It is difficult to write about Howard Stern. His name is provocative, his opinions are over the top, and his actions spit in the face of good taste.
He built a cottage industry based on, for want of a better phrase, bathroom and bedroom humor and amassed a fortune doing it.
How is that possible? It is because from the beginning, in the middle of this mayhem, Stern showed flashes of brilliance and people began to sit up and take notice.
Whether these people were actually “in” on what Stern was doing didn’t matter. What mattered was that they were afraid to admit they might not be “in” on it.
Stern built an audience of well-connected, well-known people trying hard to be the Stern standard of cool. Actors, politicians, actually anyone known for anything clamored to be interviewed on his radio show. Fading celebrities were suddenly mainstream again, political views and the politician viewing them, not welcome on prime time found a home with Stern. Products that languished on storeroom shelves, immediately sold out when Stern mentioned them on air.
It became known that regardless of his questions, Stern was an excellent and fair interviewer.
His first two books, Private Parts and Miss America were the fastest selling books in publishing history. A movie based on Private Parts and starring Stern became an instant hit. Even mainstream critics like Gene Siskal and Roger Ebert loved it and loved Stern in it.
Stern went from terrestrial radio to late night TV, airing his interviews, and in 2006 he emigrated to Sirius Satellite Radio helping it to grow from a fledgling experiment into a 33 million subscriber empire.
Through it all, Stern’s anthem was “standards have gone to an all time low and I’m here to represent them.”
Flash forward 24 years to Howard Stern Comes Again, a new book for which he is doing an extensive press tour. Die-hard Stern fans waited a long time for their hero to write something new and a great many of them are wondering why they bothered waiting.
Although Stern made clear several times over on his radio program that this book was a compilation of selected interviews he had done for radio, it appeared that no one listened.
The book sold out and orders for new ones were rushed to the printer. However, Stern followers are angry that they spent good money to see in print, something they had already heard when the interviews originally aired.
They also weren’t prepared for the new and improved Stern. A lot had happened to him in 24 years. He divorced, lost touch with his daughters, and had a major health scare, all or some of which drove him into therapy. He shares his philosophy of life with his fans in a book that occasionally reads like a series of love letters to those he interviewed.
One celebrity that he brutally butchered for years was Rosie O’Donnell. He now says “how could I have missed out in my life on someone so special because of some dumb posturing on the radio?”
He hopes this collection captures his evolution and ultimately becomes his legacy.
He lives quietly with his wife of 11 years, Beth, and provides foster care for thousands of cats who are awaiting a forever home. His contract with Sirius has two more years to run and at that point, Stern will evaluate his future. He says he has achieved a more comfortable balance between doing a good radio show and being able to live with himself.
Those who are skeptical that Stern has anything left to offer will ultimately decide if he is still worth tuning in on Sirius radio. What they may find is that this new and improved Stern has definitely not lost his edge.
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