Printer-friendly version Howard Stern has the most popular morning radio show in the nation and a Saturday-night television program distributed through CBS' syndication wing. His books are best sellers, his autobiographical film played to packed houses, and his cable television show is the highest-rated program on the E! channel. But some fans are beginning to wonder if the King of All Media is spreading himself too thin. By Jason Jackson The other day, smack dab in the middle of Howard Stern's syndicated morning program, a listener got mad. Sure, this is nothing new. One could even argue that Stern's entire career has been built upon the pyres of those whom he has upset. After all, a nice, juicy protest is worth enough publicity to landscape a mile of highway with a thousand billboards. But this call was different. This wasn't from some soccer mom who was irritated because her 12-year-old goalie heard Klansman-turned-film reviewer Daniel Carver use the "n-word" on Stern's show. This call wasn't from a religious zealot who is convinced that Stern is Satan incarnate, nor was it from a militant feminist who took offense to Howard's everlasting homage to All Things Lesbian. According to this caller, Howard Stern has lost touch with what made him the King of All Media in the first place. Simply put, this fan thinks that more often than not these days, Stern is neglecting his radio audience so he can more effectively cater to his dwindling legion of Saturday-night television viewers. What You Can't See Won't Hurt You The segment started innocently enough. Stern welcomed to his show a guest who promised to have inside information about the Kennedy assassination. Suffice it to say, Stern and crew were doubtful that some blue-caller working stiff from the Bronx would finally close the mystery of the Lone Gunman Theory after 36 years of analysis, but what the heck? It'll make for some fun, they probably thought. "It's not the Zapruder film," declared the guest, who admitted that ABC, CBS, NBC, and a syndicated conspiracy-of-the-week program had first turned him down before he called Stern. "This footage was taken from the other side of the street." After breaking down the film with the passion of Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner, Howard and crew concluded that their guest did indeed have a videocassette containing some footage of the Kennedy assassination, which he apparently taped off of some television show. And it sure looked like there was some guy who had been behind a grassy knoll, and the guy did start running around once the shots rang out. Then again, when shots ring out, who doesn't start running around? Four out of five gunmen agree that it's much harder to hit a moving target. Predictably, a few callers phoned in to ask Howard why he was even giving airtime to this nut job. But after listening to a couple of fans argue with the guest, one person called in with a different issue. "Yeah, Howard," said the caller. "You're catering to your TV audience and not your radio audience." To an extent, Stern agreed. He admitted that this was more of a visual feature -- videotapes tend to be that way -- and he said that he would most certainly play the tape on his Saturday-night television show. "That doesn't do me much good driving down Route 3, does it?" replied the caller. You Can't Please All of the People ... One of the more obvious tenets in comedy is that visual gags tend not to work unless they can be seen. If nothing else, it seems like common sense. However, Stern's antics have always been decidedly different. The only audio included in his Butt Bongo Fiesta extravaganzas featured the sound of an open hand spanking a woman's bare bottom, and his radio fans loved it. They also don't seem to have a problem with strippers coming into Stern's studio and taking off their bikini tops, which is so visual that it can't be shown on American commercial television. This, however, doesn't seem to be a case of same-old, same-old. This is someone who is irked that Stern is using his radio program to gather bits for his struggling televised Howard Stern Radio Show, syndicated throughout the country by Eyemark Entertainment, a division of CBS. (Stern also has a television program on E! Entertainment Television that appears six nights a week and shows outtakes from his mornings in the radio booth.) This is someone who feels used by Stern's tendency to drift away from audio comedy -- the stuff that truly made him famous -- in order to save his multimedia behind from being kicked by Lorne Michaels and a bunch of people with Nielsen diaries. "I've never felt that Howard was pandering to the TV audience," says Kevin Renzulli, the man behind koam.com, the unofficial Interactive King of All Media Web site. "But the content of the radio show has increased, with less time spent on chewing the breeze and more on guests, games, and tapes." Or, as the caller would say, the multimillionaire Stern -- star of popular radio, television, books, and film -- is selling out. The Box With the Pictures, Stern Style Despite being universally panned by critics and even hardcore fans, those rough early days of Stern's televised product appear to be over. The show has been dropped by affiliates in some fifteen markets, including large ones like Toronto, San Diego, Phoenix, and St. Louis, and it will not be renewed by Washington's WBDC-TV, a UPN affiliate, and Houston's KHTV, a member of the WB network, come August. Even so, more than 70 stations are airing the program, and it is winning its timeslot in several markets, even though many stations are opting not to pit Stern against Saturday Night Live head to head. For example, Stern's TV show is all the rage in Baltimore, where it can be seen defeating all comers from its slot on WJZ-TV. However, it is being aired at 1:30 a.m., when all comers include the Juiceman, George Foreman and his electric grilling machine, and Time-Life's classic country-music collection. (To be fair, Stern's television show is going up against SNL in both New York and Los Angeles, and it is the top ratings-grabber in its timeslot in those markets.) This collection of 70-odd affiliates airs what very well might be the raunchiest hour in the history of American commercial television. There are plenty of strippers -- we all expected lots of strippers -- but there have also been flatulence contests and pubic-hair shaving. Even the people who manage the affiliates that kept the program on the air weren't pleased with the flatulence contests and pubic-hair shaving. But those people aren't the ones watching. The fans are. The show is consistently capturing Nielsen ratings that score in the low 4s. In comparison, new episodes of SNL tend to score in the mid-7s, while Fox's MAD TV usually registers ratings in the 5s. According to Nielsen, a single ratings point represents 994,000 households, meaning that Stern is watched in roughly 4 million households every week. However, because Stern's program is aired at different times in different markets, it helps to analyze the show's share to more accurately determine its success. A share represents the percentage of television sets that are currently in use and are tuned to a specific program. Stern's television show usually draws a share of about 10, meaning that 10 percent of the people that are watching television when his show airs are watching him. While that number is far behind SNL, which usually registers shares around 18 or so, it's awfully close to MAD TV, which tends to capture shares between 10 and 12. If you compare the programs in this manner, Stern's effort is doing about as well as MAD TV, even though it is shown in fewer markets. Thus, if Stern were aired in more markets, his supporters say, his ratings would rise proportionally. Satisfying the Big Eye But the program isn't being aired in more markets, and this doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. According to TV Guide, Stern's television show reaches only 61 percent of the country. And, because new stations have hardly been lining up outside Eyemark's offices to add the Howard Stern Radio Show to their schedules -- as of now, no new stations have inquired about picking up the show for its second season -- there are questions about the program's survival. Reportedly, executives at Eyemark have mentioned to Stern that the television program needs to add more celebrity interviews and behind-the-scenes treats in order to gain more widespread acceptance among fans and station managers alike. But Stern, who enjoys full creative control of the "Howard Stern Radio Show," responded by firing executive producer Jim Biederman and replacing him with Scott Einziger, a producer with Stern's televised effort that appears on the E! channel. Einziger is widely believed to be a yes-man for the King of All Media, and many expect him to maintain the television show's status quo -- which is exactly what Stern wants. According to one report, Stern fears that removing the borderline-porn material from the show will cause his core audience to flock away in droves. However, some Stern insiders suggest that Einziger plans to give the show a swift kick in the behind. "We are creatively jumpstarting the show," an unnamed staffer told TV Guide. "There will be more celebrities, and we're doing animated segments." Or, to put it more succinctly, the radio show will be altered in order to make its televised sister more palatable for the general public, just like the caller suggested. The Blessing and Curse of Channel 9 Even though the ratings of Stern's national television show have been lukewarm and its acceptance has been spotty at best, CBS knows that the nation's most notorious shock jock has a history of blockbuster television success. Just ask WWOR-TV -- New York's Channel 9. Back in 1992, Stern and crew created a syndicated television program that originated from the studios of Channel 9 in New York, and the show's success was virtually unprecedented. The program captured a whopping 33.7 share among males aged 18 to 49 -- the same demographic that led CBS last year to pay $4 billion for the broadcast rights to the NFL's American Football Conference games through the year 2005. "The Channel 9 show had a great mix and was brilliant," says Renzulli. "A more comedy-driven show instead of a sex-driven show is Howard's best work. I think the CBS show will be revisiting that format in small doses very soon." Of course, WWOR-TV had a wonderful promotional vehicle -- Stern's New York-based radio show -- which assisted the station in turning listeners into viewers. But the show's performance in other markets proved that there was more to its success than a carryover effect from Stern's morning show. In Los Angeles, where Stern's show wasn't on the radio yet, he pulled in an even larger share in the same key demographic, scoring a stunning 34.4 at 12:30 a.m. without the benefit of a local radio show to help him out. But just as the first show has been a blessing to Stern -- it had an awfully big impact on CBS saying yes to the current program in the first place -- it has also been something of a curse. Unlike Stern's current televised efforts, the initial show featured original programming created just for television. It was raunchy, and some of the humor was risqué, but it was also some of the funniest stuff on television. And, more important than anything, it was new. The Howard Stern Radio Show may be many things, but it is certainly not new. Avid listeners to the morning-radio show have already heard the bits that they are seeing on television every Saturday night. For many, the television program serves as a Cliff's Notes version of the radio offering; a listener can turn on the tube Saturday night to find out what he missed during his morning commute two weeks ago. Fifty Morning Drives and Nine Million Friends Regardless of the success of the television program, Stern will always have his radio. Of the 50 stations on which he appears every weekday morning, he gets high ratings on most -- and obscenely high ratings on many. (According to last summer's Arbitron ratings report, Stern captured the ear of approximately one out of every 10 members of New York's listening audience aged 12 and up -- a truly monumental feat.) The radio trade publication Talkers estimates that Stern's morning-drive program brings in about 9 million listeners per week, behind only the 14 million or so who tune in to Dr. Laura Schlessinger and the 13.5 million others who listen to Rush Limbaugh. But Stern doesn't have anything close to the vast affiliate list enjoyed by Schlessinger and Limbaugh; he's doing it with only 50 stations, not 400. In morning radio, Stern is truly the king. That being said, there's reason to believe that the king would entertain thoughts of moving to a new throne. As lucrative as morning radio has been to Stern, it can also be a monumental pain in the keester. Waking up at 4 a.m. every day can develop into a tired act, especially when you have the means to do something else -- like your own weekly television show -- and make at least as much money. Even the sternest Stern critic would admit: if Howard is able to lure 4 million viewers each week by running a televised version of his radio program, he could beat the living daylights out of SNL, MAD TV, and the Juiceman if he exuded more effort into creating a fresh, innovative TV show. Plus, Stern has been talking on air again that he'd like to say goodbye to radio once his contract expires next year. However, many individuals who follow the ups and downs of Stern's career aren't so sure that a departure from radio would be a good move for the King of All Media. "Some fans would stay, but some would lose interest if the daily soap opera we know as the Stern show were no more," points out Renzulli. Of course, it should be mentioned that Stern said the same thing about leaving the airwaves to pursue other projects before his last two contracts expired. Simple Stern Economics According to Forbes, Stern is making somewhere around $20 million a year for his efforts. (He even made the magazine's "Celebrity Top 100," where he was declared the 37th-most-powerful celebrity in the entertainment business, ahead of Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, Beavis and Butthead father Mike Judge, and Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, among others.) However, $20 million seems like a bargain when you consider how much money Stern is capable of making for others. Private Parts, Stern's autobiography, has sold more than 1 million copies and was the fastest-selling title in Simon and Schuster's publishing history. His second book, Miss America, then became the fastest-selling book in publishing history. The Miss Howard Stern New Year's Eve Pageant made more money than any other pay-per-view variety event in the history of that medium, and the film version of Private Parts grossed $42 million in domestic sales before it was released on videocassette, where it remains a top seller even today. Even the soundtrack to Private Parts went gold in its first week. Then there's his radio income. According to an article that appeared in RadioDigest.com last September, Stern pulls in somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million per year from each major-market affiliate that airs his show, and the King of All Media also receives a five-percent cut of all the advertising revenue pulled in during his program. It's a lot of money, but it's a heck of an investment as well. One major-market station disclosed that it charges $1,750 per spot on Stern's radio program between 6 and 11 a.m., and it costs $3,600 if a sponsor wants Stern to voice the commercial himself. (The sales rep who fed me these numbers, who asked to remain anonymous, also admitted that the rate for Stern's vocal endorsement has been as high as $5,000, and Stern reserves the right to turn down product sales pitches at his discretion.) Thus, a major-market station that carries Stern in the morning can cover the King of All Media's annual salary by selling two commercials -- one featuring Stern's personal endorsement and one that does not -- per show. Nevertheless, the real money in the entertainment business is not radio. On the aforementioned Forbes "Celebrity Top 100," Stern is surpassed by 13 actors, seven athletes, five television personalities, six musical performers, two authors, and three directors. On the entire list, Stern is the only individual with any connection with radio whatsoever. Schlessinger and Limbaugh, who when combined have more than three times the number of listeners as Stern, are conspicuously absent from the Forbes list. Stern has announced during his morning forum that he has turned down several television and movie scripts because he wasn't captivated by their content. Rest assured, one will come along someday that draws Stern's interest. And when he checks out the Forbes list and discovers Oprah Winfrey at number two, Leonardo DiCaprio at number three, and Jerry Seinfeld at number four (with an average income among those three at $143 million), you can bet that Stern is capable of being captivated. Do You Feel Lucky? While the lure of bigger paydays might appeal to the money-hungry Stern, few people believe that Stern actually has enough of a gambler's instinct in him to say farewell to his radio career. With one bad film, Stern could find himself hanging out with Corey Feldman and Richard Grieco at the "Will Work For Rent" home for displaced movie has-beens. And television is hardly a steady gig, as Jenny McCarthy and Magic Johnson would surely attest. Any full-time leap into another medium would be a monumental risk. Stern might believe that he has a built-in insurance policy in case of a failed experiment in film or television. His radio affiliate list is 50 stations long, and he could always return to the morning airwaves with blockbuster fanfare. A return to radio, however, would not necessarily be a done deal. With a large number of today's radio stations now controlled by a handful of national corporations, the competitive pressure is on for station managers to come up with newer and less-costly programming alternatives. Jacor Communications and Capstar, both major players in the station-ownership arena, are now using computers to piece local information around an air personality from God knows where, just to make him sound like he's chatting from the studio down the street. There is no guarantee that Stern could come close to finding 50 stations around the country that might be willing to cough up his salary. Additionally, finding radio fame is often akin to catching lightning in a bottle. The Greaseman once had it, as did Don Imus. Today, Greaseman is unemployed, and Imus is heard on a declining collection of medium-power and hard-to-find AM stations across America. Fame and fortune is a difficult combination to achieve once; to achieve it twice could be too arduous, even for Howard Stern. These days, radio is Howard Stern's most vocal ally. He has a daily soapbox around which 9 million avid listeners gather to hear his words. Through radio, Stern proves that he is in tune with the nation's collective male psyche, and he's there to pounce on every contemporary issue that sails across the news desk. His radio career has shown no signs of slowing down, having picked up steam year after year. Stern has also proven himself to be a multimedia cash cow, enjoying success on the small and large screens. And he is clearly aware that he has a standing offer for some studio or television network to toss bags of money his way. All he has to do is wrap up his radio career and sign on the dotted line. It's a dilemma that Howard Stern couldn't be happier to have. Originally published March 23, 1999, on RadioDigest.com.  Back to top  Small Office Technology Technology has made it simpler than ever to manage mundane business tasks, and many affordable products and services can boost productivity for even small offices and home-based businesses.  Network Design Basics Once found only in large organizations, networks have become so common in small- to mid-sized businesses that few can operate efficiently without one. But what exactly is a computer network, and how does it work?  Web Development: An Overview There are literally thousands of developers armed and ready to build your company's Web site. So how do you find the one that's right for you?  All About Office Acoustics Several surveys of various workplaces identify noise as the single most negative factor impacting employee productivity. What can you do to reduce the noise level at your office?