Shock Jock Howard Stern was once the “King of all Media.”
But the mighty have fallen.
And Howard Stern said one word about Trump supporters, and everything went to hell.
Bill O’Reilly Describes Howard Stern’s Career Arc
During a recent episode of his podcast, Bill O’Reilly walked his viewers through Howard Stern’s decline.
“Today I want to talk about the media in the form of Howard Stern. This is an interesting story that pretty much only I can tell, because I’ve been in the media longer than anybody else — more than 50 years,” O’Reilly began.
O’Reilly revealed that the two studied together in the Communications Department at Boston University in the 1970s.
Stern revolutionized morning radio by inventing the “shock jock” format, a template that’s been copied, but never duplicated, many times over in the decades since.
In the 1990s, only Rush Limbaugh rivaled Stern in terms of radio influence as his show was syndicated in 200 affiliate markets and drew an average audience of 20 million listeners.
A movie, “Private Parts,” was made about Stern’s life, as he was ever-present in American pop culture.
Stern and President Trump were once friends, and Trump was a regular guest on Stern’s radio show.
“In fact, Stern was friends with Trump. They would hang out together. I never hung out with Howard Stern, ever. He came on The Factor. We had a good conversation, but it just wasn’t my world. But Trump was on his show. They were out and about and all of this,” O’Reilly added.
Trump Derangement Syndrome Ruined Howard Stern
But no media figure has fallen on harder times in the Trump era than Stern.
These days he is a nonfactor in the media and cultural zeitgeist.
O’Reilly argued that Stern wrecked his own career with a May 15, 2020, comment where he declared that he hates Trump’s voters.
“The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most love him the most. Go look at Mar-a-Lago. See if there’s any people that look like you. I’m talking to you in the audience, the Trump voter who, you know, idolizes the guy. He despises you.
I don’t hate Donald. Donald’s doing his thing. I hate you for voting for him, for not having an intelligence, for not being able to see what’s going on with the coronavirus, not able to see what the Justice Department is doing. I hate you. I don’t want you here,” Stern ranted.
O’Reilly contended that the audience will tolerate a host who hates someone they like, but when the host says he hates the audience, it’s over.
These days, Stern is down to one show a week on SiriusXM, which reportedly draws fewer than 150,000 listeners.
“And so now Stern is down, according to Sirius, to one show a week, one original a week, but he’s pretty much done. Okay? You can’t make big money on one show a week. He’s got the archives, and Sirius will use that on their channels or whatever they do,” O’Reilly stated.
O’Reilly remarked that he’s never seen such a self-inflicted career implosion in all his years in the media.
“But I don’t think I have ever seen, in the media of any kind, like Stern at that level, just blow up his core audience. Stunning. Someday, if I ever run into Howard, which is doubtful — he doesn’t come out a lot — I’m going to ask him about it,” O’Reilly concluded.
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