Howard Stern is a certified workaholic and taking a break from work seems impossible to him. However, in a rare moment on May 2017, Stern did the unexpected and made his millions of followers worried when he canceled his radio show to take a “personal day.” Without any explanation, he sent the internet into a frenzy and assumptions flooded social media.
Was he just attending to personal issues? Were there marital problems? Had someone died? To set the record straight, Stern said “I wanted to take off today because my voice is still shot, but I was afraid to. I missed a day of work and all of a sudden it’s bigger news than James Comey.”
No Respect
Howard has been incredibly vocal about his hatred of the National Radio Hall of Fame . So it came as a shock when they announced, in 2012, that he was about to be inducted as their latest honoree into the Chicago institution. Faced with such an honor, the self-proclaimed “King of All Media” took to the radio to attack Bruce DuMont, the hall’s director, for the ninth time.
He argued that the only reason they were adding him as an inductee was that they realized they had to boost the profile of the “little-known Hall of Fame.” Now that’s another round of controversy.
Stern Gets Sued
One controversy after another—that was the way life rolled for Stern. And it seems he doesn’t care about the impact of his terrible conduct. Judith Barrigas, a taxpayer from Massachusetts had a private call with IRS agent, Jimmy Forsyth, on May 19, 2015, about her taxes. In an unlikely turn of events, Howard Stern aired (live!) on SiriusXM the confidential conversation which included Barrigas’ phone number.
Forsyth called The Howard Stern Show and was placed on hold until Howard was ready to take calls. While on hold, he took a call from Barrigas. Little did they know that the show’s producers and Stern were listening to them and eventually decided to broadcast snippets of their conversation. In February 2016, Barrigas sued Stern and the IRS for invasion of privacy and negligence.
Stern Wants to Remain Youthful
Howard has been active in radio throughout his career and it seems that retirement is far from his plans. However, the popular radio host dropped a hint about withdrawing from his job. In an interview with David Letterman in August 2017, he recognized the glow in the TV host now that he’d retired by saying, “I fantasize that if I retire, I would have this youthful look.” And then he added. “I feel a bit burned out.”
With his demanding job, it is just right that he takes a break or a “personal day” every week but wait, millions will surely miss hearing him on the radio.
He Wanted the Microphone Since He Was a Child
“When I saw my father as a recording engineer... I was enamored. Looking at how my father was so reverential to those people, I thought that maybe he could look at me with that kind of respect if I could get behind a microphone,” Stern on his father, Ray Stern’s influence on his life, particularly on his job as a radio personality.
Howard wished to be part of the radio in-crowd, right from the young age of five. Influenced by his pops, who co-owns a recording studio in Manhattan that caters to commercial and cartoon voice-overs, young Howard would visit his father’s workplace often and get inspired by the work done there.