The Howard Stern Show

[Jesse James]

Well Boozley Friggin' Bop for you.   


This is our Tool Du Jour...     It's unfathomable really.

Though...  And I'm a big Carolla fan overall, but I still think he's gonna suck.  His show on Comedy Central is a HUGE failure and just is painful to watch when it (was) on.

[Jesse James]

1/9/06 and Stern's on...  God it's refreshing too, and was a great show.

Lots of technical difficulties which was to be expected.  They started the show early over their holiday break a couple times trying to work out kinks in "test runs" but it didn't fix everything...

The show was good though.  Very funny...  They have George "Mr. Sulu" Takei as their announcer and boy that guy's funny and jumped right into the fun himself.  Very amusing.

Commercials/breaks are infrequent, lots of great stuff...  I'm loving their revelations bit that they started over on boring old radio, and are continuing here.  Great stuff being revealed.  Anyone get a Sirius Radio for X-Mas?

[SilverZ]

Been meaning to pick up a reciever for today, but have been finding that 99% of the hardware is junk. Like K-mart quality stuff compared to XM kits. I've had a hard time finding one that fits my needs.

I've had XM for a couple years now and love it, but would gladly switch so I can tune into Stern. It's too bad that Sirius has such poor hardware partners that making the switch is nearly impossible.

[CaptainAlex]

I didn't get to listen to Stern as much as I would have liked over the years but the last month he was on the publlic airwaves were just great. It was excellent radio with many great segments and guests from years past.

I tired to get onto one of Howard Stern websites tonight but I htink everyone out here wants to know what the first show of 2006 was like. From what I can tell from the watered down accounts in the media that it was out of sight!

[Jesse James]

Been meaning to pick up a reciever for today, but have been finding that 99% of the hardware is junk. Like K-mart quality stuff compared to XM kits. I've had a hard time finding one that fits my needs.

I've had XM for a couple years now and love it, but would gladly switch so I can tune into Stern. It's too bad that Sirius has such poor hardware partners that making the switch is nearly impossible.

I'm not totally sure I follow you Jared, but I'm not wise on much of this stuff...  I got a receiver and a car kit and that was about all I needed.  Looks and sounds great...  I'm wishing I had a walkman I could like plug it to or something though because I'd like it for at school when I'm there.  Not sure how I can do that.

As far as today's show I've caught it a couple times today/tonight now and that alone is great...  I wasn't always up early enough to catch the old show. 

Today's show was fantastic though...  Lots of glitches early on, still ironing out technical kinks because that's just to be expected.  Stern actually was on twice over his downtime trying to iron them out early and there was basically just little 3 hour test runs of the show that were really funny unto themselves.

They announced what the things were that the staff were to reveal today...  Great stuff, though some really seemed like it would be a letdown if tied to certain members of the show.  One of the revealed items was that someone cheated on their wife, someone had plastic surgery too, and another one was that someone has a half-sister that they don't care to know...  Also someone paid for an abortion at one point in their life.

They didn't say who's revelation belonged to who though, that's tomorrow, but I'm curious now...  A lot are saying Stern's the one who cheated, and now that makes me curious.  That'll actually change my view of him completely if it is true.

There were some things revealed I really don't want to get into here, but suffice it to say, there's some disturbing stuff and it belongs to one of them...  Some of it was just gross and I could see it coming from a couple of the staff just because it's how they are all the time and not really revealing a whole lot.

The press interviews were funny...  Stern took all questions, including hostile ones, and retorted with a lot of funny stuff... 

Anyway, as far as this goes my Sirius has been a great gift besides Stern...  The comedy channel Raw Dog is worth it alone, but there's lots of music channels too.  I'm not a big music guy though so I'm hardly good to ask for an opinion.  Lots of talk radio though, both sides of the fence, and the Stern channels are really enough for me to enjoy.  I like the news, the roundtable shows, and now that the regular show is here I'm glad I can listen to it almost any time.  I'm having fun. 

I just gotta figure out how to get this in my car because there's an antenna thing and I have a conertible...  It's not easy to figure out where I need to put the antenna as I don't want it on my trunk really.  My buddy has a jeep and put it on the roll bar.  I'm trying to figure if I can mount it inside to the roof bracing so it'll move with the roof, I dunno.  I really don't want it on my trunk lid though really.   

[JesseVader08]

I just gotta figure out how to get this in my car because there's an antenna thing and I have a conertible...  It's not easy to figure out where I need to put the antenna as I don't want it on my trunk really.  My buddy has a jeep and put it on the roll bar.  I'm trying to figure if I can mount it inside to the roof bracing so it'll move with the roof, I dunno.  I really don't want it on my trunk lid though really.   

I just finished installing an XM antenna in my wife's car and if it's anything like Sirius, you'll basically get no reception if the antenna is installed inside the car.  Without a clear view to the sky, you're fubar'd.  The trunk might be your only option.

[SilverZ]

You might want to consider ordering a painted antenna, Jesse. There are shops on the net that paint them matched to the color code of your car. I had a silver one done for my car since it's a convertible as well. You can hardly notice it.

[Darth Slothus]

I bet the sheep noticed it

[JoshEEE]

I actually went out looking for Sirius radio last weekend. The radios are sold out everywhere.  I figured there might be a jump in demand since Stern was about to come on, and boy...was I right.

I couldn't find one anywhere in my area that I wanted. They had some of the less "cool" models, but I was thinking the sportster or one of the walkman ones would be the one I wanted to get.

Oh well....guess I continue on with regular radio for now.

[Darth_Anton]

So how was the swearing and such? Was it natural or has evenyone been cursing up a storm just becuase they can?

[Jesse James]

Natural on one hand, unnatural for a few...

For instance, Sal (the stockbroker) was f this, c that, etc...  A real dip**** with the swearing and it went overboard.  Howard regulated him because it was too much.  Howard regulated himself because he didn't want it to be unnatural but he has been swearing here and there.  Sometimes slips out, sometimes it's what he wanted to say, and it's not bad at all.  His first day I think he barely swore at all.

Artie's sorta going all out with swearing but it sounds right coming from him because that's him.  If you've seen his stand-up, it's foul, and Artie's foul, so Artie talking foul on the show is natural.

Robin's good...  I haven't heard her swear yet that I can think of off hand.

Richard Christy's been surprisingly good.  Better than Sal.

Benjy I haven't heard talk yet.

Fred doesn't talk, but hasn't sworn much either when he has spoken.

Ba Ba Booey has said, at worst, "**** happens" I think.  He's been alright...

It's really a natural flow of things.  I'd say you get more swearing out of the public than anyone, and I think with them it's natural too.  I mean I know I swear a bit, and turn it off when appropriate, but do incorporate it into my normal speech fairly routinely just because that's me. 

The show's been great...  George Tekae (sp) is fan-frickin'-tastic though, and I am hoping he becomes a fixture.  That guy rocks it.  He's the best thing for the show since Stuttering John quit, serioulsy.  He's just amazingly funny, quick witted but has class and stuff so he doesn't always get the jokes but then does and jumps in with his own stuff...  He fits right in with the crowd there ultimately, and keeps up with them, adds his own thoughts...  I love that guy, and his voice just has you laughing every time you hear him add something.

The show's great, and they've been making fun of DLR in a very classy manner.  Like in a way Roth can't counter it without really looking like a massive tool in the process. 

They played a really funny prank call on Roth today from this other DJ Howard brought over (Bubba the Love Sponge?) to Roth, and it just basically ripped Roth a new one throughout and the moron either didn't get it, or he's so pathetically lame that he got it and took it thinking who he was talking to was an important person.  I love it!

This was worth the price...  Josh, I got the Starmate, it's very cool.  I have the home kit, and I'm hoping they develope a walkman technology, however they're saying you'll be able to stream the show from your phone instead of doing walkman technology and basically you'll only need the car kit (came with it) and the house kit, and then use your cellie to stream it like if you have a class or some such.  If you have an office just picking up a 2nd home kit is easy enough.

As far as mounting my antenna, that's not a bad idea Jared, I may look into that.  My buddy's jeep he has his mounted to the rollbar, and he gets signal, so I'm not sure you can't necessarilly get signal inside a car (Jesse), but I'm just gonna have to tinker around and try some things.  I'm really reluctant to have htis on my trunk, I keep thinking someone will steal it.   

[Jesse James]

So the first week ended...  Well, I think it did anyway, it seems like Stern's not doing Friday's maybe, but it was a good week and lots of good stuff.

Some rag that rates radio shows gave Corolla a B-, DLR a D (and whoa what a deserved grade that was.  I'd have given him worse) and Stern got an A-.  I'd say A should've been Stern's grade...  Not plus, just A, and my only complaint was his tech difficulties that sometimes interrupted the show.  Sparse as they were I can see a half point coming off for it.

That said, it was some of Stern's best air this week...  Reading some people's comments at another site with a Stern thread I felt it was interesting to note that some felt Stern COULD have done better on Old Style Radio...  I, having listened this week, 100% now disagree with that statement.

Stern's not abusing his freedoms, but I will say that hearing things unedited, not hearing big cuts out of the show, not having them pause to ponder if they can, or cannot, say something...  Yes, Stern's show is better on Sirius.  It's not that vulgarity = funny, but it's that vulgarity cut from things is just butchery and pretty much takes a piss on any humor that was in the bit. 

When the show's people want to describe Martha Stewart's daughter as being something that rhymes with "punty", they should be allowed to because it was damn funny.  And Artie Lange is a whole other person when he's not censored.  He's like night and day really.

The show was good, I hope George Takei is kept on in some permanent capacity though because that guy stole the show.  He was hysterical and fit right in.  Really seemed like a great guy too, just a good humor, and good spirit.  He added to the show and didn't take away at all.  They need to pay him and bring him on full time because he kicked much ass.

I hope you guys are checking it out, it's really better than even a lot that's on TV so I'm just listening to the show sometimes at night since I'm not always up when it's airing live.

[SilverZ]

I finally picked up a radio over the weekend - not quite an ideal one, but I realized I was being way too picky. I listened to about an hour of the show this morning and am listening to the replay right now.

I think the show is much improved. Like you said, Jesse, it's not a wall to wall swear fest, but instead a much more natural conversation flow. It feels as though you're finally hearing what you imagined the discussions would be like with that crew in person. What a great start, and I really wish I had done this last week so I could hear George Takai. From the brief bits I've heard listening to the news shows on the channel over the weekend, he sounded like a great surprise addition.

I'll be interested to hear how it evolves, as the absense of all those years of quips, live recordings, and sounds that have given the show so much texture is noticeable, and it will take a while for the new show to develop its own vibe.

It's nice to not have 15-20 minute commercial breaks as well. The LA station would pack in more commercials in its 6am taped broadcast over the live feed that they'd run beforehand.  It made it unlistenable and I gave up for several years. So this new format is doubly liberating for me.

[Jesse James]

I have heard that about the LA stations.  One guy said he'd listen, and they'd go to commercial shortly after he left on his commute and he'd be to work by the time they came back from commercial sometimes.  That would have sucked.

Pitt had it live, but you still got huge commercial breaks, and on my 50 minute commute I'd still only get a short ammount of show to listen to.

The revelations show today was funny but brief.  They're doing a part 2 to it for tomorrow which sorta sucks, I'd rather have heard it all today but whatever.  It's funny what I've heard so far, or just surprising...  Richard Christie knocked up some girl and had to pay for an abortion?  Who even knew he was having sex?  That's sad because he sounded sad, but at the same time the fact he's been hiding that he gets some is funny.

Sal's was lame.  I'm wondering now who had plastic surgery.  I thought for sure the cheating one was Stern, but turns out it was Scott the Engineer...  Which is shocking given who he is and what he looks like, but at the same time he's just sorta meh.  Shocking, but he sucks so who cares.

[SilverZ]

Just a bump so Jesse and I can talk about things no one else cares about. Both of the Howard channels are now streaming online for subscribers, and I've been at my desk all day listening, and so far the stream is flawless. I'm really happy to be able to listen at work, at last.