Also how Stern 'aged' was fucking pathetic. Almost like the radio equivalent of Icuckz castrating his content to play pretend at being a sensitive liberal icon in the most insincere and pathetic way possible. He didn't even have an Anisa doing it to him.
Meh...it's Stern isn't even unique in that fashion. It's exactly what happened with Don Imus.
It’s a pain in the ass to cancel. So they’ll tell you that if you extend beyond the trial, it’s like $5 for six months or some shit. But once they got your credit/debit card, the day after that trial ends, it’s $30+ per month. Then it’s like hours to stay on the line to cancel. I had to put my cell on speakerphone doing other things while waiting for someone to pick up on their end. If I recall correctly, there was a time or two when they just hung up while I was waiting.
So you had a subscription. Did you know anyone else that did?
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I thought by the time Imus has his MSNBC show, he was legit funny, which I had never thought before. It was because he leaned hard into his real life "cranky asshole" personality. Yeah, that ranch he was running as a "charity" for kids with cancer, seemed sketchy, but I thought Imus actually got funnier in his old age. Howard, on the other hand, just turned into a whiny, crybully faggot.
Almost everyone who bought a new car at any point in the past 20+ years had a Sirius account.
I remember Opie being really fixated at beating out Stern about 15-20 years ago. It wasn’t even close. I’m sure Anthony thought that he beat out Stern in the end because he’s going to outlast him but I’m not sure if that’s accurate because the WABC ghetto of has been personalities, I’m sure Stern could easily do something similar.
A pretty good way to stay angry all the time is to also stay drunk all the time. Which has certainly been Ant's strategy in life
Opie and Anthony in some ways beat Howard Stern in terms of influence. They were doing the O&A podcast officially through Sirius before podcasts were mainstream. They went to XM before Stern went to satellite. Half of the big comics who do podcasts site O&A as their influence. The biggest podcast currently, Rogan's show, comes from O&A. Most talk shows are just doing the O&A format of freely talking about whatever. And not Stern's ancient radio format with a newswoman and fake callers and bits.
I agree with your post except for the last sentence. Why shit on Don Imus? I'd argue the last chapter of his career was considerably more dignified than Stern's (although I wish he'd have offered more pushback for the "nappy headed hoes" backlash). Imus got to be a funny asshole on TV while Howard faded into almost complete irrelevance on satellite radio.... while not even being funny anymore, lol.
Back in late 04' early 05' I recall Opie telling a story about how Stern & Mel fucked over the Clear Channel deal for them that if they were to go over to Q104 they would be under a serious gag order that would result in over a $100,000 for every mention of Howard, or any associated current employee or former employee with Infinity Broadcasting now Audacy. They could have been back on the radio literally right after the Sex For Sam scandal but they would have had to adhere to getting six-figure fines every time.
That wasn't the only petty, rules-lawyering thing that Stern ever did to O&A - or to anyone else, for that matter. The guy earned his pathetic existence and is less relevant than Opie, which says a lot.
Opie is still talked about regardless of his shitty beach shows or mentions by Anthony.
I have a friend who was always more of a Howard guy and he will occasionally give me shit about how Howard is better; to which I point out Howard's devolution into an old Jewish hag.
Private Parts isn't a bad film by any means. The issue is it hasn't aged well given that Howard hasn't. We now know who the real Howard Stern is, if it was about anyone else other than him the film would still work. The film is a classic tale of humanizing this larger than life celebrity figure, telling stories of how they found themself and the kinds of adversity they faced as they worked their way to the top. He fights for those around him against what he perceives as wrongful censorship, and despite his radio personality being made out to be this disgusting pig we see that he is loving father in a happy marriage.
This, 100%, is as accurate an assessment of Howard Stern as is possible.
He never really had a family life. His wife gets reports from a construction worker at their house that Ralph was blowing Howard. Howard had condoms in his daily supplies for Private Parts when his wife said they never used them. Ralph and Howard both failed those gay lie detectors tests from Ed Torian. He spent hours every week convincing the audience how straight he was with various bits and segments. The only women he dated after his divorce all shared the same movie agent that Stern had from the Buchwald Agency. His daughters all seem to hate him or hated him at one point.
Ivan Reitman was telling people during the filming of Private Parts that he was afraid Howard's marriage would end before the movie premiered. Howard's wife made some deal to stick around for a few years but they were officially separated during the movie's production. Like how James Cameron begged his wife not to leave him before Titanic premiered as his affairs (with the actresses in the film) would destroy the box office for a romance film.