News of the looming “cancellation” of radio shock jock Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show made headlines last week, reports that were possibly either premature, exaggerated or contractually strategic – or maybe a lit bit of all three.
Since hitting the radio airwaves in the 1970s, Stern has been a magnet for controversy and a master at garnering publicity for all the wrong and offensive reasons.
Over the years, radio stations and networks who have employed and aired the radio deejay have been fined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for his repeated violations of broadcast decency standards. They’ve even decried his foul-mouthed antics, and yet at the same time exploited it for promotional purposes.
During his tenure on WNBC radio in New York, a station that also employed Don Imus, the vulgar pair were advertised with the slogan, “If we weren’t so bad, we wouldn’t be so good.”
Hypocrisy has long been alive and well. Wrote William Shakespeare, “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.”
It’s been twenty years since Howard Stern left terrestrial radio for satellite, a move that liberated him from the few traditional broadcast standards he grudgingly honored. Some doubted whether the experiment would work, but the host’s draw proved extremely profitable for the fledgling medium. During the first year of Stern’s employment at Sirius, the company grew its subscriber rolls from 600,000 to six million.
SiriusXM now boasts 33 million total subscribers.
Howard Stern is now 71 years-old, reportedly broadcasts his show most of the time from his home in the Hamptons on Long Island, and has seen his listenership crater from a high of twenty million per week to 125,000. In recent years, he’s been accused of going “woke” in the wake of several politically charged outbursts, including his support for the sexually confused Dylan Mulvaney of Bud Light infamy.
A self-described germaphobe, Stern was known to isolate himself for years following the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, Sirius and Stern began teasing audiences with an ad stating, “All the questions will be answered, all the truths will be told by the one man truly on the inside on Tuesday September 2.”
Few men in media have been viler and cruder for so many years than Howard Stern. Some have even credited him with helping to normalize the abnormal. That’s the progressive nature of filth. What shocks one generation rarely surprises the next.
In recent years, Stern has expressed regret for the way he’s treated co-workers, guests and even family members. He’s acknowledged his narcissism. Despite being an avowed atheist, there have even been gentle and sweet public moments. Back in 2015, as a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” Stern complimented a five-year-old girl by saying, “I think Shirley Temple is living somewhere inside of you.” The little one responded, “Not Shirley Temple. Jesus!”
“There you go,” Stern replied. “Now you’re talking.”
Transitions in life can be poignant, emotional and perspective altering. With an annual salary of over $100 million a year, industry watchers are suggesting SiriusXM won’t be able to pay Stern that kind of money anymore. But at this stage of his career, it’s unlikely that money is motivating the radio jock.
Is he looking for meaning, purpose, lasting significance? Whether he renews a contract or retires, it would be good to pray for Howard Stern. His efforts have done much to harm and pollute America’s airwaves and fill people’s minds with unspeakable trash. It’s impossible to know what he believes these days – or in whom he might be placing his hope and trust.
One of the many incredible aspects of Christianity is that God has made clear He will meet anyone anywhere regardless of anything they’ve done if they’re repentant and seek a relationship with Him.
Nobody this side of eternity is irredeemable, including Howard Stern.
Image from Getty.