We had Stern here in Minneapolis for a while. The local guy kicked his ass in the ratings.
Stern coming to town was big news. The local "shock" DJ, Tom Barnard, reacted by... doing nothing. He didn't even acknowlege that Stern was on in the same market. Stern did some on-air tirades about how Barnards time was up, he was finished, blah blah blah. Still, Barnard just kept business as usual and never mentioned Stern.
Six months later, Stern was off the air here in Minnesota, but picked up "Crazy Cabe" from the Tom Barnard program for some reason. Cabe was in idiot, and I was glad to see him gone. I was glad to see them BOTH gone.
When I listened to Stern, he just didn't live up to his reputation. Among the things I remember from his program is an hour long analysis of a Chemical Brothers song and Hank the drunken dwarf. Robin Quivers' hideous cackle accompanied it all. I guess she was the news woman AND the laugh track. It was miserable radio.
Stern's career doesn't mean a fig to me, I guess. As for the FCC, well, it IS the public airwaves. One can get arrested by slinging obscenities around in the public square or behaving lewdly, and technically, the airwaves are of little difference.
It'll be interesting to see how the chips fall on this, though.
Merry Christmas
APf
We've had several of the shock jocks on radio here and they all failed. Local or national, they all flamed out. The only people who listen to shock jocks are overgrown 8th graders. We just don't have that many around here.