The Howard Stern Show is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The show has aired on Howard 100 and Howard 101, Stern’s two uncensored channels on the subscription-based satellite radio service SiriusXM, since 2006. Other prominent staff members include co-host and news anchor Robin Quivers, writer Fred Norris and executive producer Gary Dell’Abate, along with former members Jackie Martling, Billy West, John Melendez, and Artie Lange.
Stern began his radio career in the mid-1970s and developed his show through morning positions at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, New York, WCCC-FM in Hartford, Connecticut, and WWWW in Detroit. In 1981, he began at WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C., where he was first paired with Quivers and became a ratings success. That was followed by three years at WNBC in New York City. After his abrupt firing, Stern moved to WXRK where he remained for 20 years until December 2005. During this time, The Howard Stern Show was syndicated to 60 radio markets and gained an audience of 20 million listeners at its peak. In the New York area, it was the highest-rated morning radio program from 1994 to 2001. The show is also the most fined, after a total of $2.5 million in fines were issued by the Federal Communications Commission for indecent material. In 2004, Stern signed the first of several five-year contracts with Sirius; the first was reportedly worth $500 million.
In addition to radio broadcast, The Howard Stern Show has been filmed since 1994 and broadcast on various networks, including the E! and CBS television channels. It moved to HowardTV, Stern’s own on-demand digital cable channel from 2005 to 2013. In 2018, Sirius XM launched a mobile app for subscribers to access video clips of the show.
