End of an Era

A few weeks ago, Don & Mike the nationally syndicated talk show hosts who are based here in Virginia were fined without pay for 2 weeks. During that two weeks they aired the "Best of Don and Mike". When Don and Mike came back, they said they were nearly fired and that their show would have to go undergo major changes to meet Infinity Broadcastings new decency standards. In a nutshell they can't talk about sex, or any other bodily functions on their show. So they have to put on a PG rated sort of show.

Today Clearchannel announced that they are suspending Howard Stern indefinitly because of his broadcast on Tuesday. Clearchannel felt the broadcast was indecent. Where does this all stop? Janet Jackson flashes a boob to promote her new line of lingerie and everyone goes crazy.

Talk radio is one my favorite forms of entertainment. I don't think I could deal with 2 hours of traffic a day if it weren't for Stern, Don & Mike and Ron and Fez. I have a feeling Stern being suspended will be the end of the Howard Stern radio show. I hope I"m wrong, but I just don't see Howard bowing to the sponsors and changing the way he's done his show for the past 20 years. I think he'll either come back, push the envelope and wind up getting fired (which means Clearchannel has to pay him the remainder of his contract), or he'll resign.

The sad part about all of this is that Howard is a multi millionaire. He can afford to retire from radio and work on tv and movie projects. But there are lots of people like producers and writers who depend on the income from being on the show. Does Howards show push the envelope? Sure. Is it really harming anyone? Nope. The show entertains millions of people every day. Since when is entertaining people wrong?