have a PhD from Yale University. I am a college professor. I am a feminist
and a social activist. And yet, most mornings, from the hours of 7:30 to 10
o'clock, I listen to the Howard Stern radio show on The X at 105.9. Moreover,
I often like it. I tell you this now because when Stern announced last
December that his contract renegotiations were hitting a snag, and that he
might end his radio career, I felt an actual pang. After a year of
complaining to my boyfriend that Howard Stern was stupid and sexist and
racist and disgusting -- and begging him to change the station to National
Public Radio on WDUQ -- I had to admit that, as Howard himself explained in
his movie Private Parts, he had grown on me "like a fungus." The first time I
heard Howard Stern I was riding in a taxi in Manhattan. It was the early
1990s. The cab driver was Egyptian, and I was talking to him, trying to
remember the Arabic I learned in college. He pointed to the radio. "I love
this guy." I shook my head in dismay. How could an Arab immigrant like Howard
Stern? Moving in with my boyfriend changed everything. It started with him
making fun of my beloved NPR. He called it "National depressing Radio." I had
loved Morning Edition with Bob Edwards since 1984 when I started working for
the Berkeley radio station, KALX. I wanted to be a reporter for NPR. NPR was
my life. Gradually, however, I began to hear NPR through my boyfriend's
British ears. Some mornings the depressing meter on NPR was off the charts.
Famine. Ecological destruction. Death in the Middle East. Miserable rural
people. Miserable urban people. Howard Stern is a lot of things. But he is
not depressing. His stated goal, and I actually believe him, is to make
people laugh. But given his national reputation as a lewd, no-talent bigot,
and the obviously objectionable material on his show, I have struggled over
this last year to come to terms with the reasons I now look forward to his
morning shtick.
1) Stern is about how much we all hate to go to work in the morning.
Arguably, all a.m. radio shows are about this, but when Howard Stern is on my
radio, I can pretend that I'm not really at work because even though Howard
Stern is at work he sounds like he is sitting around talking crap with his
friends
. 2) Stern affects the mantle of anti-establishmentarian. Even though he just
signed what is rumored to be a $96 million contract for five years, Stern
makes us feel like he is on the side of the little people. He stands up to
his employers (calling his former NBC boss "pig vomit" on the air), his
sponsors, and even his callers.
3) Stern creates a sense of intimacy. By talking about his personal life,
and the personal lives of his cast/staff, Stern gives the listeners a sense
of belonging to a big, dysfunctional radio family. In a world in which the
public and the private are already hopelessly blurred, Stern takes the
breakdown to the next level. There are no private parts
. 4) Stern loves people who do not fit in. He loves strippers, dwarfs,
stutterers, comedians who aren't funny, female bodybuilders, transvestites,
lesbians. He makes fun of people on the margins, but he also gives them a
voice. His audience is so huge, I suspect, because he attracts the people who
are racist and sexist and homophobic, as well as the people who aren't and
who think that Stern's bigotry is mostly an act.
5) Stern is a romantic. Somehow, underneath all the dirty talk, the
outrageous sex stunts and the ego as big as his nose, Stern still comes
across as the goofy, shy, gangly guy who wants desperately to fall in love
and live happily ever after. Since his divorce from his wife of 21 years in
1999 Stern seems lonely, depressed, horny and neurotic. These traits are
appealing. They make Stern seem real. We must take Stern seriously, I would
argue, even if we hate him. He has something to say, and people listen to
him. We might not always like what we hear, but at bottom Stern offers a
critique of restrictive social and sexual norms, of the modern workplace, of
social marginalization, and of the commodification of love. If you don't
believe me, try a little Howard Stern for yourself. Make yourself listen
beyond the point at which you want to turn it off. I'm warning you: You might
like it.
writer: KATHY NEWMAN
