Bob Thorney
02-27-2004, 03:41 AM
Shock jock Howard Stern, whose radio show was yanked in six cities across the country, will continue to be aired on about 40 stations owned by his syndicator, Infinity Broadcasting, company executives said yesterday.
Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio chain, pulled Stern's show Wednesday from stations in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla., Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rochester, N.Y., and San Diego after comments the company deemed "indecent" aired on his show Tuesday.
Infinity executives would not comment yesterday on Clear Channel's move and said only that Stern would not meet a similar fate on their stations. His show aired locally as usual on Infinity's Fairfax-based WJFK-FM yesterday. Two phone calls to WJFK General Manager Alan Leinwand were not returned.
Yesterday, a defiant Stern denounced Clear Channel on the air, saying the company's actions were equivalent to throwing "free speech out the window."[hr]
"They are so afraid of me and what this show represents," he told listeners.
Stern, 50, sounded frustrated and fatalistic in the first segment. "I'm saying goodbye to you now, because this is it. These are the last days of Pompeii, baby."
But as the show progressed, he stayed true to form, playing a suggestive song about homosexuality called "Backside's Back," sung by Stern's faux group "The Backside Boys."
Later in the show, Stern and his girlfriend discussed their sexual encounter the previous night.
Clear Channel said yesterday that Stern would remain off the air. The suspension of his show was prompted by an interview on Tuesday with Rick Salomon, the man who appeared on a sex videotape with reality TV star Paris Hilton. Stern asked Salomon if he engaged in anal sex and referred to the size of his penis. A caller to the show used a racist term when he asked Salomon if he had ever had sex with any famous black women.
"He is off the air indefinitely until we can get some concrete assurances from the syndicator that the content our stations will receive in the future will not contain indecent material," Clear Channel executive Andrew Levin said yesterday.
Levin acknowledged that similar language from Stern's show had been broadcast by his company's stations in the past, but said it will not be tolerated in the future. "What Stern has broadcast in the past is not an issue to us," he said. "It's a new day."
Stern suggested that Clear Channel's actions were timed to coincide with the appearance of John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, at yesterday's media indecency hearings on Capitol Hill. Hogan appeared with ABC President Alex Wallau, Fox President Gail Berman, NBC President Alan Wurtzel, PAX Chairman and CEO Lowell "Bud" Paxson, and Harry Pappas, chairman and CEO of Pappas Telecasting Cos., before a House subcommittee.
"The thing I don't like about Clear Channel being forced to suspend me, it makes it seem like I did something wrong on Tuesday," Stern said on the air yesterday. "And even they admit I did nothing wrong, that they need to do this to -- well, they don't admit in the press, they admitted to me -- they're doing this because they're being hauled in front of Congress."
During the House hearing, Clear Channel's Hogan tried to distance himself from Stern and another DJ -- Todd Clem, aka "Bubba the Love Sponge," whom the company fired earlier this week -- saying they have overshadowed the rest of Clear Channel's programming.
"The Bubbas of the world and the Howard Sterns of the world are exceptions to the rule," Hogan said. "They don't represent what Clear Channel is all about. They will no longer have a platform on our stations."
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told the broadcasters that anyone using the public airwaves has an obligation to uphold certain standards, and government needs to enforce those standards.
Stern, meanwhile, found an unlikely ally yesterday when conservative talk show host and frequent Stern punching bag Rush Limbaugh weighed in on his afternoon radio show: "I haven't ever heard the Howard Stern show . . . but when the federal government gets involved in this, I get a little frightened."
Staff writer Griff Witte contributed to this report.
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I10873-2004Feb26
Clear Channel Radio President and CEO John Hogan, center, testified yesterday on Capitol Hill, a day after his company pulled Howard Stern off its stations. (Charles Dharapak -- AP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10891-2004Feb26.html
Infinity Stations to Keep Howard Stern on the Air
By John Maynard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 2004; Page C01
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Graphic by Dr Ivan at www.thsmb.com - Thanks
Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio chain, pulled Stern's show Wednesday from stations in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla., Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rochester, N.Y., and San Diego after comments the company deemed "indecent" aired on his show Tuesday.
Infinity executives would not comment yesterday on Clear Channel's move and said only that Stern would not meet a similar fate on their stations. His show aired locally as usual on Infinity's Fairfax-based WJFK-FM yesterday. Two phone calls to WJFK General Manager Alan Leinwand were not returned.
Yesterday, a defiant Stern denounced Clear Channel on the air, saying the company's actions were equivalent to throwing "free speech out the window."[hr]
"They are so afraid of me and what this show represents," he told listeners.
Stern, 50, sounded frustrated and fatalistic in the first segment. "I'm saying goodbye to you now, because this is it. These are the last days of Pompeii, baby."
But as the show progressed, he stayed true to form, playing a suggestive song about homosexuality called "Backside's Back," sung by Stern's faux group "The Backside Boys."
Later in the show, Stern and his girlfriend discussed their sexual encounter the previous night.
Clear Channel said yesterday that Stern would remain off the air. The suspension of his show was prompted by an interview on Tuesday with Rick Salomon, the man who appeared on a sex videotape with reality TV star Paris Hilton. Stern asked Salomon if he engaged in anal sex and referred to the size of his penis. A caller to the show used a racist term when he asked Salomon if he had ever had sex with any famous black women.
"He is off the air indefinitely until we can get some concrete assurances from the syndicator that the content our stations will receive in the future will not contain indecent material," Clear Channel executive Andrew Levin said yesterday.
Levin acknowledged that similar language from Stern's show had been broadcast by his company's stations in the past, but said it will not be tolerated in the future. "What Stern has broadcast in the past is not an issue to us," he said. "It's a new day."
Stern suggested that Clear Channel's actions were timed to coincide with the appearance of John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, at yesterday's media indecency hearings on Capitol Hill. Hogan appeared with ABC President Alex Wallau, Fox President Gail Berman, NBC President Alan Wurtzel, PAX Chairman and CEO Lowell "Bud" Paxson, and Harry Pappas, chairman and CEO of Pappas Telecasting Cos., before a House subcommittee.
"The thing I don't like about Clear Channel being forced to suspend me, it makes it seem like I did something wrong on Tuesday," Stern said on the air yesterday. "And even they admit I did nothing wrong, that they need to do this to -- well, they don't admit in the press, they admitted to me -- they're doing this because they're being hauled in front of Congress."
During the House hearing, Clear Channel's Hogan tried to distance himself from Stern and another DJ -- Todd Clem, aka "Bubba the Love Sponge," whom the company fired earlier this week -- saying they have overshadowed the rest of Clear Channel's programming.
"The Bubbas of the world and the Howard Sterns of the world are exceptions to the rule," Hogan said. "They don't represent what Clear Channel is all about. They will no longer have a platform on our stations."
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told the broadcasters that anyone using the public airwaves has an obligation to uphold certain standards, and government needs to enforce those standards.
Stern, meanwhile, found an unlikely ally yesterday when conservative talk show host and frequent Stern punching bag Rush Limbaugh weighed in on his afternoon radio show: "I haven't ever heard the Howard Stern show . . . but when the federal government gets involved in this, I get a little frightened."
Staff writer Griff Witte contributed to this report.
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I10873-2004Feb26
Clear Channel Radio President and CEO John Hogan, center, testified yesterday on Capitol Hill, a day after his company pulled Howard Stern off its stations. (Charles Dharapak -- AP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10891-2004Feb26.html
Infinity Stations to Keep Howard Stern on the Air
By John Maynard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 2004; Page C01
----------------------------------
Graphic by Dr Ivan at www.thsmb.com - Thanks