'''Howard Allen Stern''' (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and TV personality, media mogul, humorist and author.
Stern currently hosts ''The Howard Stern Show'' varying between four days a week (Monday-Thursday) and five days a week (Monday-Friday) on Howard 100, a Sirius Satellite Radio station. On some Fridays, members of the Stern crew get together for the Friday Show, a recap of the week's shows and clips from older shows. Replays of the show can be heard throughout the day on Howard 100 and various times on Howard 101.
The "King of All Media" (the title was a joking reference to Michael Jackson's appellation "The King of Pop") has been dubbed a shock jock for his highly controversial use of scatological, sexual and racial humor. Stern and many of his fans hate the term "Shock Jock." He has said himself, "The show was never about shocking people." Rather he claims that the main thing he offers on the air is his honest opinion, which can be given on any issue ranging from world affairs to the weight problems of a co-worker. Though controversial he is one of the highest-paid radio personalities in the United States and the most fined personality in radio broadcast history.
He is best-known for his national radio show, which for many years was syndicated on FM radio stations (and a few AM stations) throughout the United States until his last broadcast via terrestrial radio on December 16, 2005. He began broadcasting via the subscription-based Sirius satellite radio service on January 9, 2006.
In 2006 Howard was elected into Time Magazine's "Time 100: The People who shape our world"
and was ranked #7 in Forbes Magazine's 2006 annual Celebrity 100
[http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/53/5S85.html Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities Forbes.com, June 2006], which lists the most influential celebrities in the world.
Early life and career
Howard Stern was born into a Jewish American family in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York. His father, Ben, owned a recording studio in Manhattan, and Howard developed an interest in broadcasting as a child when he would accompany his father to work. Although both his parents are Jewish, Stern long claimed on his show to be "a half-Jew" and "half-Italian" via his mother Rae. This claim is most likely a comedy bit, as Stern sometimes utters Yiddish phrases on the air and says he is speaking in Italian. Stern's Hebrew name is Tzvi; his paternal grandparents, Froim and Anna (Gallar) Stern, and maternal grandparents, Sol and Esther (Reich) Schiffman, were Jews from Austria-Hungary who immigrated to America at about the same time.
Stern often said that his parents "abused" him as
