New York Post
Log In
Skip to main content
Why Democrats’ convention set them up to lose in November
Lesson of RFK is how Democrats drive away their own voters
Kamala’s brother-in-law fleeced taxpayers for billions to give to left-wing groups and lawyers
Maureen Callahan
Maureen Callahan
Opinion
Howard’s end: Shock jock Stern has lost his sting — and his mojo
By Maureen Callahan
Published April 27, 2021
Updated April 27, 2021, 9:11 a.m. ET
Howard Stern has gone soft after years of being the quintessential ‘shock jock,’ Maureen Callahan writes.
Howard Stern has gone soft after years of being the quintessential “shock jock,” Maureen Callahan writes.
Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images
“The Howard Stern Show,” long in decline, is dead.
In March 2020, when New York City officially went into lockdown, Stern fled to his basement in the Hamptons. Over one year later and now vaccinated, as he first admitted on-air Monday — back from yet another vacation — Stern still has no intention of ever returning to his Midtown studio, his luxury Upper West Side apartment, or any semblance of pre-pandemic life.
Advertisement
The Howard Stern who stayed on air as planes flew into the World Trade Center is unrecognizable.
“Things will never get back to normal,” he declared just two weeks ago. “I do not believe the pandemic will ever be over.”
For a once-constant listener like me, this is heretical, especially here in New York City, where every single neighborhood is struggling to survive. Also, Howard: This pandemic will end, even though you, a germophobic recluse, clearly wish it would not.
But such sentiments have defined Stern’s show and attitude this past year: pessimism, anger, and a worldview that shrinks ever inward, limited in size and scope to The Basement — the literal and metaphorical dwelling place of this once-great show.
Leave a Reply