Jackie Martling was on Howard for the first time in five years this morning. That was great. Lots of great old stories about Jackie and Jackie was as brutal as ever to Garry. Tomorrow is the last free Stern ever. Wow. I've had a long relationship with Howard, but only five or so years of hearing him on the radio. Before there were VCR's my parents used to tell me what happened on Letterman the previous night, and back then '85, '86 Letterman was a truly great, groundbreaking show, and had a tendency for chaos, this meant having a weird selection of guests who would do god knows what; amongst them were an unknown Pee-Wee Herman, Harvey Pekar (who's life would later become American Splendor), Brother Theodore (the main weird guy next door in The Burbs), Crispin Glover, Andy Kaufman and Howard Stern. No other show would dare have any of those people on in the Carson days. Letterman's show was crazy, and everything he started is now the standard. We didn't get the Howad's radio show in outer Dayton (what's sadder than being Dayton? Not being good enough to be Dayton.), but we finally got cable in '89 and at that time WOR out of New York was on basic cable the way WGN was. This was when Howard had his famous channel 9 show, my mom taped every episode. It's not as good the summaries of the shows are Howard's books. And then i forgot about Howard for seven years.
And then I moved to one of his markets, ah the benefits of moving to a commerce hub. Boy was it a great to day to finally hear a whole show. I was so surprised that it wasn't what I always heard it was (and for those of you who don't listen, it isn't what you've always heard it was). What a great show with great cameraderie. The show has such a tight-knit family with their own reference level, it took a while before I started getting some of the references to Ralph, Dominic, Steve Grillo (remember him?) not to mention Jackie and what was a Baba-Booey? I didn't yet belong to this group, so I listened and listened and listened. The show becomes so rewarding as you commit to listening, you become a part of this family and get interested in the ongoing drama and hilarity of Garry's wife, Jackie's houses & career, Howard's therapy (and divorce for those of us who went through it with Howard), Fred's grappling with life, Stuttering John's family, betrayals, controversies, petty fights, and relentless breaking of balls. I was a apart of it for four hours a day with them for a good five years.
When i was temping I would wake up at 6am and start recording Stern, by the time I had to leave for work I'd have a tape to listen to during the commercial breaks while listening to the show live on the way to work. Wall to Wall Stern. I dreaded my job and hated my life, but I laughed a lot in between dealing with things. Somehow I was able to find temp job after temp job that would allow me to wear my walkman. And ultimately found a third shift job allowing me to listen to all four hours of Stern unscrutinized for three years. Jackie left, John left, Howard got a divorce, Fred had a kid, KC replaced Grillo, and we welcomed Artie Lange.
That show seriously got me through some tough times. I really do owe some of my sanity to my radio family. They were always there to make me laugh and have as many problems as I had. And that's what's really great about Howard and his crew. They're just people. Mancow is not just people. Bubba The Love Sponge is not just people and will never go on the air and talk about how much of a failure he feels like because he couldn't keep his family together, or how much he feels he let his daughters down, or how lucky he feels.
Good stuff. Can't wait to hear the next iteration.
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