WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.379 I want you to picture the media landscape of 00:00:02.379 --> 00:00:05.400 the early 1990s for a second. Okay. It is so 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.480 clean, so corporate. You know, you have these 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:11.080 network news anchors who look like they were 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:13.660 just manufactured in a factory somewhere. Perfect 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:15.900 hair, perfect diction, not a word out of place. 00:00:16.140 --> 00:00:18.260 Exactly. And then on the radio, you have all 00:00:18.260 --> 00:00:22.620 these DJs who use that same, like, deep, fake, 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:26.100 baritone voice. Time for the morning zoo. It 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:29.030 was just... It was safe. It was sterilized. Oh, 00:00:29.050 --> 00:00:30.690 it's incredibly sterilized. I mean, you had the 00:00:30.690 --> 00:00:33.390 gatekeepers, the SEC, the networks, the big book 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:35.789 publishers, and they were controlling absolutely 00:00:35.789 --> 00:00:37.429 everything that reached the American public. 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:40.329 There was a very, very narrow lane of what was 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:42.969 considered acceptable entertainment. And then 00:00:42.969 --> 00:00:45.270 into all of that, you have this one guy, a guy 00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:47.429 who looks kind of like a heavy metal guitarist, 00:00:47.429 --> 00:00:50.450 speaks like an erotic patient on a therapy couch, 00:00:50.609 --> 00:00:54.039 and is openly at war with his own bosses. on 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:57.259 the air. And somehow this guy looks at that entire 00:00:57.259 --> 00:00:59.979 sanitized system and just says, I'm going to 00:00:59.979 --> 00:01:02.719 conquer all of it. And he didn't just say it. 00:01:02.740 --> 00:01:04.879 I mean, he statistically did it. And that's really 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.480 what we are unpacking today. We aren't just talking 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:11.099 about a shock jock. That term is actually kind 00:01:11.099 --> 00:01:13.480 of reductive. When you look at the data, we're 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:15.879 looking at the numbers behind the title, the 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:19.349 king of all media. Because, and this is all in 00:01:19.349 --> 00:01:21.950 the source material, there was a specific moment 00:01:21.950 --> 00:01:24.349 in time where Howard Stern had the number one 00:01:24.349 --> 00:01:26.590 movie, the number one book, and the number one 00:01:26.590 --> 00:01:29.370 soundtrack in the country. All at the same time. 00:01:29.750 --> 00:01:32.810 Simultaneously. Which is just, it's unheard of. 00:01:32.909 --> 00:01:34.730 I mean, even if you look at modern stars like 00:01:34.730 --> 00:01:38.109 a Taylor Swift or The Rock, they don't usually 00:01:38.109 --> 00:01:40.969 hold the number one spot in film, publishing, 00:01:41.189 --> 00:01:43.909 and music at the exact same second. Precisely. 00:01:43.909 --> 00:01:46.469 It was a statistical anomaly. So our mission 00:01:46.469 --> 00:01:48.590 for this deep dive is to figure out how he did 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:50.450 it. We're going to tear apart the biographical 00:01:50.450 --> 00:01:52.590 data to understand the psychology. We'll look 00:01:52.590 --> 00:01:54.349 at the court records from his, you know, his 00:01:54.349 --> 00:01:58.269 long war with the FCC. And we are going to get 00:01:58.269 --> 00:02:00.989 technical on the financial structures of that 00:02:00.989 --> 00:02:03.810 half billion dollar serious deal. We want to 00:02:03.810 --> 00:02:06.810 understand how a painfully introverted kid from 00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:10.110 Long Island weaponized his own insecurities to 00:02:10.110 --> 00:02:13.259 build a business empire. And when you say introverted, 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:14.800 I think a lot of people might roll their eyes 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:17.139 at that. Oh, for sure. Because the character 00:02:17.139 --> 00:02:20.729 of Howard Stern, the persona. Feels so large, 00:02:20.949 --> 00:02:24.009 so loud, so confident. You'd assume he was the 00:02:24.009 --> 00:02:26.949 class clown. The guy standing on the table in 00:02:26.949 --> 00:02:29.169 the cafeteria just screaming for attention. And 00:02:29.169 --> 00:02:31.550 that is the first paradox we encounter. And honestly, 00:02:31.729 --> 00:02:33.229 it's probably the most important one. If you 00:02:33.229 --> 00:02:35.490 skip this part, you miss the whole story. Right. 00:02:35.569 --> 00:02:37.669 If you go back to his early life, he was born 00:02:37.669 --> 00:02:40.750 in 1954 in Queens. They moved to Roosevelt and 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:42.770 then Rockville Center. He just he wasn't the 00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:44.990 loud mouth. When he transferred to Southside 00:02:44.990 --> 00:02:47.930 High School at age 15, the records, the anecdotes, 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:50.889 they all describe him as a total introvert. A 00:02:50.889 --> 00:02:53.129 total introvert, like didn't talk to anyone kind 00:02:53.129 --> 00:02:55.030 of introvert. Completely. In fact, if you look 00:02:55.030 --> 00:02:58.030 at his yearbook, it lists only one student activity 00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:01.710 membership in the Key Club. That's it. That's 00:03:01.710 --> 00:03:04.250 it. He wasn't the star of the school play. He 00:03:04.250 --> 00:03:05.870 wasn't the quarterback. He was the kid in the 00:03:05.870 --> 00:03:09.030 corner. His sister was also noted as being very, 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:12.449 very quiet. It was, by all accounts, a quiet 00:03:12.449 --> 00:03:15.219 household. So where does the desire to be heard 00:03:15.219 --> 00:03:18.620 come from? I mean, if you're that shy, usually 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:20.439 you run away from the microphone. You don't make 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:22.900 it your life's work. Well, it seems to stem from 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:25.599 a very complex dynamic with his father, Ben Stern. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.560 Okay. Ben was a radio engineer. He worked at 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:31.520 a station called WHO in Manhattan, and he co 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:34.159 -owned a recording studio called Aura Recording 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.469 Inc. Now, Howard, as a kid, observed something 00:03:37.469 --> 00:03:39.669 very specific about his father. He's been on 00:03:39.669 --> 00:03:41.830 record saying he always felt his dad was critical 00:03:41.830 --> 00:03:44.030 of him, that his dad thought he was a dummy. 00:03:44.270 --> 00:03:47.150 Oh, that's rough. It is. But Howard noticed a 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:50.430 loophole. A loophole for affection. Or for respect. 00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:53.810 Exactly. For respect. He noticed that his father 00:03:53.810 --> 00:03:56.030 treated the people he worked with, you know, 00:03:56.030 --> 00:03:58.509 the on -air talent, with this immense reference. 00:03:59.050 --> 00:04:01.270 Howard would visit the studio and he'd watch 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:03.849 these voice legends like Don Adams. The guy who 00:04:03.849 --> 00:04:06.530 played Maxwell Smart and Get Smart. That's the 00:04:06.530 --> 00:04:08.849 one. He'd watch them recording lines and he saw 00:04:08.849 --> 00:04:11.229 his dad's face just light up. He treated them 00:04:11.229 --> 00:04:13.830 like gods. So Howard thought, okay, maybe he 00:04:13.830 --> 00:04:15.449 could look at me with that kind of respect if 00:04:15.449 --> 00:04:17.910 I could get behind a microphone. That is heavy. 00:04:18.509 --> 00:04:21.050 So the logic for him becomes, if I want dad to 00:04:21.050 --> 00:04:24.670 love me or at least respect me, I have to become 00:04:24.670 --> 00:04:27.589 a disembodied voice. I have to be the guy in 00:04:27.589 --> 00:04:31.180 the headphones. Bingo. It's a classic psychological 00:04:31.180 --> 00:04:34.379 transfer. He equated being on a microphone with 00:04:34.379 --> 00:04:36.860 being worthy of respect. And that's where the 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:39.240 basement tapes come in. Yes. And this isn't just 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:41.360 a kid playing pretend radio. He's down there 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:43.759 in the dark in his dad's basement in Long Island. 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:46.139 And he's building a simulation of a world where 00:04:46.139 --> 00:04:48.899 he is powerful. And the content of those tapes 00:04:48.899 --> 00:04:51.319 is surprising. You'd expect a kid in the 60s 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:54.420 or early 70s to be, I don't know, mimicking the 00:04:54.420 --> 00:04:57.319 news or introducing Beatles records. Right. But 00:04:57.319 --> 00:04:59.240 he wasn't. doing that at all. He was doing the 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:01.660 Howard Stern show before it even existed. He 00:05:01.660 --> 00:05:03.420 was doing a character called the Psychedelic 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:06.160 Bee. He was doing prank calls. And here is the 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.720 real kicker. Even then as a kid, he was doing 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:12.459 explicit shows. Explicit? How so? He was using 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:14.680 marionettes to entertain his friends with these, 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:18.519 uh, let's just say R -rated skits. With puppets. 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:20.639 He was doing R -rated stuff with puppets. Or 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:23.439 maybe even X -rated. And this is the critical 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:26.399 insight here. The whole shock jock thing wasn't 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:29.060 a marketing strategy he invented in his 30s to 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:31.800 sell ads. It was his native language. It was 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.100 his default setting. It was the only way he knew 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:36.139 how to break through that feeling of invisibility 00:05:36.139 --> 00:05:40.339 he felt at school. He had to be so loud, so abrasive 00:05:40.339 --> 00:05:42.600 and so shocking that you simply couldn't ignore 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:46.230 him. The DNA of the entire show was being formed 00:05:46.230 --> 00:05:48.689 right there in that basement. It's amazing that 00:05:48.689 --> 00:05:51.670 the content was explicit even then. It's like 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:53.810 the impulse to shock was just hardwired into 00:05:53.810 --> 00:05:56.009 him from the beginning. It seems so. But he didn't 00:05:56.009 --> 00:05:58.009 go straight from the basement to stardom. The 00:05:58.009 --> 00:06:01.139 early career pass sounds. Well, it sounds like 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:03.560 a disaster, frankly. Disaster is a very fair 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:05.680 word. It was a grind. He went to Boston University 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:07.920 for communications. He worked at the campus station, 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:11.399 WTBU. He actually co -hosted a show there called 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:14.560 The King Schmaltz Bagel Hour. The King Schmaltz 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:17.540 Bagel Hour. That's a great name. And it was canceled 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:20.800 after its very first broadcast. Why? Because 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:23.500 they did a sketch called Godzilla Goes to Harlem. 00:06:23.980 --> 00:06:27.620 Oh, no. Yeah. It was racially insensitive, obviously, 00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:30.399 and the university administration shut it down 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:33.319 immediately. So the pattern of push boundaries, 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:36.740 get punished started literally on day one of 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:39.500 his broadcasting career. Canceled after one show. 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.759 That is some serious foreshadowing. But he graduates 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:45.569 in 1976. Does he get a job in radio right away? 00:06:45.810 --> 00:06:47.870 No, and this is a funny little detour in his 00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:50.110 story. He actually took a marketing role at a 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:52.790 big advertising agency, Benton and Bowles. He 00:06:52.790 --> 00:06:54.670 was trying to be a straight corporate guy. Right, 00:06:54.750 --> 00:06:56.970 fit into the system. But he hated the department 00:06:56.970 --> 00:06:59.970 he was in. So he quit without giving notice to 00:06:59.970 --> 00:07:02.129 take a job in their creative department. Same 00:07:02.129 --> 00:07:04.449 company, just a different floor. That is a bold 00:07:04.449 --> 00:07:06.740 move. A little too bold. The creative department 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:09.139 realized he was the same guy who had just quit 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:10.800 the other department without notice, so they 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:13.439 fired him after only three hours. Fired after 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.000 three hours. That has to be some kind of corporate 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.699 record. It definitely shows a certain lack of 00:07:18.699 --> 00:07:20.519 conformity. He just didn't understand why the 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:23.100 rules applied to him. But he eventually landed 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:27.279 a real radio gig at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, 00:07:27.300 --> 00:07:30.160 New York. OK. And this is where we really need 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:31.879 to talk about his commitment level, because I 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:34.220 think people see the limousines and the Hamptons 00:07:34.220 --> 00:07:36.639 house today and they just assume it was easy. 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:40.379 Right. The pay at WR &W was ninety six dollars 00:07:40.379 --> 00:07:43.379 a week. Ninety six dollars. Oh. A week. Even 00:07:43.379 --> 00:07:45.360 in the late 70s. You can't live on that in the 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:47.199 New York area. No, you absolutely can't. He was 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:50.300 desperate to save money. So to make ends meet 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:52.720 while he was working these insane split shifts, 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:54.839 he was the production director. He did on air 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:57.459 shifts. He did public affairs. He was doing everything. 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:00.040 Everything. Everything. To save money, he rented 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:02.439 a room in a monastery. Wait, hold on. Howard 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:06.319 Stern, the guy who would later make a career 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:09.199 out of strippers and burping contests, lived 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.720 in a monastery. In Armonk, New York, he was renting 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:13.319 a room from the monks. I mean, can you imagine 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:15.810 the contrast? spending his days trying to be 00:08:15.810 --> 00:08:18.850 this wild, crazy radio guy, and then his nights 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:21.529 are in this silent, holy place just to save a 00:08:21.529 --> 00:08:23.850 few dollars. That paints a very different picture 00:08:23.850 --> 00:08:26.069 of his work ethic. It does. This was a guy willing 00:08:26.069 --> 00:08:30.050 to endure total isolation and poverty just to 00:08:30.050 --> 00:08:32.110 stay on the air. That is some serious dedication. 00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:36.809 So he's at WR &W, then he moves to WCCC in Hartford, 00:08:36.850 --> 00:08:39.549 Connecticut. And this is where the team starts 00:08:39.549 --> 00:08:42.230 to come together, right? Yes. Hartford is pivotal 00:08:42.230 --> 00:08:44.580 because that's where he meets Fred Norris. Fred 00:08:44.580 --> 00:08:46.960 was the overnight disc jockey. And anyone who 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:48.919 listens to Stern knows that Fred Norris became 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:51.120 the longest serving member of the team, the sound 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.539 effects genius, the writer. They met there in 00:08:53.539 --> 00:08:56.080 1979. Okay, so Fred's on board. But the real 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.039 stylistic shift... The birth of the persona as 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:01.820 we know it happened in Detroit at a station called 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:06.379 WWW. WWW 4Ws. And that's where he decided to 00:09:06.379 --> 00:09:08.899 drop the DJ voice. Exactly. I mean, up to that 00:09:08.899 --> 00:09:10.539 point, he had been trying to be a traditional 00:09:10.539 --> 00:09:12.879 DJ. He was trying to do the deep voice, the whole 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:16.080 coming up next Led Zeppelin shtick. But the ratings 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.320 weren't great. The station was struggling. So 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:20.659 one morning out of what seems like frustration 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:23.440 or maybe just exhaustion, he made a conscious 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:26.330 decision. He said he wanted to cut down the barriers, 00:09:26.529 --> 00:09:29.389 strip down all the ego, and be totally honest. 00:09:29.710 --> 00:09:31.970 What does that even mean in practice on the radio? 00:09:32.289 --> 00:09:35.129 It means if the coffee machine broke, he talked 00:09:35.129 --> 00:09:37.669 about it for 20 minutes. If he had a fight with 00:09:37.669 --> 00:09:40.009 his wife that morning, she talked about it. He 00:09:40.009 --> 00:09:43.419 realized that just talking... Being raw, being 00:09:43.419 --> 00:09:46.159 himself, was way more compelling than introducing 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.139 records. He stopped serving the music and started 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:51.539 serving the personality. So it's the moment the 00:09:51.539 --> 00:09:53.820 act became reality. That's a great way to put 00:09:53.820 --> 00:09:56.820 it. But Detroit didn't last. The station flipped 00:09:56.820 --> 00:10:00.679 formats to country, which he didn't love. He 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:03.100 hated it. He called his on -air name Hop Along 00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:06.539 Howie. It was a disaster. Hop along, Howie. Right. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:09.240 He couldn't see himself as a country DJ. So he 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:11.360 moved to Washington, D .C., to a station called 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:14.399 WWDC. And this is the final piece of the puzzle 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:16.700 regarding the core team. This is where he was 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:19.019 paired with a newscaster named Robin Quivers. 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:21.360 And the story of the meeting is interesting because 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:23.259 she hadn't even met him when she took the job, 00:10:23.299 --> 00:10:26.320 had she? She hadn't. She was a former Air Force 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:29.259 nurse and a reporter in Baltimore. The station 00:10:29.259 --> 00:10:31.919 sent her a tape of Stern interviewing a prostitute 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:33.720 on the air. That was her official introduction 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:35.980 to him. Most people would hear that and run for 00:10:35.980 --> 00:10:38.000 the hills. She listened to it and accepted the 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.580 job. She thought she would just come in, do the 00:10:40.580 --> 00:10:43.559 news, and leave. But as she later said, it wasn't 00:10:43.559 --> 00:10:46.200 that way. They had instant chemistry. She became 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:48.820 his anchor in more ways than one. Literally and 00:10:48.820 --> 00:10:51.679 figuratively. She was the laugh track, she was 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.159 his conscience, and she was the audience surrogate 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.159 all rolled into one. So the team is finally set. 00:10:57.839 --> 00:11:01.200 Howard, Robin, Fred. He's killing it in D .C. 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:04.000 The ratings are tripling. And then the mothership 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:08.159 calls. NBC, WNBC in New York. This was supposed 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:09.820 to be the dream job. It was the dream. I mean, 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:11.700 returning to New York, the number one market, 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:13.620 working for the National Broadcasting Company. 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:16.600 But as Stern later put it, it was welcome to 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:19.159 my worst nightmare. And this is where the story 00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:22.279 really shifts from guy trying to make it to guy 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:26.009 at war with the system. I mean if he was getting 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:28.669 the ratings, why did NBC hate him so much? It 00:11:28.669 --> 00:11:31.799 was a culture clash. A massive, massive culture 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:34.419 clash. NBC was a conservative corporate environment. 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:37.559 They had just seen a critical news report on 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:40.360 this new phenomenon of shock radio that featured 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:43.120 Stern. And the executives were already nervous 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.840 before he even started. So they were on edge 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:47.879 from day one. They actually debated canceling 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:50.779 his contract before he even broadcast a single 00:11:50.779 --> 00:11:54.240 show. Instead of firing him, they decided they 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:56.809 were going to control him. Control Howard Stern, 00:11:57.090 --> 00:11:59.350 good luck with that plan. It went about as well 00:11:59.350 --> 00:12:01.759 as you'd expect. They gave him this long list 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:04.559 of restrictions. No sexual discussions, no religious 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:07.460 discussions. In his first month, he got suspended 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:10.059 for a sketch called Virgin Mary Kong. Virgin 00:12:10.059 --> 00:12:12.279 Mary Kong. Yeah, it was a video game sketch that 00:12:12.279 --> 00:12:15.059 involved men chasing the Virgin Mary around a 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:17.460 singles bar in Jerusalem. Okay, yeah, I can see 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:21.000 1982 NBC executives sweating through their suits 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.480 over that one. It got so bad that the station 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:25.740 hired a lawyer specifically to listen to the 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:28.220 show and operate a seven -second delay button. 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.220 You're joking. not. Think about that expense. 00:12:31.700 --> 00:12:34.679 They paid a lawyer a full time salary just to 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:37.179 sit there in a booth and censor their own morning 00:12:37.179 --> 00:12:40.399 guy. They also installed a program director named 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:43.559 Kevin Matheny, whose sole job, it seems, was 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:46.019 to enforce these rules. And this is the guy Stern 00:12:46.019 --> 00:12:49.320 famously nicknamed Pig Virus on the air. Yes. 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:52.360 And this is so important. He didn't just complain 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:55.389 about his boss behind his back. He made the boss 00:12:55.389 --> 00:12:57.950 a character on the show. He called him pig virus 00:12:57.950 --> 00:13:00.529 to millions of people. He attacked his appearance, 00:13:00.710 --> 00:13:03.429 his management style, his stutter. It was brutal, 00:13:03.509 --> 00:13:06.370 but it was captivating radio. Because it's the 00:13:06.370 --> 00:13:08.330 ultimate workplace fantasy, right? Yeah. Saying 00:13:08.330 --> 00:13:10.389 exactly what you think to your boss out loud. 00:13:10.450 --> 00:13:13.350 Exactly. And he was also feuding with Don Imus, 00:13:13.429 --> 00:13:15.750 the other morning guy at the station. It was 00:13:15.750 --> 00:13:18.539 a completely toxic environment. But here is the 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:20.480 thing about Stern the pressure cooker just made 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.620 him better. He tripled the ratings at WNBC. He 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:25.889 was gaining market share. But the management 00:13:25.889 --> 00:13:27.990 just could not stomach the content. They couldn't 00:13:27.990 --> 00:13:30.690 handle it. Not at all. In 1985, right before 00:13:30.690 --> 00:13:32.570 he was supposed to go on air, they fired him. 00:13:32.669 --> 00:13:35.169 The official term they used was conceptual differences. 00:13:35.690 --> 00:13:37.470 Fired while you're delivering the highest ratings 00:13:37.470 --> 00:13:39.529 the station had seen in four years. That has 00:13:39.529 --> 00:13:41.750 to stink. Oh, absolutely. But this leads directly 00:13:41.750 --> 00:13:44.850 to the WXRK era, the K -Rock era. And this is 00:13:44.850 --> 00:13:47.269 really where the explosion happens. He refused 00:13:47.269 --> 00:13:49.330 to leave New York, right? Didn't NBC offer him 00:13:49.330 --> 00:13:52.600 money to just go away? They offered him $50 ,000 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:54.860 to leave town. It was basically, here's a check, 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.480 please go be famous somewhere else. Wow. He declined. 00:13:57.700 --> 00:13:59.620 He said he wanted to stay in New York and, quote, 00:13:59.740 --> 00:14:04.200 kick NBC's ass. And he did. He signed with Infinity 00:14:04.200 --> 00:14:07.919 Broadcasting, moved to WXRK, and within a year, 00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:10.820 he was syndicated. This is the official start 00:14:10.820 --> 00:14:13.700 of the king of all media reign. So let's talk 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:15.419 numbers here for a second, because the scale 00:14:15.419 --> 00:14:19.049 of his popularity in the 90s is just... It's 00:14:19.049 --> 00:14:21.370 hard to grasp today with how fragmented media 00:14:21.370 --> 00:14:23.870 is. It is really difficult to compare. I mean, 00:14:23.889 --> 00:14:26.509 today, a big podcast might have a few million 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:29.779 downloads a month. At his peak at WXRK, Howard 00:14:29.779 --> 00:14:33.679 had 20 million daily listeners, 20 million people 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:37.299 tuning in every single day. His show was syndicated 00:14:37.299 --> 00:14:40.139 in 60 markets across North America. He wasn't 00:14:40.139 --> 00:14:42.259 just a New York phenomenon anymore. He was a 00:14:42.259 --> 00:14:45.080 national event every single morning. If you drove 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:47.059 through any major city in the U .S. during the 00:14:47.059 --> 00:14:49.620 morning commute, chances are half the cars were 00:14:49.620 --> 00:14:51.580 listening to him. And he started branching out 00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:54.820 into other media. really testing the waters of 00:14:54.820 --> 00:14:57.279 his popularity. The pay -per -view specials were 00:14:57.279 --> 00:14:59.539 a huge part of this. These were massive moneymakers 00:14:59.539 --> 00:15:02.539 and, more importantly, a proof of concept. In 00:15:02.539 --> 00:15:05.559 1988, he did a special called Howard Stern's 00:15:05.559 --> 00:15:08.639 Negligee and Underpants Party. It grossed $1 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:12.559 .2 million, but the really big one was on New 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:15.820 Year's Eve 1993. It was called the Miss Howard 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:18.259 Stern New Year's Eve pageant. The one with the 00:15:18.259 --> 00:15:20.379 mock beauty pageant. That's the one. It grossed 00:15:20.379 --> 00:15:23.899 $16 million. An estimated 400 ,000 households 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:26.740 bought it. It broke the subscriber record for 00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:29.059 a non -sports pay -per -view event. And the reviews 00:15:29.059 --> 00:15:32.120 were not great. The New York Post called it the 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:35.220 most disgusting two hours in the history of television. 00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:39.039 But it proved that his audience would pay directly 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:42.120 for his content. This was the first real sign 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:44.120 that a subscription model could work for him 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:46.399 decades before he did it and then came the books 00:15:47.070 --> 00:15:49.889 Private Parts. Private Parts was a cultural juggernaut. 00:15:49.889 --> 00:15:53.370 It was released in 1993. Simon & Schuster, the 00:15:53.370 --> 00:15:57.070 publisher, did an initial print run of 225 ,000 00:15:57.070 --> 00:16:00.169 copies, and they sold out in hours. Hours. Hours. 00:16:00.210 --> 00:16:02.350 In five days, it became the fastest -selling 00:16:02.350 --> 00:16:04.629 title in the publisher's history. It spent 20 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:06.289 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. 00:16:06.570 --> 00:16:08.750 And what's fascinating about the book is that 00:16:08.750 --> 00:16:11.269 it really changed the perception of him. How 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.740 so? Because before that, he was just the monster, 00:16:13.820 --> 00:16:16.460 right? The shock jock. Exactly. Before the book, 00:16:16.460 --> 00:16:18.320 he was just the dangerous guy who made fun of 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.019 people. But the book was autobiographical. It 00:16:21.019 --> 00:16:23.759 was funny, yes, but it was also incredibly vulnerable. 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:26.600 It told the story of his struggle, his marriage, 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:28.960 his deep insecurities, the miscarriage his wife 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.519 suffered. It made him human. It made him human. 00:16:31.899 --> 00:16:34.639 Stern himself said, Suddenly, I was a mainstream 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:36.779 performer who had real clout in the marketplace. 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:40.460 I was bankable. And that bankability led to Reckle 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:42.950 to the movie. Which is so rare. Yeah. Radio guys 00:16:42.950 --> 00:16:44.629 don't usually become movie stars playing themselves. 00:16:44.929 --> 00:16:47.370 It's incredibly rare. But the private parts film, 00:16:47.470 --> 00:16:50.990 released in 1997, topped the U .S. box office 00:16:50.990 --> 00:16:53.929 its opening weekend. It grossed over $41 million 00:16:53.929 --> 00:16:57.129 domestically. And you have to remember, the soundtrack, 00:16:57.350 --> 00:17:00.070 which Stern performed on, also hit number one 00:17:00.070 --> 00:17:02.450 on the Billboard 200 chart. So that's it. That's 00:17:02.450 --> 00:17:04.970 the trifecta. That is the king of all media trifecta 00:17:04.970 --> 00:17:07.309 we talked about at the top. Movie, book, soundtrack, 00:17:07.569 --> 00:17:10.009 all number one, all at the same time. But with 00:17:10.009 --> 00:17:12.000 all this success, He was just getting louder 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.519 and more controversial. And, well, we have to 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:18.000 talk about Fart Man. Yes, we do. Fart Man. The 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:21.319 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. It's a defining 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:23.839 image of the 90s, isn't it? Stern, descending 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:26.400 from the ceiling in this superhero costume that 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:29.319 exposed his buttocks, playing a character named 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.640 Fart Man. It was pure shock value. It was. But 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:35.279 here's the deep dive nugget. He was actually 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.640 developing a Fartman movie with New Line Cinema. 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:41.660 A Fartman movie? Seriously, why didn't that happen? 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.279 It fell apart over merchandising rights and content 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:47.660 disputes. Stern wanted total creative control, 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:50.619 and the studio wasn't sure they could sell Fartman 00:17:50.619 --> 00:17:52.920 action figures to kids if the movie's content 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.420 was super R -rated. Yeah, that's a tough sell. 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:58.319 But it shows you just how much cultural capital 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:01.259 he had at that moment that a major Hollywood 00:18:01.259 --> 00:18:04.380 studio was seriously considering a Fartman feature 00:18:04.380 --> 00:18:07.599 film. It's absolutely wild, but... While he was 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:09.880 doing the Superhero Act, he was also getting 00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:12.980 involved in actual politics and not just talking 00:18:12.980 --> 00:18:15.279 about it. He really ran for governor of New York 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:17.740 in 1994. He did. And at first, you know, everyone 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:19.500 thought it was a joke, a publicity stunt. He 00:18:19.500 --> 00:18:21.579 ran on the Libertarian Party ticket against the 00:18:21.579 --> 00:18:24.059 incumbent Mario Cuomo. But if you look at his 00:18:24.059 --> 00:18:26.839 platform, it was surprisingly specific. He had 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:30.119 three main goals, right? Three very clear, very 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:33.160 simple goals. One, reinstate the death penalty. 00:18:33.500 --> 00:18:36.920 Two, remove all highway tolls to improve traffic 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:40.779 flow. And three, limit all road work to the graveyard 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:43.240 shift so it wouldn't disrupt commuters. I mean. 00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:45.960 He promised that once he passed those three things, 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.240 he would resign and hand the governorship over 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:51.039 to his lieutenant. Look, for any commuter in 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:53.420 the New York area, that roadwork platform is 00:18:53.420 --> 00:18:56.339 incredibly appealing. It was. He won the Libertarian 00:18:56.339 --> 00:18:58.400 nomination by a landslide. People were taking 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:01.079 it seriously. But the campaign ended because 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:03.279 of the Ethics in Government Act. What happened? 00:19:03.339 --> 00:19:05.539 To be on the final ballot, he had to publicly 00:19:05.539 --> 00:19:09.220 disclose his personal finances. And Stern, being 00:19:09.220 --> 00:19:12.380 intensely private about his money, refused. He 00:19:12.380 --> 00:19:14.480 said it was none of their business, so he withdrew 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.140 from the race. It's none of your business, basically. 00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:19.440 Exactly. But here is the amazing... legacy of 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:22.539 that run. George Pataki, the Republican who eventually 00:19:22.539 --> 00:19:25.440 won that election, acknowledged Stern's influence. 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:29.079 In 1995, Pataki actually signed a bill limiting 00:19:29.079 --> 00:19:31.559 road construction on state roads to night hours. 00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:34.579 No way. Yes. It was nicknamed the Howard Stern 00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:37.579 Bill. So the guy in the Fartman costume actually 00:19:37.579 --> 00:19:40.440 changed public policy in New York State. That 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:43.079 is incredible. Yeah. But his relationship with 00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:46.559 authority wasn't usually that constructive. I 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:49.059 have to talk about the FCC. Because this wasn't 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:51.339 just a few complaints here and there. This was 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:53.619 a war. It was a war of attrition. And you have 00:19:53.619 --> 00:19:56.039 to understand how the FCC works. They can't find 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:58.339 the talent. They find the station license holder. 00:19:58.539 --> 00:20:00.740 The company that owns the station. Right. And 00:20:00.740 --> 00:20:04.900 between 1990 and 2004, the FCC levied fines totaling 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:07.660 $2 .5 million against the station owners for 00:20:07.660 --> 00:20:11.200 Stern's content. Wow. $2 .5 million. That's a 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:13.660 lot of money, even for a big broadcaster like 00:20:13.660 --> 00:20:15.990 Infinity. It is. And the fines were for things 00:20:15.990 --> 00:20:18.650 that seem almost tame by today's Internet standards. 00:20:18.710 --> 00:20:20.549 You know, talking about sexual practices, bodily 00:20:20.549 --> 00:20:24.069 functions. But the FCC saw it as indecency, and 00:20:24.069 --> 00:20:26.630 it made Stern a massive liability. Every time 00:20:26.630 --> 00:20:28.690 he opened his mic, the station owners were sweating, 00:20:28.829 --> 00:20:30.470 wondering if it was going to cost them another 00:20:30.470 --> 00:20:33.410 $100 ,000. And this all came to a head after 00:20:33.410 --> 00:20:36.329 the Janet Jackson incident. Super Bowl XXVIII. 00:20:36.470 --> 00:20:39.650 The wardrobe malfunction. That changed everything. 00:20:40.029 --> 00:20:43.069 The Bush administration and the FCC cracked down 00:20:43.069 --> 00:20:46.230 hard, I mean hard, on indecency. The walls started 00:20:46.230 --> 00:20:48.990 closing in. They were. Clear Channel, a huge 00:20:48.990 --> 00:20:51.390 radio conglomerate, dropped his show from several 00:20:51.390 --> 00:20:54.009 of their markets permanently. His own management 00:20:54.009 --> 00:20:56.230 at Infinity started strictly censoring him again, 00:20:56.349 --> 00:20:59.549 just like the old WNBC days. He said he felt 00:20:59.549 --> 00:21:02.180 dead creatively. He felt like he couldn't do 00:21:02.180 --> 00:21:04.220 his show anymore. And this sets the stage for 00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:06.579 the biggest gamble in the history of radio, the 00:21:06.579 --> 00:21:09.640 move to Sirius. Let's just stop on 2004 for a 00:21:09.640 --> 00:21:11.700 second, because looking back from today, moving 00:21:11.700 --> 00:21:13.960 to streaming or satellite seems obvious. Everyone 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:17.460 has Spotify or Apple Music. But we need to contextualize 00:21:17.460 --> 00:21:19.980 how insane this move was at the time. It was 00:21:19.980 --> 00:21:22.839 widely viewed as career suicide. You have to 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:25.259 remember, in 2004, you bought a radio, you turned 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:27.359 it on, and music and talk came out for free. 00:21:27.500 --> 00:21:30.500 The idea that you would pay $12 .95 a month for 00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:33.000 radio was laughable to most Wall Street analysts. 00:21:33.339 --> 00:21:35.759 And Sirius wasn't a tech giant back then. Not 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:38.079 at all. Sirius was a distressed company burning 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.099 through cash and fighting for scraps against 00:21:40.099 --> 00:21:43.420 its bigger rival, XM Radio. So Stern is leaving 00:21:43.420 --> 00:21:46.119 a terrestrial radio audience of 20 million people, 00:21:46.299 --> 00:21:48.799 literally the biggest platform in the world at 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:53.920 the time, for a platform that had What? How many 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.660 subscribers did Sirius have? About 600 ,000 subscribers 00:21:56.660 --> 00:21:59.440 total. Not for his show, for the entire platform. 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:01.460 He was essentially moving from playing the Super 00:22:01.460 --> 00:22:04.339 Bowl to playing a high school gym. So why do 00:22:04.339 --> 00:22:07.660 it? Was it just the money? The headline was $500 00:22:07.660 --> 00:22:10.460 million, which is obviously a lot of motivation. 00:22:10.700 --> 00:22:12.980 The headline number is really misleading, and 00:22:12.980 --> 00:22:14.700 that's where the genius of the deal actually 00:22:14.700 --> 00:22:18.099 lies. That $500 million wasn't a salary check 00:22:18.099 --> 00:22:20.299 for him. It wasn't. No. That was a production 00:22:20.299 --> 00:22:22.640 budget for five years. He had to build the studios, 00:22:22.779 --> 00:22:25.539 pay the entire staff, pay the writers, pay Robin 00:22:25.539 --> 00:22:27.700 and Fred their huge salaries all out of that 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:30.039 bucket. OK, so he's essentially running a small 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:32.680 media corporation himself. Exactly. But the real 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:35.220 wealth, the empire money, was in the stock incentives. 00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:37.619 This is the part that business schools should 00:22:37.619 --> 00:22:40.220 study. He negotiated these huge tranches of stock 00:22:40.220 --> 00:22:42.519 that would vest only if he hit massive subscriber 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:45.420 targets. He was betting on himself. He bet that 00:22:45.420 --> 00:22:47.559 he could migrate his audience from free radio 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:50.819 to a paid service. And the analyst said he couldn't 00:22:50.819 --> 00:22:53.059 do it. I remember reading quotes saying things 00:22:53.059 --> 00:22:56.200 like, loyalty has a limit, and the limit is a 00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.849 credit card number. They were so wrong. The Howard 00:22:59.849 --> 00:23:03.230 effect was immediate and it was massive. In the 00:23:03.230 --> 00:23:05.549 first year, Sirius didn't just hit their subscriber 00:23:05.549 --> 00:23:08.710 target. They blew way past it. They added millions 00:23:08.710 --> 00:23:11.009 of new subscribers solely on the promise of a 00:23:11.009 --> 00:23:13.549 show. And on the day of his first broadcast in 00:23:13.549 --> 00:23:16.789 2006, the first stock tranche vested. What was 00:23:16.789 --> 00:23:19.430 that worth? He and his agent received stock worth 00:23:19.430 --> 00:23:22.730 two hundred and eighteen million dollars. Wow. 00:23:22.750 --> 00:23:25.990 Just as a bonus. So he essentially equity swamped 00:23:25.990 --> 00:23:28.900 his fame. He took his cultural capital and converted 00:23:28.900 --> 00:23:31.160 it directly into ownership of the platform itself. 00:23:31.420 --> 00:23:33.960 And that's the big takeaway. He realized before 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:36.500 almost anyone else that content was the king, 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.380 not the distribution method. If the content is 00:23:39.380 --> 00:23:41.579 strong enough, people will buy the new hardware 00:23:41.579 --> 00:23:44.460 to get to it. He single -handedly took Sirius 00:23:44.460 --> 00:23:46.839 from a niche product for truckers and tech nerds 00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:49.799 to a mainstream necessity. But it wasn't a completely 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:52.440 smooth transition. His old bosses at CBS sued 00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:55.559 him. They did. It got ugly. They claim he misused 00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:58.059 their airtime to promote his new Sirius show 00:23:58.059 --> 00:24:01.220 before he left. Stern called it a personal vendetta 00:24:01.220 --> 00:24:03.839 by Leslie Moonves, who was the head of CBS at 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.099 the time. They eventually settled for Sirius, 00:24:06.140 --> 00:24:09.119 paying CBS $2 million, but it just showed how 00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:11.900 bitter that breakup was. So he lands at Sirius. 00:24:11.940 --> 00:24:14.059 He has two channels, Howard 100 and Howard 101. 00:24:14.299 --> 00:24:16.240 He's completely uncensored. He can swear. He 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:18.420 can be as explicit as he wants. But something 00:24:18.420 --> 00:24:21.700 interesting happens over the next decade. He... 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:25.700 He evolves. The evolution is the defining theme 00:24:25.700 --> 00:24:28.619 of his later career. Once he had total absolute 00:24:28.619 --> 00:24:31.079 freedom, he didn't just double down on the shock 00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:33.759 value. He actually started to broaden his horizons 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:36.000 in a way nobody expected. And the big public 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.140 signal for this was America's Got Talent. Right. 00:24:38.569 --> 00:24:41.150 In 2011, he replaces Piers Morgan as a judge 00:24:41.150 --> 00:24:44.369 on this huge family -friendly primetime network 00:24:44.369 --> 00:24:47.410 show. And he took it so seriously, he actually 00:24:47.410 --> 00:24:49.730 forced them to move the entire production of 00:24:49.730 --> 00:24:51.670 the show to New York so he could do his radio 00:24:51.670 --> 00:24:53.309 show in the morning and then go judge in the 00:24:53.309 --> 00:24:55.609 afternoon. And he was good at it. He was. It 00:24:55.609 --> 00:24:58.450 introduced him to a demographic that would never 00:24:58.450 --> 00:25:00.430 in a million years have listened to the radio 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:03.710 show. You know, grandmothers, kids. And they 00:25:03.710 --> 00:25:05.869 saw he was actually a thoughtful, constructive, 00:25:06.130 --> 00:25:09.460 and... often kind critic. And we also see him 00:25:09.460 --> 00:25:12.180 picking up these serious hobbies. Photography. 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.220 He got obsessed with photography. He started 00:25:15.220 --> 00:25:17.880 shooting these high fashion layouts for Hamptons 00:25:17.880 --> 00:25:20.940 Magazine. He established his own company, Conlon 00:25:20.940 --> 00:25:23.460 Road Photography. It wasn't just a celebrity 00:25:23.460 --> 00:25:26.400 whim. He studied it. He learned the craft. It 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:28.380 really aligns with that obsessive personality 00:25:28.380 --> 00:25:31.240 we saw in the basement with the tapes. He has 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:33.400 to master things. And speaking of personality, 00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:36.700 he's been so open about therapy. in recent years 00:25:36.700 --> 00:25:39.500 he credits psychotherapy and also transcendental 00:25:39.500 --> 00:25:41.720 meditation which he actually started back in 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:44.319 the 70s for saving his life and his sanity he's 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:46.400 spoken at length about how therapy helped him 00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:48.980 realize how his narcissism and his constant need 00:25:48.980 --> 00:25:51.059 for attention were affecting his relationships 00:25:51.059 --> 00:25:53.019 especially his first marriage that the character 00:25:53.019 --> 00:25:55.259 was taking over exactly he realized the character 00:25:55.259 --> 00:25:57.599 he created was protecting him but it was also 00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:00.119 isolating him from everyone he loved and that 00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:03.289 introspection led to some public apologies, didn't 00:26:03.289 --> 00:26:05.410 it? I know there was a controversy a few years 00:26:05.410 --> 00:26:09.009 ago where an old sketch resurfaced. Yes. In 2020, 00:26:09.230 --> 00:26:11.849 Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a video of an old sketch 00:26:11.849 --> 00:26:15.410 from a 1993 pay -per -view special where Stern 00:26:15.410 --> 00:26:18.349 appeared in blackface parodying Ted Danson. It 00:26:18.349 --> 00:26:20.670 was, you know, obviously offensive. And instead 00:26:20.670 --> 00:26:23.589 of doubling down or making excuses, Stern addressed 00:26:23.589 --> 00:26:26.190 it and admitted it. He said, and this is a direct 00:26:26.190 --> 00:26:29.809 quote, the shit I did was fucking crazy. Wow. 00:26:30.670 --> 00:26:32.609 He credited his years in therapy for helping 00:26:32.609 --> 00:26:35.150 him understand why that behavior was wrong and 00:26:35.150 --> 00:26:37.910 how much he has changed as a person. It's interesting 00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:40.529 you mentioned Trump Jr. because Stern and Donald 00:26:40.529 --> 00:26:42.369 Trump go way, way back. Trump was a frequent 00:26:42.369 --> 00:26:44.309 guest on the show for years. He was. They were, 00:26:44.390 --> 00:26:47.210 in a sense, radio friends. Trump was the perfect 00:26:47.210 --> 00:26:49.710 guest for the old show. He was loud, opinionated, 00:26:49.750 --> 00:26:51.990 willing to rate women's looks on a scale of 1 00:26:51.990 --> 00:26:54.990 to 10. But politically, they diverged significantly. 00:26:55.349 --> 00:26:57.509 Right. Stern isn't a Republican. Not at all. 00:26:57.609 --> 00:27:00.869 He was a supporter of John Kerry in 2004 and 00:27:00.869 --> 00:27:05.069 urged his listeners to oust George W. Bush. And 00:27:05.069 --> 00:27:07.670 despite his long history with Trump, Stern became 00:27:07.670 --> 00:27:10.849 very critical of Trump's presidency. He even 00:27:10.849 --> 00:27:13.630 said in 2020 that he thought Trump despises his 00:27:13.630 --> 00:27:16.549 own supporters. It just shows that Stern separates 00:27:16.549 --> 00:27:19.410 personal loyalty from his political views. He 00:27:19.410 --> 00:27:21.519 also interviewed President Biden recently. in 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:24.420 2024. Which really completes the journey, doesn't 00:27:24.420 --> 00:27:26.980 it? From being known as Fartman to doing an in 00:27:26.980 --> 00:27:29.319 -depth sit -down interview with the sitting president 00:27:29.319 --> 00:27:31.859 in the United States. It is a trajectory that 00:27:31.859 --> 00:27:34.059 simply shouldn't be possible. And the style of 00:27:34.059 --> 00:27:36.000 that interview was significant. It was. It wasn't 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.339 a gotcha political interview. It was a deep dive 00:27:38.339 --> 00:27:40.960 into Joe Biden's life, his story of loss, his 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:44.200 psychology. It was Stern doing what Stern does 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:47.079 best now. Empathetic, long -form listening. I 00:27:47.079 --> 00:27:48.359 want to touch on the personal side of things 00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:50.400 before we wrap up, because you mentioned that 00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:52.180 the book The private parts dealt with his marriage 00:27:52.180 --> 00:27:54.420 to Alison Burns. They were college sweethearts. 00:27:54.539 --> 00:27:57.000 They were. They met at Boston University, married 00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:59.859 in 1978 when they were both just 24 years old. 00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:02.400 They had three daughters together, but the work 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:04.559 completely consumed him. He's admitted that, 00:28:04.619 --> 00:28:07.319 right? Oh, many times. Stern admitted he was 00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:10.740 totally neurotic and consumed with work. He prioritized 00:28:10.740 --> 00:28:12.960 the show over everything else in his life. They 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:15.880 divorced in 2001. It was reportedly amicable, 00:28:16.099 --> 00:28:19.200 but it was clearly the casualty of his ambition. 00:28:19.930 --> 00:28:21.609 And he has spoken about that with a lot of regret 00:28:21.609 --> 00:28:23.809 over the years. But he found love again with 00:28:23.809 --> 00:28:26.710 Beth Ostrowski. Yes, a model and television host. 00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:29.529 They married in 2008. And this relationship really 00:28:29.529 --> 00:28:31.490 highlights that softer side of him that we talked 00:28:31.490 --> 00:28:34.809 about. They are huge animal advocates. They foster 00:28:34.809 --> 00:28:36.789 hundreds and hundreds of cats at their homes. 00:28:37.009 --> 00:28:40.089 Hundreds. The estimate is approximately 200 cats 00:28:40.089 --> 00:28:42.650 a year come through their home. They have dedicated 00:28:42.650 --> 00:28:44.730 rooms for it. They nurse them back to health. 00:28:44.809 --> 00:28:46.869 And then they find them permanent homes. It's 00:28:46.869 --> 00:28:49.900 a far, far cry from the old shock. image. So 00:28:49.900 --> 00:28:51.940 the king of all media is on the floor feeding 00:28:51.940 --> 00:28:54.839 kittens. If you follow Beth on Instagram you 00:28:54.839 --> 00:28:58.140 will see Howard Stern, this media giant, sitting 00:28:58.140 --> 00:29:00.140 on the floor feeding tiny little kittens with 00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:02.359 a bottle. It's a surreal image. And he's also 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:04.680 dealt with some serious health scares. The king 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:08.440 of all media is mortal it turns out. He had a 00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:11.359 very serious scare in 2017. They found a growth 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:13.500 on his kidney. He was convinced it was cancer. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:16.930 He thought this is it. I'm going to die. Turned 00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:19.130 out to be a benign cyst, but it shook him to 00:29:19.130 --> 00:29:21.269 his core. It made him confront his own mortality 00:29:21.269 --> 00:29:24.630 in a big way. And he's also battled OCD. Yes, 00:29:24.809 --> 00:29:26.990 obsessive compulsive disorder since college. 00:29:27.130 --> 00:29:29.750 He writes about it in his books, the rituals 00:29:29.750 --> 00:29:32.609 he had to perform to alleviate his anxiety, touching 00:29:32.609 --> 00:29:34.789 things a certain number of times, counting everything. 00:29:35.029 --> 00:29:36.869 It's been a constant struggle for him, and it 00:29:36.869 --> 00:29:39.289 explains a lot of his obsessive nature and his 00:29:39.289 --> 00:29:42.000 drive for control over his environment. So as 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.640 we look back on this entire career, from the 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:47.700 96 stars a week monastery days to the half billion 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:50.619 dollar satellite deal, from the explicit basement 00:29:50.619 --> 00:29:53.180 tapes to the White House interview, what is the 00:29:53.180 --> 00:29:55.059 big takeaway? What does the Howard Stern story 00:29:55.059 --> 00:29:57.599 actually tell us? It tells us that authenticity, 00:29:57.940 --> 00:30:01.440 no matter how abrasive or weird it is, is a currency. 00:30:02.130 --> 00:30:04.569 Stern didn't just break the rules. He monetized 00:30:04.569 --> 00:30:07.150 the breaking of rules. But I think more importantly, 00:30:07.390 --> 00:30:09.670 he proved that you can mature without losing 00:30:09.670 --> 00:30:12.869 your edge. He successfully pivoted from being 00:30:12.869 --> 00:30:15.650 a renegade to being an elder statesman of broadcasting. 00:30:15.730 --> 00:30:18.329 Which is a path most shock jocks don't take. 00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:20.960 They don't. Most of them just fade away or become 00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:24.440 caricatures of themselves. He evolved. It really 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:26.980 is a study in survival and adaptation. Absolutely. 00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.200 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:32.019 it raises a really fascinating question about 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:35.160 freedom of speech and personal growth. What's 00:30:35.160 --> 00:30:37.680 that? Well, Stern spent the first half of his 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:40.619 career fighting the government, his bosses, everyone 00:30:40.619 --> 00:30:43.119 for the right to say absolutely anything, no 00:30:43.119 --> 00:30:45.119 matter how offensive. He was a First Amendment 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:47.660 absolutist. Right. But now in the second half 00:30:47.660 --> 00:30:49.390 of his career. career, he looks back at some 00:30:49.390 --> 00:30:51.869 of those very things he fought to say, like the 00:30:51.869 --> 00:30:53.910 racial sketches or some of the cruel comments, 00:30:54.089 --> 00:30:56.950 and he regrets them. He calls them crazy and 00:30:56.950 --> 00:30:59.769 fucking nuts. That is a paradox, isn't it? It 00:30:59.769 --> 00:31:02.069 is. And so the question for you, the listener, 00:31:02.210 --> 00:31:05.329 is this. Does his career prove that true freedom 00:31:05.329 --> 00:31:08.069 of speech includes the freedom to eventually 00:31:08.069 --> 00:31:11.430 silence your own past self? Is the ultimate victory 00:31:11.430 --> 00:31:13.269 of free speech not just the right to speak your 00:31:13.269 --> 00:31:16.309 mind, but the wisdom to evolve and know when 00:31:16.309 --> 00:31:19.190 you were wrong? That is something to think about. 00:31:19.289 --> 00:31:21.089 Yeah. From the king of all media to the king 00:31:21.089 --> 00:31:23.089 of all evolution. Thanks for listening to this 00:31:23.089 --> 00:31:24.670 deep dive into Howard Stern. We'll catch you 00:31:24.670 --> 00:31:25.130 on the next one.