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Shock jock's contract snag could clean up radio
Thursday, December 14, 2000
By week's end, radio shock jock Howard Stern may have broadcast his last "Lesbian Dial-a-Date." Stalled contract negotiations between Mr. Stern and his employers at New York's top-rated WXRK-FM may accomplish what legions of competitors, censors and family values protesters haven't been able to do for nearly 25 years: silence one of the most irreverent voices in popular culture.
The syndicated weekday morning show, which airs on dozens of stations coast to coast including Pittsburgh's WXDX-FM, hasn't been a ratings juggernaut nationally for years. With the exception of New York, where it continues to dominate its competitors, "The Howard Stern Show" has worn out its welcome with many of the bored listeners it once titillated in middle America.
Mr. Stern's brand of frat-boy vulgarity pales in comparison to much funnier and cruder material found on the Internet. Perhaps his employers at Infinity Broadcasting have noticed this as well. They don't seem to be in as much of a hurry as they were in previous years to negotiate a five-year contract that is more to Mr. Stern's liking.
The self-proclaimed "King of All Media" and his radio sidekicks won't return to the program after their two-week Christmas break without a new contract. It's possible that 2001 and beyond will be devoid of the daily coarsening of the culture that Mr. Stern excelled in for so many years.
What will we do without Mr. Stern's flatulence jokes, the show's wholesale mockery of people with physical and mental disabilities, the sexual humiliation of studio guests for whom 15 minutes of fame is the ultimate aphrodisiac and the merciless skewering of the minority du jour?
Perhaps we'll use that valuable time during the morning drive to get a life.