if (preg_match('/ The drawing card for most was the first chance to hear Howard Stern since he left the commercial airwaves for this brave new world well over a year ago. If you believed the hype put forth by Stern during the two day free promotion, as many as 47 million people tuned in via the Internet. I was one of them. And within minutes, I remembered just why, and just how much, I've missed hearing Stern on my radio. I first got hooked on Howard in the early nineties, back when I had my cushy music biz job in Los Angeles. Back then, our entire office would have their radios tuned in to Stern on L.A.'s KLSX Radio, one of the many major market stations which syndicated him (and in doing, so demolished their competition in the Arbitron ratings). Our work in the morning often came to a standstill, as everybody from the top executives to some of the artists themselves could be heard laughing out loud from behind closed office doors and cubicles. Stern drew a fair amount of heat even back then. Always an equal opportunity offender — guilt-ridden white liberals cried foul every bit as quickly as the right wing nuts you'd expect — his brand of "shock radio" seemed to piss just about everybody off. Longtime co-host Robin Quivers, as a black woman, in particular, used to get hit pretty hard with both barrels by critics of bits branded as both sexist and racist. Some people just don't get it. Then, as now, Stern's brand of "shock radio" is one where everything and anything from wrestling midget lesbians to Ku Klux Klansmen playing Hollywood Squares is considered fair game. In other words, it is so ridiculously over-the-top, anyone who would for a minute take it seriously needs to pick their brains up off the floor. Or at least, find a sense of humor. Some of Stern's biggest fans back at my record company office were our rap artists. These guys would often ask us if bits featuring peripheral Stern characters like "The King Of All Blacks" could be legally sampled on their records. That is because stereotypes like that are so ridiculous they become the joke in and of themselves. And the joke is a laugh out loud, falling down funny one — especially to someone who knows what that stereotype means first hand. You'll find Blogcritics music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blog The Rockologist. Glen is also the author of Neil Young FAQ, published in May 2012 by Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard Publishing.
Article Author: Glen Boyd
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Glen Boyd
thanx for punlishing this Lisa.
-Glen
2 - Nick
I've had sirius for 10 months now and I recommend it to everybody and anybody. When you actually subscribe with a normal unit they give you a free account to listen online. Best deal ever!!!
3 - Lisa McKay
Nice piece, Glen -- I'm not a Stern fan, but if anything could convince me to become a Sirius subscriber, it'd be Little Steven's Underground Garage.
4 - Jet in Columbus
I used to not be able to start the day without Robin's news. I miss them too.
sigh
Jet
5 - Glen Boyd
I'm definitely going to be looking into it Nick. But first I'm gonna have to get past the fact of how much it pisses me off to pay for radio--even if it is radio as great as this, which I have so sorely missed.
Commercial radio absolutely sucks these days. I mean, I've got your Jack BS right here, ya know?
And Lisa--I could listen to Little Steven's garage rock all day long just so ya know.
Anyway...
Thanx for the comments you guys.
-Glen
6 - Glen Boyd
Robin rocks Jet. Even a gay dude like you could get absolutely lost in breasts like those for one thing I suspect. LOL...
-Glen
7 - Chris Duffy
Nice read!
I've had Sirius since December 2005 and it really is all it's cracked up to be. Additionally, I really enjoy the music channels. What's nice about Howard 100 - as I'm sure you heard this week - the show is looped all day long. So I am not FORCED into listening to Howard between 6-11. If i want to listen to music on the way to work, I'll do that and know I can catch the show later -- and maybe at a more crucial time, like when I really need a laugh.
As far as paying for radio, I know it may sound crazy but it's really no different than any other luxuries or entertainment that most people have: cell phones, rental movies, cable TV, etc.
I'll leave you with one last thought. If you go out to see a movie, it'll cost you between $8-10 for the ticket plus another $5-10 for snacks... all for 2-3 hours of entertainment, right? Sirius provides an entire month full of entertainment and whatever-number-of-channels-it-is for the same cost.
I would recommend signing up and trying it for a few months. If you feel you can't burden the financials, cancel it. But our lives are too short to fret over $13, especially if it gives you a little more joy in life.
Chris Duffy
Erial, NJ (hometown)
Louisville, KY (work assignment)
8 - Matt G.
My parents bought me Sirius for Christmas in 04,1 year before Howard.The music is awesome,the NFL,NHL games broadcasts are great and the subscription isn't even a thought. I pay once a year and since then, gave both my mom and dad Sirius for christmas last year.My trouble of driving my fiance's car without Sirius got so bad,I broke down and got another subscription. HOWARD RULES!!! I've told my friends in the past,that I can't think of anything that I have loved in the past 19 years as much as the Howard Stern show.Friends come and go , but there will always be Howard.
9 - Joseph
Great article. I've had SIRIUS since November 2005 and can assure everyone it is more than it is hyped to be. Obviously, the greatest (at least for me) part is both Howard Stern and Bubba the Love Sponge, the latter who I had never heard until coming to SIRIUS.
In addition to the obvious benefits of Stern and crew no longer having to castrate every conversation and bit to appease the ever-intrusive FCC, which, along with the greed of radio broadcasters, has turned "Testicle" Radio into a rated "G", commercial-laden snooze-athon, the move to SIRIUS has restored the excited creative genius of Stern and Crew. Worth noting, Sal "The Stockbroker" and Richard Christy have cranked out some absolutely hysterical prank phone calls to both individuals and Public Access television shows, and have made some great song parodies.
As for Bubba the Love Sponge, any fan of Stern is guaranteed to like his show. His Producer Brent is the "brains" of the show and is very intelligent, well read, and knowledgeable on almost any subject. Manson is the best song parody creator I have ever heard. And Ned's prank phone calls and song parodies are absolutely priceless. It is also a very funny, entertaining show.
Howard 100 and 101 also have the Ferrall (sports) show each night, also a very good show, the once-a-week Miserable Men show (hysterical show hosted by Bob Levy, Jim Florentine & Shuli), the SuperFan Roundtable, and plenty more.
Then there are the hundred-plus channels that feature every genre of music, comedy, news, and sports channels - the latter of which include the NFL, NHL, and in 2007 NASCAR.
Believe me, it is a steal for $13 a month. And for anyone who complains about paying for radio, I would remind them that they pay for cable and/or satellite television, and pay much more than $13 a month.
10 - Donnie D.
Don't blame Sirius for the fact that we have to pay to enjoy Howard. Blame the FCC for ruining all the fun on free radio by censoring it.
The only place to enjoy radio these days is on Sirius, and I've been a subscriber since Stern came onboard.
I love it, and life would be far less funny without it.
11 - shusku
I do not understand the anger to pay 13 bucks for radio per month. If you deal with 20 minutes of commercials an hour, you are wasting your time. If you are pissed to pay you should also blame this on the FCC and all the lame radio companies who never had the balls to fight the FCC on the fines and b.s indecency standards.
If you enjoyed 2 days, (your article is great, but the show only has been off FM radio for 10 months, time goes slow when you are not having fun), why deny yourself the next 4 years and then some (and hopefully more after that) of the greatest show ever. The last 10 plus months on Sirius has been awesome and on 24/7 that you pretty much can hear the entire show. It is 2 hours longer than the old FM shows because of the limited commercial breaks. “Quality and quantity”.
Do not let stubbornness get in your way. It is waste of time. Plus, if you do not like it, you can always cancel the sub. Though I hardly doubt that because once you have Sirius going back to only fm / am radio is torture.
See you in space.
12 - Ken N.
Thanks for the read. For those who have a problem with pay radio I would say I first thought it was ridiculous. It is 3 years later I have seen the NFL,NHL,NBA & Howard all come to Sirius since subscribing. I thought it was money well spent prior to their arrivals. No commecial music heard anywhere in the U.S. made it so. All of the other stuff is a plus.
13 - James
Sirius is great. I bought a subscription after I returned from Iraq in February 2005, and have enjoyed the greatest entertainment medium since the DVD. I remember the days when the Stern show used to be"edgy" up to the point where you knew they would get into trouble with the FCC.Trouble equaled no fun for the next few weeks. That was 1995.
Fast forward to this year, and I can't even tell you how thrilling it is to listen to the show. No one can stop them, and anything short of criminal acts is the norm.
The argument that no one needs to pay for great drivetime entertainment is fooling themselves, and the claim that Stern isn't "edgy" because he doesn't have heavy-handed handlers vigilant of FCC fines to scrape up agauinst is delusional. If you listened for free, pay up, because Free FM isn't free.
14 - Ronald Trumley
Thank you for your article. I too was one of the 40 million? that listened on the internet. I forgot how great the show was and the cursing took an hour or two to get use to. But it was just soo great hear the gang's show again. It was an incredible feeling knowing the show was still ON and i was missing out. You have no idea how nostalgic I was to hear everyone, including bababooey.
One question i do have is, where is KC? I really liked that guy.
15 - Glen Boyd
Wow. Thanks for all the great comments you guys.
The one over-riding theme I'm getting here that you guys picked up on is my reluctance to pay for radio. What can I say except that I am basically a broke, cheap bastard? I didn't like having to pay for cable at first either.
But radio, at least here in Seattle and I suspect everywhere else as well, sucks so bad right now with all the crappy, homogenized formats like Jack FM and what not, I may just end up sucking it up and dropping the dime.
There is no doubt that you dont know what you miss until it's gone and hearing Howard back at the top of his game this week pretty much sold me. Being a pro-wrestling fan, I'd also never heard Bubba's show until this week (the bit where he interviewed Hulk Hogan on a plane was priceless). Bubba is not just funny, but a pretty sharp guy politically if you read between the lines (love the way he skewered Rush Limbaugh for picking on poor Micheal J. Fox).
I'm pretty much sold after this week. Now if I could just a job where I can afford to pay for it.
Great comments. Thanks everybody.
-Glen
16 - Steve
I have had a Sirius ready head unit in my truck for the past few years. I'm finally going to get around to utilizing it after listening to Howard the other day. I admit it, I also have been reluctant to pay for radio. I then started weighing the pros and cons.
Pro -
Much more than "just" Stern, although that would be reason enough in my book to get a sub. Commercial free music, and much talent out there I don't even know about yet. 130 + channels of every genre you could possibly want, + sports, talk, weather, business, and news. FCC free. If you get HD Radio instead of Sirius you Sirius-ly need your head examined (insert your own joke here). What about XM ? No Howard. You get Opie and Dopey and MLB. Inferior satellites and infrastructure. No brainer there.
No signal dropout in the event I should take a roadtrip somewhere, coast to coast coverage. Digital quality. I hear they have some type of video coming also.
Since I spend so much time in the car... and face it, our geo-political climate is not so great these days, I can hear news on the fly at any time without needing a TV or computer in the event of an emergency I should know about.
No more hassle fumbling around for CD's, MP3's or what have you. I still like my CD's of coarse, but I'll need fewer with Sirius.
The hardware is very slick and cool in appearance, also a good value for the money.
Cons -
you have to pay a whole 43 cents a day to listen. But that's less than a cup of coffee at Circle K. Much, much less than a cup at Starbuck's.
Nevermind, there are no cons. I'll be "On"...and SOON.
17 - Frontmed
Glen if you are that broke and want SIRIUS that badly, I will buy you the first month.
18 - Eric Scalice
I have been a subscriber of the Howard TV on-demand channel since it came out, and it is worth every penny in the laughter. I neglected to purchase Sirius, but listened to the free preview online realizing even though I had the TV channel, I was missing so much great stuff on the Sirius broadcasts. I fell in love with the radio all over again, purchased a car and home Sirius unit, and now I'm loving it. Sirius offers uncensored comedy channels, and music in addition to the sports and talk radio. It's great to be a full fledged Stern Supporter again...and it IS worth every cent.
19 - Glen Boyd
Frontmed-
Pay my rent or better yet find me a decent job and you've got a deal. Among my qualifications for employment is I've been told I'm a fairly decent writer.
Thanx again for the comments everyone. Howard Rules.
-Glen
20 - shellstein
just put on the 3 girls who came on to win $5000. The "row row row your boat" song will always get everyone's attention. Even more so when they see what this girl looks like. I guess it is a lesson for those who call those 900#s- visualizations are Key- great radio- suck it up by Sirius and ON Demand- worth every penny.
21 - Belinda
I got my Sirus radio Christmas Day 2005 ONLY for Howard. And believe me, I'm a real penny-pincher. But I have never regretted having to pay for Sirius since I got it. It's so worth it! I got the the Starmate Replay 2. So I can listen in the car then pop it out the cradle and take it into my house to listen to it. I even bought a totally portable hook-up on eBay that lets me walk around listening to it like it's an iPod! Howard's the best but the music channels are awesome too.
22 - Glen Boyd
Lots of the comments here appear to be getting duplicate and triplicate posted. If theres a comment editor in the house, can we get those dupes eliminated? Thanx---
And of course thank you Van, Belinda and Shelstein for the comments.
-Glen
23 - jones
Glen, you are famous!!
24 - Belinda
I got my Sirus radio Christmas Day 2005 ONLY for Howard. And believe me, I'm a real penny-pincher. But I have never regretted having to pay for Sirius since I got it. It's so worth it! I got the the Starmate Replay 2. So I can listen in the car then pop it out the cradle and take it into my house to listen to it. I even bought a totally portable hook-up on eBay that lets me walk around listening to it like it's an iPod! Howard's the best but the music channels are awesome too.
25 - Glen Boyd
Nice to see I'm famous on that Howard Stern site. But whats going on with all these duplicate posts?
-Glen