feet in Palm beach, Florida for $52 million.
FCC has fined the owner’s of radio stations that carried The Howard Stern Show for having indecent contents. They were fined a total of $2.5 million.
Stern was inducted in to The National Radio Hall of Fame in 2012; although he had bad run in with the organisation.
In August 2013 he along with Simon Cowell was named on top of the Forbe’s list of America's highest paid television personality. They each earned $95 million between June 2012-13.
Stern was a judge on America’s Got Talent in its seventh season. He replaced Piers Morgon and continued till the tenth season.
In 1993 he wrote his first book “Private Parts” co-authored with Larry Sloman. It was released on October 7, 1993 and sold 225,000 copies within first hour of release. It stayed on top of New York Times Best Seller list for nearly 20 weeks.
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