TORONTO -- I can't always be watching television, especially when I'm driving. Most mornings, I ride at least part of the way to work with Howard Stern and his goofball radio gang.
News that Q-107 has decided to dump Stern is a drag, but not a catastrophe. Fortunately, Stern's show is still available at the other end of the dial, Buffalo's WBUF 92.9, and has been for nearly a year.
Having a choice was a big plus for Toronto listeners. Stern usually bunches his commercial breaks into numbing, 10 minute runs. Because Q-107 was on an eight-minute delay (a consequence of CRTC jitters over the content), you could always switch to one station or the other during the endless ad breaks.
Now we're stuck with the Buffalo feed, which is better than nothing. The fact that Buffalo also carries Stern in this market has to have stolen some listeners away from Q-107 -- a switch, not necessarily a drop, in listeners.
Still, there are some who charge that Stern is out of step with the times. That a nation at war (and the nation next to it) no longer cares about strippers and lesbians. That Stern, at 47, is too old to be leering at porn stars and goofing on dwarfs.
It's true that the show has lost some zip. There are too many mornings when Stern chews out his dysfunctional staff and rags on his harried producer, Gary Dell'Abate. Stern does seem to have lost some focus; you can hear it when high octane reruns from the old days are aired (as they were this week during the U.S. Thanksgiving festival).
But when Stern has a good guest on, he's still the fastest mind on radio. When Bill Maher was making his mea culpa after mouthing off about patriotism on Politically Incorrect, he made it on Stern's show (and then was savaged for it by the unforgiving host).
The radio show is a gold mine for TV columnists, with turfed Survivor contestants stopping by Stern before being shopped to us local scribes. Translation: I don't have to interview any of these publicity-seeking pinheads anymore.
Bottom line, it's still a show that breaks news, as well as wind.
Stern was live, on air during the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, and provided a surprising blend of street level news and immediate reaction for his listeners. More than that, he raised nearly US$4 million and counting for the families of the victims.
Beyond his born-again flag-waving zeal, Stern has the best B.S. detector in the business. The entertainment news segments with Robin Quivers are a publicist's nightmare and a cynic's dream. Stern has no time for those audio quote tapes from the stars hyping their latest movie on junkets. Stern cuts them all off in mid-sentence, bored even before engineer Fred Norris can hit the "blah'blah'blah'blah" button.
No more Jackie "The Joke man" Martling? Forget it. Artie Lang (Norm) is faster and funnier. And that guy they have on who imitates Letterman? He's so good it's scary. Dave should be that glib again.
Plus, who doesn't love playing the Mike Walker game (a spot the fake story quiz with the National Enquirer gossip columnist)?
Q-107 can do whatever they want. I'll stick with Stern.
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