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General discussion

This just in: Clear Channel suspends Howard Stern radio show.

Feb 25, 2004 12:35PM PST
Clear Channel Suspends Stern's Radio Show.
Maybe they want to make room for rebroadcasts of Sean Hannity? (For those who don't know that's the new two hour "talk radio show" that's a thinly disguised daily infomercial for the Republican Party. I'm hoping clear Channel will be sued for illegal corporate campaign contributions as a result, along with all the advertisers).

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

Discussion is locked

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Re:This just in: Clear Channel suspends Howard Stern radio show.
Feb 25, 2004 12:43PM PST

I, for one, hope this is the beginning of the end of Stern. I have only seen bits of his 'show' while surfing and the little I've seen I have yet to recognize any public value.

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Ummmm...
Feb 25, 2004 10:05PM PST

It's entertainment for some. Different strokes.


Dan

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Bubba the Love Sponge...
Feb 25, 2004 2:21PM PST

They fired "Bubba the Love Sponge" too, THANK GOD! He ruined my favorite radio station when they hired him. Now I try to find and listen to radio stations that aren't owned by Clear Channel, which is very difficult to do...

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I'm amzed, Dave...
Feb 25, 2004 6:00PM PST

I'm amazed, Dave. A "shock jock" costs them $1.7 Million in fines, they fire him, and you try to stretch it into a conservative/Republican "plot"? That's a bit much, even for you. What next, the "Grease Man" being bounced for his famous incident of bad taste in Washington, D.C.?

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Re: I'm amzed, Dave...
Feb 25, 2004 9:26PM PST

Hi, J.

Stern hasn't cost them anything -- instead, he's made them million$. Can you spell "breach of contract suit?"
And if you've never heard the Hannity show, you probably think I'm exaggerating. Hannity makes no bones about it -- he frequently speaks of "Hannitizing the vote for President Bush."
-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Re:Re: I'm amzed, Dave...
Feb 25, 2004 10:06PM PST

That's true, Dave. Infinity Broadcasting (the company that syndicates the show) and Clear Channel have tended to see the fines as just part of the cost of producing the show, which brings in a lot more money than the fines cost them.

The details of what prompted this action have not been given, but it sounds like Howard didn't do anything he hasn't been doing for years. The difference now is a new "decency standard" triggered by the Janet Jackson thing.

I basically like Howard, though I acknowledge that he can go over the line sometimes. I don't listen to him much these days because his show has become so repetitive.

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The rough details, Josh...
Feb 25, 2004 10:32PM PST

Josh, the rough details according to the Washington Post:
Clear Channel executives were responding to a segment of Stern's Tuesday broadcast in which they say he used sexually explicit language and graphically discussed a pornographic videotape.
"It was vulgar, offensive and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency," John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, said in a statement.
The segment included Stern interviewing Rick Salomon, who appeared with hotel heiress and reality TV star Paris Hilton in an infamous sex videotape now ubiquitous on Internet porn sites.
Stern asked Salomon whether he engaged in anal sex and referred to the size of his *****, according to a transcript of the show obtained by Reuters. A caller to the show used a racist term in asking Salomon whether he had ever had sex with any famous black women. (End Quote)
Dave K. might disagree, but radio stations do not have to let a disk jockey say whatever he pleases, they can say enough and get rid if him. Disk jockeys getting "canned" in not a new thing, ask Don Imus. Heck, I even got "shown the door" once myself (a radio contest that got out of hand, no big deal).

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Re:The rough details, Josh...
Feb 25, 2004 10:59PM PST

Sounds like standard Howard Stern material. He makes those racist callers sound as ridiculous and ignorant as they usually are. They call in thinking they've got a compadre in Howard and he just lets them go off and show their ignorance.

I remember a few years ago he had a running segment with a KKK grand wizard or whatever his "title" was. He was going on and on about "N" this and "N" that (I don't know if he ever caught on to the fact that Howard is Jewish), so Howard made him a film critic. He'd send the guy out to rent movies like Yentl and La Cage Aux Folles and then ask him to call in and review them. The guy never did realize that he was the object of a prank and that he was being held up for ridicule for his views. It was hysterical, and an example of the subtext to Howard's shtick that people often miss.

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You and Dave have just given us a great example of why FCC enforcement
Feb 25, 2004 11:23PM PST

needs to be stronger. Clearly, if fines don't do it, the broadcast license should be lifted. Could that be what Congress has in mind? One can hope it will be so.

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Re:You and Dave have just given us a great example of why FCC enforcement
Feb 25, 2004 11:38PM PST

In my example, I described a running segment in which he exposes the ignorance of a racist and does so in a humorous way. You think he should be yanked off the air for that?

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No, that's pretty creative if done well. I was referring to
Feb 26, 2004 12:45PM PST

'Clear Channel have tended to see the fines as just part of the cost of producing the show, which brings in a lot more money than the fines cost them.

The details of what prompted this action have not been given, but it sounds like Howard didn't do anything he hasn't been doing for years.

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Re:Re: I'm amazed, Dave...
Feb 25, 2004 10:09PM PST

The Hannity show is the one with no public value. At least Stern does something funny once in a while, and no one takes him seriously. For some unknowable reason people listen to what Hannity is saying.

Different strokes.

*sigh*


Dan

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So?
Feb 26, 2004 7:21AM PST

He also makes them millions because he is popular and gets ratings.

Evie Happy

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Re: So?
Feb 26, 2004 12:56PM PST

Hi, Evie.

The fairness doctrine, though heavily modified <sigh> still says that there must be equal time for major candidates when free airtime is given outside of news and public affairs. So when do the Dems get their free two hours a day?

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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It's already happening
Feb 26, 2004 1:04PM PST

You can always have a radio personality that supports the democrats for two hours. There won't be much of an audience to listen, but that can't be helped.

Hannity's co-host, the liberal Alan Colmes, has his own radio show and it's probably a couple hours but I don't know for certain, never listened to it.

DE

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The 'Fairness Doctrine'
Feb 27, 2004 1:48AM PST

is nothing of the sort.

Conservative talk shows succeed on radio because they draw listeners so up ad rates. This is the free market Dave. The fact that Cuomo failed, and that a liberal talk radio station in the NYC area also failed is not the fault of Clear Channel being unwilling to air liberal shows. Besides, the Dems have their two hours and more on NPR, subsidized by taxpayers.

Incidentally, as conservative radio goes, you really are picking on the wrong guy. Listen every now and then and you will see that Sean regularly has on guests like Begala, Lanny Davis, and NY Dems. Callers and listeners can think for themselves who is making the more cogent argument!

Evie Happy

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It couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow.
Feb 25, 2004 11:15PM PST

Obviously, they're trying to escape Congressional scrutiny. Think they'll be cynical enough to bring him back when the heat dies down?

Why am I not surprised Dave that you want to use the courts to suppress speech that you don't like? If it's something you want to see and hear, then everybody who disagrees must 'learn to live with it'. You argue it's censorship for ..(fill in the blank).. to shut it down. However, when it's something you don't want to see or hear, the courts should shut it down.

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Much ado about nothing, Dave.
Feb 26, 2004 8:52AM PST

Stern's syndicated on over 120 stations nationwide. Six Clear Channel stations are affected by this action. IOW, Stern lost less than 5% of his audience. I doubt he'll notice.

As for the other stations: Well, Stern is syndicated by Infinity Broadcasting, owned by Viacom, which also owns CBS and MTV. Somehow I doubt that the folks we now know knew in advance about Janet Jackson's decision to grin and bare it during the Super Bowl halftime show will much care, IMO.

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NT About time! Should have been done years ago! IMO
Feb 27, 2004 1:39AM PST
Happy
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Re:This just in: Clear Channel suspends Howard Stern radio show.
Feb 29, 2004 1:15AM PST