My favorite years were the Steve Grillo years from the early 90s to the late 90s and the KC Armstrong years from 98 to 2005. The Christian Sisters was probably my favorite bit. I will say all of Eric the Actors calls are radio Goldblum, but he died in 2014.

Half of the time I couldn't stand hearing ETM's voice, the other half was some of my favorite radio. Same with Elegant Elliot, and Riley.

Sterns greats strength was always finding freaks. Starting with Fred and ending with who? Bigfoot, it is? That's a pretty solid 20 year run.

I think I appreciate ETM so much because anytime I am having trouble falling asleep I use compilations of him as a sleep aid. His voice is so monotone and he was a fascinatingly boring person, but I will love him the same way I love Patrice until the day I die. I understand that a lot of times he would derail the show though.

ETM was a smarter Joe with actual disabilities. His narcissism was on par, but he was also somehow more likable than a veteran of 3 (4? 5?) children.

The Jesus Twins and Eric the Midget sucked a dick.

Yeah, well, that’s just like your opinion, man.

Stern had two peaks. The first was with Jackie and Billy in the early 90s and the second was the mid 90s to a few years before he left for Sirius. Believe it or not, the first run of Artie's stories was pretty entertaining.

Beet also ruled and would make the show. Really hope that little guy makes some bucks and gets to enjoy his life.

Because he didn't know enough to hire a real manager, I don't think he made even 1/1,000th of the money he could have. When I gave up on the show, shortly after Artie left, Beet was still being promoted on Levy's awful "tours". Realistically those guys are splitting up what? $5k? On a great night? Between 6-7-8 guys? If he needs that, he made nothing during his run.

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Imagine if during Stern's peak he just put up a t-shirt with his face on it on that dumb website. He would have been set for life from just those sales. And he could probably still be selling them today. Unfortunately his manager was just the big drunk guy who happened to talk to him after tossing him at a bar one night.

With his size, they should have directed him toward the NBA

Beet was the most talented man in the history of radio.

Me?

Artie was not a hopeless junkie at that time, and had not yet squandered his talent. Fast forward through a lot of dope and 10,000,000,000 Jew broad fights Dracula jokes and we are at the present

Early '90s to late '00s.

The late 90s- early 00s when he had his E! Show was definitely his peak in both content and popularity. The show was still good when he made his on demand channel but became less accessible

Imagine looking at how many fans Stern lost putting both versions of his show behind a paywall and then betting your fortune on the exact same plan... only starting with a fraction of the audience Stern had.

That version of the show laid the groundwork for the format of the modern podcast. However, I disagree with that being his peak. I think like O&A, the shows got better with age bc of the ability to reflect and grow, self-referencing and building up a history. However, Howard as a performer was at his best from the late 80's to around 1996. The movie, while it was fun for fans of his, was where he started to lose his ability. I think some of it came from the FCC castration. He just felt it was a lost cause putting in effort.

The Howard Stern of the 90's is one of the most fascinating acts in media. He harassed, terrorized, and trashed every famous person in the world. His show went from being an off-beat obscure regional show to becoming the most popular daily "talk" improv oriented entertainment in the world, and to watch that develop over time, to see the influence and power he had over the careers of people more famous than him, to watch them bow to him and beg him for mercy, it was incredible.

The world has never seen a show pull the curtain back on modern American entertainment quite like the Stern show. That's why it's so poetically pathetic to see this guy turn into what he has. Such a gay, annoying pussy wouldn't be as aggrivating if only he weren't replacing someone who Patrice Oneal himself once referred to as an undoubted "Hero" for every comic.

I can talk all day long about Stern's best moments. The 1996 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno might be where he truly peaked. He totally took over the show, brought out strippers, made Jay Leno squirm, mocked Leno and his ratings to his face, got Leno a huge TV rating in the process. The best part was, Howard starts trashing black people in the middle of the appearance, and tries to talk with the band (all black) about it, and they kind of blow him off, it's gets super awkward and Howard just makes this "yikes" face to Robin who was in the front row of the audience. He just didn't give a fuck at all. How does a guy with the money he has figure out a way to be so afraid that he'll collapse for them?

Listened to him when I was in high school, '94-'98. O&A getting to WNEW was perfect timing as by '98 Howard was turning into Hollywood Howie and just wasn't as funny as he used to be.

I was on a road trip with a buddy of mine a few months ago and he is a big Howard fan so we listened to him. As much as people like to over praise Howard as an interviewer I found it completely infuriating that he kept interrupting the guest and the flow of the interview.

I found it completely infuriating that he kept interrupting the guest and the flow of the interview.

Watch him interview Garry Shandling for his original E show. You will want to tear your hair out.

I would say he jumped the shark when he announced he was getting divorced in October 99. The start of the peak was when his book came out in October 93. Therefore, for that six year run Howard was untouchable.

Good point on the divorce.

Overall, I lost all respect for him when he was interviewed (maybe by Hannity in the early 2000's) and openly admitted that he was not a free speech advocate. He only supported free speech for himself. He wanted to shut everybody else down.

Unfortunately Opie and Anthony took two of Sterns worst qualities and made them their own. Opie with his constant interrupting of guests and AntH being a free speech hypocrite.

Yes, it was a Hannity interview. Howard used to make fun of Chevy Chase for turning into Cary Grant, but Howard himself turned into Imus.

He was funny from the 90s until 2008 or so.

Because Jackie and then Artie prevented him from turning into a fruit. Once there wasn't a comedian in there to bust his balls he was free to turn into what he is today. That's why he never even considered filling that seat.

The Howard Stern of the 90's is one of the most fascinating acts in media. He harassed, terrorized, and trashed every famous person in the world. His show went from being an off-beat obscure regional show to becoming the most popular daily "talk" improv oriented entertainment in the world, and to watch that develop over time, to see the influence and power he had over the careers of people more famous than him, to watch them bow to him and beg him for mercy, it was incredible.

The world has never seen a show pull the curtain back on modern American entertainment quite like the Stern show. That's why it's so poetically pathetic to see this guy turn into what he has. Such a gay, annoying pussy wouldn't be as aggrivating if only he weren't replacing someone who Patrice Oneal himself once referred to as an undoubted "Hero" for every comic.

I can talk all day long about Stern's best moments. The 1996 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno might be where he truly peaked. He totally took over the show, brought out strippers, made Jay Leno squirm, mocked Leno and his ratings to his face, got Leno a huge TV rating in the process. The best part was, Howard starts trashing black people in the middle of the appearance, and tries to talk with the band (all black) about it, and they kind of blow him off, it's gets super awkward and Howard just makes this "yikes" face to Robin who was in the front row of the audience. He just didn't give a fuck at all. How does a guy with the money he has figure out a way to be so afraid that he'll collapse for them?

The 1996 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno might be where he truly peaked.

Plus Siskel & Ebert were there.

Right, and during their segment Stern went on to distract, interrupt and be a complete asshole the entire time. They could barely get a word in, and they were still pissed about it the next time Siskel and Ebert went on Howard.

If it were me, I'd go 1990 - 2008. You could go 1990 - 1996 and mid 2001 - 2008 if you wanted to trim some more years.

The 80's shows sound too "morning zoo"ish, and the post Artie years really drift into Hollywood Howie.

Howard was his angriest during 1990 - 1996, and the combo of Billy, Jackie, Fred, Howard, and Robin was just great. Also There was lots of interesting things in the news, in New York, etc....

2001 - 2008 was interesting because of the younger new blood that was entering the show. Artie, Sal, Richard, KC getting more airtime, etc.....

1990 - 2008 also had the best wackpackers.

IMO from roughly 1989 to when Jackie quit in 2001. He had some good years after that but that was the heyday of the HSS.

Early 90s, the Billy West era. The show was still good for the most part until Jackie left. People talk about the Jackie and Artie years, but there was a gap in between. I tapped out when it became AJ Benza, Craig Gass, (whoever else I can't remember) filling in. Artie wasn't enough of a draw to bring me back.