Howard Stern: The Billboard Cover Q&A

By Gary Trust and Silvio Pietroluongo | January 20, 2014 11:00 AM EST

Howard Stern

Andrew Eccles

When Howard Stern jumped from terrestrial to satellite radio, Sirius had half a million subscribers. Today it has 25.6 million. As he turns 60, Stern looks back at his career and sees radio on the verge of the next step in its evolution.

It doesn't take long to figure out how Howard Stern has risen to his unprecedented level of success.

Having arrived for the day's photo shoot and interview ("It's Howard Stern!" a man says, elbowing his friend as the 6-foot-5-inch radio icon walks past them toward the elevator, a scene similar to random fans praising him in an airport in his 1997 box office No. 1 hit "Private Parts"), Stern's curiosity is instantly noticeable.

Stern, who counts photography among his hobbies, inundates lensman Andrew Eccles with questions about angles, backlighting and poses. Also evident: Stern's humility. "Pretty good . . . for me," he says as he scans some of the just-shot images on the studio's laptop. "He makes me look like Brad Pitt." He pauses, then adds, "Those are some pretty good lights."

Stern's thirst for knowledge and a penchant for not taking himself too seriously have fueled a career unparalleled in radio, or elsewhere for that matter. Considered in his early days as a PD's nightmare known for risqué bits and less than full adherence to the rules, his overwhelming ratings success proved his model valid. The eventual syndication of "The Howard Stern Show" brought him national acclaim and prominence, aided a pair of million-selling books, his box-office blockbuster and multiple network TV versions of his radio broadcast.

This month, the host of "The Howard Stern Show" will celebrate his 60th birthday with a star-studded birthday bash set to air live on SiriusXM on Jan. 31 (19 days after his actual birthday). The party is a gift to his loyalists—open only to active SiriusXM subscribers lucky enough to win their way in for a night of music, comedy and Stern interviewing special guests—with the festivities to be hosted by ABC late-night host and friend Jimmy Kimmel.

Ahead of the bash, Stern sat down with Billboard to discuss not only his first eight years at the satellite broadcaster but also all the media over which he's reigned in a career that led to his induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2012.

The Business of Baba Booey: Q&A w/ Stern's Right-Hand Man

Billboard: You've had two great years at "America's Got Talent," SiriusXM is throwing you a big birthday special, you have a happy marriage, your staff is stable, and your co-host Robin Quivers is healthy after battling cancer. Is it safe to say that this is the most content you've been, personally and professionally?

Stern: That's absolutely fair to say. And thank God for that, because it's all been such an emotional roller coaster my entire career. Also, we're big on meetings and collaboration. I never say that I'm the show by myself.

The relationship with SiriusXM is great. [Editor's note: In 2011, Stern and his agent, Don Buchwald, filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM for allegedly failing to pay promised stock bonuses for helping the company exceed targeted audience growth. The suit was dismissed in 2012.] I keep a journal. About a year before I was going to Sirius [which would later merge with rival XM], I had just signed, and I said, "Sirius is at 400,000 subscribers," and I wrote down, "I can envision a day where there'll be 30 million subscribers." I told my crew and they said I was crazy. Now it's happening. We're up to 25 million paid subscribers.

A lot of my fellow broadcasters were so angry with me when I left terrestrial radio. They were like, "Don't talk about him." But I said, "Guys, there are more jobs for us. If satellite takes off, the Internet takes off, we're in the driver's seat—content is king!" I knew if satellite could be developed, it would be a great tool for all broadcasters.

At this point in my career, I feel more like a mentor than anything. The first day I got to Sirius, they brought me in and they stood up and applauded. They were applauding because they knew that I represented a future for the company. It was really debatable, but I said I will work to make this thing work because I believe in it.

This is my dream, and I feel like we've created a new home for broadcasters. I'm doing radio the way I wanted to as a little kid. Language isn't an issue. I don't have the government up my ass. It's fantastic. It's a great place to broadcast.

You seem appreciative that not only did your audience follow you to a subscription model, but that it's a template that can work for other broadcasters.

I'll give you an analogy. When I was in high school I was a really shitty student. But my father said, "If you go to college, I'll pay for it." I graduated [from Boston University] magna cum laude, and you know why? Because someone was paying for school. How dare I be that arrogant? The idea that the audience pays to hear it, I feel more of an obligation to deliver a great show and to evolve, to make my show new every day, and to find new talent and create new channels.

Let's get more specific: How do you see broadcasting evolving?

In my mind, I've got it all figured out, and I've got smart people who talk to me about it. I didn't come up with it on my own, but I really do see where broadcasters will be king. In 10 years, it will be so different. Every broadcaster who has real drawing power will control his own destiny, will be the actual medium.

We have a lot of ways we can go, and I don't know what the best way is, so I'm seeking the advice of experts. We're in a very aggressive discussion. People with real jaws are going to have an app, an environment. They're not going to need anything. Your fans are going to be able to talk to each other. You're going to have your own universe. We're so close.

Your contract with SiriusXM runs out at the end of 2015. Where do you see yourself in two years?

I don't know. There's no reason to leave. It's pretty fucking great. They're adapting. They understood from the beginning that content was the thing that was going to drive this model.

It's not enough to be a music service. The guy who I had my first meeting with about Sirius was Leon Black. Leon's a real bright guy, and not a radio guy. I was attracted to that immediately. Radio guys have a very limited range and view. We're saying, "Come to the party, we'll give you football, music, and more. Could you, after having Sirius XM, go back to listening to terrestrial radio? Could you ever go back to listening to all of the commercials?

I knew I could do a lot of business with satellite and that we could really change things. I got extra bold and said, "I think we'll take XM. We'll gobble their ass up, too." When I met with XM, I said, "I think whichever one of you hires me will end up winning." Sirius believed me, and I don't think XM did.

How much satisfaction do you get not only with XM, but also with the wake you left on the terrestrial side, going back to WNBC New York disappearing after you left, and later heritage stations WXRK New York and WBCN Boston?

Who could've imagined? I swear to God on a stack of bibles, when I first got into radio, I was this guy just trying to make a living for $250 a week. That was my goal. I never thought I'd ever have any money. I just wanted to do a really wild show.

It was such a slow process, and I'm a big believer in a slow process. If I had an intern who wanted to be on-air, I'd tell them to not work for me anymore, stop, go out, find a small market, and do that, none of this big-market thing. It's getting harder and harder to do that in terrestrial radio, but if you're able to go out and get an audience . . . see the ratings come back, see where you fucked up and see where you did it right. All of that is the testing ground for what you're going to be doing.

I feel so completely gratified that when I've left radio stations, they've crumbled. I don't care what anyone says; when you leave, you hope they don't do well. The idea that all of the Viacom stations melted down in the morning—and they tried everything—I love it.

I've always managed to make a lot of money for my employers. I've always worked with the sales department. Those people put in so many hours. Any broadcaster who doesn't have respect for their sales department is a fool, and you will not succeed. You have to work in tandem with the sales department. And, from getting to be friendly with sales departments, they are some of the funniest people. I'm convinced radio has it backwards. I'd fire all the DJs and make them be sales people, and let the sales people on the air. That's where radio is going: real conversation, real people, it's completely morphed.

Well, you're the one who started the notion of "real" people on the air. You're a trailblazer in terms of revolutionizing the talk radio format.

That all came out of listening to a lot of radio as a kid. When I'd hear a noise in the back of the room—probably a cart falling or somebody coming into the room—I was like, "Why don't they tell us what's happening? I want to know!" It killed me that they didn't bring it in.

Why were you the one to bring that in?

Again, I think a lot of people don't think outside the box. "We have to sound professional!" God forbid we hear something human going on. The best moments on the radio are when we're human: arguments, laughter. When I'd hear a broadcaster laugh because they couldn't control it, that was just great.

[Edited 2/1/14 15:57pm]

Watch Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern Argue in 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' (Exclusive Video)

The comedy giant interviews the shock jock in the season finale of the Crackle web series, telling Stern: "You're like a hip Wicked Witch of the West."

Comedians in cars getting coffee is FUCKING BRILLIANT!!! The one with Ricky Gervais had me pissing myself laughing!! I LOVE that show!




stupid spelling edits

[Edited 1/31/14 18:27pm]

tinaz said:

Comedians in cars getting coffee is FUCKING BRILLIANT!!! The one with Ricky Gervais had me pissing myself laughing!! I LOVE that show!




stupid spelling edits

[Edited 1/31/14 18:27pm]

You should see the one with Louie even funnier.

Beth Stern, Howard Stern, Steven Tyler, Rob Zombie and Slash attend "Howard Stern's Birthday Bash" presented by SiriusXM.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SiriusXM

By Andy Greene

February 1, 2014 1:10 AM ET

The timing was coincidental, but it made a lot of sense for Howard Stern to throw his massive 60th birthday concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom right around the same time as the Golden Globes, the State of the Union, the Super Bowl and the Grammys. In many ways, the evening felt like a combination of all those events: It had the all-star musical collaborations of the Grammys, the random grouping of A-list celebrities eating and drinking together that you usually only see at the Golden Globes, the chants, crazily-coveted tickets and sensory overload of the Super Bowl as well as the climactic speech by a revered (though highly polarizing) leader straight out of the State of the Union. It also had oysters and a rare intermingling of Barbara Walters and High Pitch Eric.

Howard Stern's Long Struggle and Neurotic Triumph

The four-and-a-half-hour event – which was broadcast for free on SiriusXM – was an evening full of high points. Here are eleven of them.

1. Lena Dunham Slays the Room. Howard Stern and Lena Dunham's relationship got off to a very bad start when Stern told his audience that Dunham looked like Jonah Hill in a dress, but they made peace a few weeks later when she called into the show, and he's since become a huge fan of Girls. Still, Dunham took the stage midway through the night and finally got her revenge. "I was so thrilled when I found out he knew who I was," she said. "When I found out he was talking about me I tuned in just in time to hear him say I looked like Jonah Hill and that I was raping his eyes. He quickly apologized. . . . Then a minute later he asked me if I was intimidated because my boyfriend could be getting a much hotter piece of ass. At the time, I didn't have the wherewithal to ask if you were intimidated because [your wife] Beth could definitely be with someone who doesn't look like a cartoon of a Jewish female horse."

2. The Wack Pack Packed Together. The menagerie of freaks and oddballs that Howard Stern has assembled over the years were worried that they'd be unable to get into the birthday show, but they ultimately crammed together into a single opera box near the side of the stage. Many of them go largely unnoticed in their day-to-day lives, but at this show every single one of them was a superstar. They dressed up in their finest outfits, with proud Wack Pack den mother Mariann From Brooklyn doing her best to make sure everyone was okay. They haven't always gotten along over the years, but for this one night, Yucko the Clown, High Pitch Eric, Mark the Bagger, Fred the Elephant Boy and that musical genius known as Sour Shoes seemed like one big, happy family.

3. Jeff the Drunk Lives Up to His Name. An open bar with women carrying around endless trays of free beer is a dangerous combination, especially when Jeff "the Drunk" Curro is in the house. On the off-chance anybody suspects that Curro is a Shakespearian-trained thespian who merely acts like a fall-down drunk when he's on the air, they were proven wrong at the birthday show. He chugged free bars all night long, barely paying any attention to the action on the stage. By the time John Fogerty walked out, Curro appeared to be barely conscious. When he tried to get up, he collapsed so violently it took four men lifting with all their might to get him back on his feet. It was sad to witness, but they don't call him Jeff the Drunk for nothing.

4. Sarah Silverman Sings. It might have been a little awkward for Sarah Silverman to perform at a show hosted by her ex-boyfriend, but she cut through that tension the minute she walked onstage with an acoustic guitar. "Jimmy," she said. "You used to be my world." She then proceeded to sing an uproarious song about her love of the Howard Stern universe with Dixie Chick (and Stern superfan) Natalie Maines. "Robin Quivers took a veg-acation," they sang together in perfect harmony. "Used meat and vegetables for her masturbation. She turned on drugs so she could find life's answers, but instead she got a super gross, grapefruit-sized cancer. Eating right gives you cancer." It only got funnier from there.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SiriusXM

5. The Men of Late Night Unite. Only Howard Stern could bring together Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman, who will all be battling it out at 11:35 p.m. in just a few weeks. Kimmel, one of the few people in the world that Howard Stern considers a truly close friend, emceed the entire night, pouring drinks for the guests and making sure there were no awkward silences. Fallon came out, handed Howard a stopwatch, and told him to say "change" every ten seconds. He then proceeded to impersonate Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Norm McDonald, Gilbert Gottfried and Robin Williams in less than two minutes. It was incredible.

It was clear, however, that Stern was most thrilled that David Letterman decided to drop by. They spoke for over twenty-five minutes, as Stern grilled him on everything from why he didn't attend the funeral of Letterman regular Larry "Bud" Melman to how he interacts with the parents of his son Harry's friends. He even got Letterman to say that he couldn't recall ever voting for a Republican, but the most interesting parts of the discussion revolved around Jay Leno. Stern is still furious at Jay for hiring Stuttering John Melendez without asking him, but Letterman – who has significantly bigger grievances against the man – basically admitted that he's gotten over his anger. They've even spoken on the phone a few times since NBC took The Tonight Show away from him. It was a riveting talk, complicated only by the fact that many people on the floor were mingling and drinking instead of paying attention.

6. Howard Wins Over His Enemies. Back in the 1990s, Stern spent a lot of air time relentlessly bashing Rosie O'Donnell and Kathie Lee Gifford. It was nearly impossible to imagine either of them ever befriending him, but time does funny things to people and Stern has mellowed over the years. Kathie Lee made a hilariously tongue-in-cheek toast to Stern from the Today Show set, while Rosie dropped by in person. "If Howard were a girl," she said, "we'd make lesbian love."

7. Louis C.K. Pays His Respects. It was a very loud room and many speakers struggled to capture everyone's attention, but the place hushed the minute that Louis C.K. walked onstage. He recalled the first time he ever heard Stern on the radio back in the 1980s when he was stuck in New York traffic. "I remember he was making a prank call to Yoko Ono while speaking through a megaphone," he said. "To me, this man was New York City. He's the voice of the city. He made me want to move to New York. Howard, to me, is the guy that said, 'Be yourself and let the chips fall where they may.'"

8. Jewel Sings A Howard Oldie. When Stern was in the 6th grade, he briefly fronted a group called the Electric Comic Book. Their Stern-penned songs "The Psychedelic Bee" and "Silver Nickels And Golden Dimes" have been covered by everyone from Sugar Ray to William Shatner over the years. Jewel sang "Silver Nickels and Golden Dimes" last year on the show, and she revived it at the birthday bash. It's a bizarre song about a prostitute, but Jewel made it sound like an outtake from Pieces of You. Mark McGrath, who did an amazing job with "Psychedelic Bee" back in the day and even released it on a Sugar Ray album, was in the house, but sadly he wasn't brought on stage or even referenced during the event.

Larry Busacca/Getty Images for SiriusXM

9. People Watching. It's not every day you can move your head across a room and see Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Robert Downey Jr, Andy Cohen, Perez Hilton, Jemima Kirke, David Spade, Tracy Morgan, Natalie Maines, Fred Armisen, John Stamos and Mike Love mingling around near Yucko the Clown, Tan Mom and Fred the Elephant Boy. It's a shame the whole crowd didn't pose for a group photo.

10. Classic Rock Rules the Night. Train served as the house band for the evening and they sang a couple of their own songs, but mostly they ceded the spotlight to others. Adam Levine joined them for a surprisingly competent rendition of "Purple Rain" and Jon Bon Jovi sang "Wanted Dead or Alive" with the band, though John Fogerty opted to bring his own group. They absolutely killed with "Bad Moon Rising" and "Fortunate Son." Fogerty doesn't have much of a connection to the Stern show, but he was the best musical act of the night.

Dave Grohl played a solo acoustic "Everlong" and then sat on the couch and told Stern that an impromptu rendition of the song he played on the show in 1998 gave his career an incredible boost. "I honestly wouldn't be here today had I not done that," he said. Stern played that song countless times, turning it into a giant hit and elevating the Foo Fighters into a major band. He then performed "My Hero" right before they wheeled out a white piano so Steven Tyler could sing "Dream On" with Train and surprise guest Slash, who came out halfway through to play the guitar solo. Dave Grohl then sat down at the drum kit and lead the supergroup into the grand finale of "Walk This Way." Everyone from Cyndi Lauper to Rob Zombie to Tom Arnold ran onstage to sing along to the chorus, and Howard even danced a little with Beth.

11. Stern Gets Serious. Before "Walk This Way," Stern gave an uncharacteristically heartfelt speech where he thanked all the important people in his life. "I never envisioned I'd make more than $96 a week in this industry or be part of anything this big," he said. "When I look around this room, I am overwhelmed and, I mean this, it was the most incredible night of my life."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/the-11-greatest-moments-from-howard-sterns-60th-birthday-bash-20140201#ixzz2s861vuNz