a reply to:
Nothin
I've been an avid listener for about 20 years.
I'm not sure I share the same beliefs as the OP, but I've often wondered about Howard's clout in the upper echelons after he started signing
$500,000,000 contracts. At most, I've heard of him making it a pain in the ass for anyone who has scorned him to get work in the business.
I'm not sure the CIA really needs Howard to give them any info. And yes, he does have JD watching tons of TV/internet media to help fill in content
for the show, he's got a whole news division for his channel, so you know those guys are probably sifting through quite a bit of media content.
Whether any of that or not is being stolen for show material, well, the show isn't what it used to be. I don't listen to it much anymore because the
best years ended 10 years ago.
As I said, I'm an avid Stern fan. I go to bed every night listening to old broadcasts. I've got a pretty large collection of complete shows (radio,
not the TV shows). Right now I'm at around 5 years worth of shows. That's the complete show, from start to finish (avg. show is 4.5 hours), M-F.
Knowing the show's history, Howard's history, listening to the show as long as I have, these people feel like family to me, in a way.
While I'm sure a few bits on the show were stolen from someone/somewhere else, the Howard Stern Show was ripped off far more than they ever took from
anyone. They set the benchmark and everyone tried to copy it or come close to it and now it's all been done before.
I will say one thing, I've long considered the show to be a study/looking glass on human behavior and generally the stuff people don't bring up in
public places or in normal conversations. From the over-the-top racist skits with Billy West to the interviews where Howard can get anyone to talk
about anything. And that's the reason Howard is such a compelling interviewer, he's spent years studying people and learning what makes them tick. I'd
agree he DOES have a formula to confuse people and it's what has made the show reach the point it has/did.
If you watch his interviews, there's plenty on YouTube, he can get people to open up about something after they've told him repeatedly they didn't
want to talk about it. It's a form of distraction by asking one crazy question in the opposite direction of what he's really going for. Once the
person opens up about one thing, he knows he can open them up wider to eventually get to what he's going for. A perfect example of this was with Scott
Weiland who went in to promote his autobiography. Scott had been on the show several times previously, knew Howard and how the show worked, he walked
in with confidence and within minutes Howard had him nearly in tears, spilling the guts of his messed-up childhood. While it's not easy to crack open
an already-broken man, it was really amazing to see/hear.
As for Benjy getting upset over anything, it's schtick. That's pretty much his entire on-air personality, getting all wound up over nothing and it's
just fake. That's a huge part of the show, go YouTube "Benjy Bronk Schtick" and you'll get hours of him doing exactly that and everyone on the staff
calling him out over it.
And asking Howard if he's ever put a hit out on anyone was most likely an allusion to Eric The Midget's infamous call to Johnny Fratto where he asked
Johnny to take out a guy Eric went to high school with who was talking # about Eric. That's a CLASSIC show and never fails to get me laughing.
What else do you plan to reveal? I'm specifically curious as to what may be hidden that Howard is hiding. I personally don't think he gives a # about
anyone but himself, to the point that he doesn't care to work with the CIA or anyone else. I don't think he gets off on being big under the radar or
off the books, the size of his audience and size of the show has been his driving force all these years, to feed his ego.