Back in the day, someone undertook the task of keeping up with Robin Quivers’ many blunders during the Stern show and memorialized them on the www.robinswrong.com website. The site isn’t active today, but cached versions are still around online.
While the following list is far from complete, here are some more subsequent screw ups by Robin, who modestly described herself as “arguably one of America’s most popular female radio personalities” in her bio at a 2019 Landmark Forum event.
January 14, 2020. When discussing Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill”, Robin referred to the title as “Cut and Kill”.
January 8, 2020. Robin read a story about the death of author Elizabeth Wurtzel - the hefty newswoman didn’t realize her book “Prozac Nation” was a memoir and described it as a novel.
August 6, 2019. Avid TV watcher Robin referred to Jerry Seinfeld’s Netflix show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” as ”Comedians in Cars Doing Some Coffee Thing.”
August 5, 2019. Robin, who ate lots of fast food during her infamous military career, got confused by a story involving Burger King’s introduction of a meatless burger. She thought that the Impossible Whopper had an ingredient called “impossible food” and didn't realize that Impossible Foods is the name of a company.
June 4, 2019. Robin read a story about Damon Wayans going on social media to defend his 15-year-old daughter after she came out as gay. However, she quickly had to correct the story to mention that (1) it was Marlon Wayans rather than Damon, and (2) the daughter in question was 19 rather than 15.
February 4, 2019. Robin brought up a story about Virginia governor Ralph Northam appearing in blackface (something that an unevolved Howard Stern also used to do). Robin said that the picture was in his high school yearbook, although the picture was from his medical school yearbook.
January 9, 2019. Robin referred to a story about Mark Harmon making $19 million a year on NCIS but referred to him as Mark Hamill.
November 5, 2018. Robin told Howard that Steven Tyler officiates weddings and will marry people for a fee of $1,000. Howard and the guys thought this was ridiculously low but Robin continued to insist that she was right. However, someone found that the correct fee was $200,000.
July 24, 2018. Robin botched a story about former porn star Stormy Daniels getting divorced. Robin initially said that Stormy filed for divorce from her husband but later realized that the husband was the one who requested the divorce.
February 26, 2018. The show played Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” when coming back from one of the numerous breaks. Music expert Robin chimed in to show that she knew about the song but thought that it was by Rage Against the Machine.
April 17, 2017. Robin read a story about a couple who went to a fertility clinic and found out that they were fraternal twins. Even Howard, who is rumored to have an IQ of 99, thought this story sounded fishy. After being pressed, Robin cited her source as the “India Express” - needless to say, this ended up being fake news and not a real story.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
It Takes a Village
The Howard Stern show has been on a break during the last week, as Howard has just finished his grueling tour to promote his new book “Howard Stern Comes Again”. Congratulations to Howard, as it managed to become a New York Times bestseller even though one individual estimated that the text consists of 84% transcripts of old interviews and only 16% original content.
During the downtime, the staffers are hopefully getting a chance to recharge. Gary Dell’Abate mentioned earlier this year that they have 65-70 people working to deliver radio gold to subscribers three days a week. While some of the people are well-known, others work clandestinely behind the scenes (who knows what type of hijinks they may be up to while the show is on break).
Here's a list of the show employees and contributors that I found, which should help the millions of Stern show fans get a better chance to learn about some of these folks. Howard is probably wondering if one of them may be the mole who has been leaking information to Stuttering John Melendez.
1. Howard Stern
2. Robin Quivers
3. Fred Norris
4. Gary Dell’Abate. Gary was at the Bottlerock festival in California again this week. He posed for a picture with his wife - maybe he was also able to meet up with some of his other West Coast friends while he was out there.
5. Benjy Bronk
6. Jon Hein
7. Rahsaan Rogers - now working out in Los Angeles
8. Marci Turk - COO (and Getting Things Done!)
9. Jeremy Coleman - SVP Programming
10. Will Murray
11. Jason Kaplan
12. Sal Governale
13. Richard Christy (no relation to Howard's son-in-law Colin Christy)
14. Shuli Egar
15. Brent Hatley
16. JD Harmeyer
17. Memet Walker
18. Steve Nowicki - who continues to hit it out of the park (?) with his fake Alex Jones bit
19. Chris Wilding - #BuildThatWall
Some of the other show contributors:
20. Ben Barto - current husband of Marci Turk?
21. Joseph Berson - Associate Production Manager
22. Jonathan Blitt
23. Steve Brandano - Director of Talent Relations
24. Michael Flandina - Technical Producer
25. Michael Fox - Producer
26. Chris Gibbons - Director, Studio Operations
27. Greg Giordano - Associate Producer
28. Paul Grassini - Supervising Producer
29. Steve Griffiths - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevengriffiths/
30. Daniel Grote - Assistant
31. Sean Hanahue - Technical Producer
32. Matt Hansen - Director of Information Technology at One Twelve, Inc.
33. Derek Jones - Writer Producer
34. Ashley Khan - Production Assistant
35. Jessica Kirson - https://jessicakirson.com/bio/
36. David LeClaire - Supervising Producer
37. Jeremy Lipkin - Director of Tapes & Post Production
38. Ryan McKenna - Publisher, Video/Talk Programming (former Stern show research producer until this month - still at Sirius in Los Angeles, but unclear if he's still with the Stern show)
39. Michelle Miloscia - Transcriber / Production Assistant
40. Laura Muraczewski https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-muraczewski-72999282/ - former agents assistant at Don Buchwald & Associates and has been with the Stern show since 2014.
41. Angela Muto - comedienne contributor (example - Ronnie Mund's mom)
42. Ryan O’Connell - Managing Editor of Howardstern.com at Whalerock
43. Mike Pearlman Producer
44. Ryan Pienciak - Senior Director, Programming
45. Ryan Rasmason - Producer https://twitter.com/user/status/1059645257216860160
46. Nik Ruckert - https://twitter.com/NikRuckert
47. Michael Shepard - Digital Media Researcher
48. Matt Soares - Production Assistant
49. Tim Stimpson - Associate Producer
50. Kyle Simon Researcher Producer also is a t-shirt designer
51. Mike Trainor - "Comedy" Writer
52. Prateek Vij - Production Assistant
53. Chris Weiler - Producer
During the downtime, the staffers are hopefully getting a chance to recharge. Gary Dell’Abate mentioned earlier this year that they have 65-70 people working to deliver radio gold to subscribers three days a week. While some of the people are well-known, others work clandestinely behind the scenes (who knows what type of hijinks they may be up to while the show is on break).
Here's a list of the show employees and contributors that I found, which should help the millions of Stern show fans get a better chance to learn about some of these folks. Howard is probably wondering if one of them may be the mole who has been leaking information to Stuttering John Melendez.
1. Howard Stern
2. Robin Quivers
3. Fred Norris
4. Gary Dell’Abate. Gary was at the Bottlerock festival in California again this week. He posed for a picture with his wife - maybe he was also able to meet up with some of his other West Coast friends while he was out there.
5. Benjy Bronk
6. Jon Hein
7. Rahsaan Rogers - now working out in Los Angeles
8. Marci Turk - COO (and Getting Things Done!)
9. Jeremy Coleman - SVP Programming
10. Will Murray
11. Jason Kaplan
12. Sal Governale
13. Richard Christy (no relation to Howard's son-in-law Colin Christy)
14. Shuli Egar
15. Brent Hatley
16. JD Harmeyer
17. Memet Walker
18. Steve Nowicki - who continues to hit it out of the park (?) with his fake Alex Jones bit
19. Chris Wilding - #BuildThatWall
Some of the other show contributors:
20. Ben Barto - current husband of Marci Turk?
21. Joseph Berson - Associate Production Manager
22. Jonathan Blitt
23. Steve Brandano - Director of Talent Relations
24. Michael Flandina - Technical Producer
25. Michael Fox - Producer
26. Chris Gibbons - Director, Studio Operations
27. Greg Giordano - Associate Producer
28. Paul Grassini - Supervising Producer
29. Steve Griffiths - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevengriffiths/
30. Daniel Grote - Assistant
31. Sean Hanahue - Technical Producer
32. Matt Hansen - Director of Information Technology at One Twelve, Inc.
33. Derek Jones - Writer Producer
34. Ashley Khan - Production Assistant
35. Jessica Kirson - https://jessicakirson.com/bio/
36. David LeClaire - Supervising Producer
37. Jeremy Lipkin - Director of Tapes & Post Production
38. Ryan McKenna - Publisher, Video/Talk Programming (former Stern show research producer until this month - still at Sirius in Los Angeles, but unclear if he's still with the Stern show)
39. Michelle Miloscia - Transcriber / Production Assistant
40. Laura Muraczewski https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-muraczewski-72999282/ - former agents assistant at Don Buchwald & Associates and has been with the Stern show since 2014.
41. Angela Muto - comedienne contributor (example - Ronnie Mund's mom)
42. Ryan O’Connell - Managing Editor of Howardstern.com at Whalerock
43. Mike Pearlman Producer
44. Ryan Pienciak - Senior Director, Programming
45. Ryan Rasmason - Producer https://twitter.com/user/status/1059645257216860160
46. Nik Ruckert - https://twitter.com/NikRuckert
47. Michael Shepard - Digital Media Researcher
48. Matt Soares - Production Assistant
49. Tim Stimpson - Associate Producer
50. Kyle Simon Researcher Producer also is a t-shirt designer
51. Mike Trainor - "Comedy" Writer
52. Prateek Vij - Production Assistant
53. Chris Weiler - Producer
Monday, April 2, 2018
Beth Stern Foster Failures
These days Beth Stern is mainly known for fostering cats and hosting kitten shows on the Hallmark Channel which don't exactly set the world on fire with amazing ratings. Beth recently was in the news because she flew across the country to rescue a cat in Fontana, California that had been horribly abused.
The timing was also perfect for Beth, as she was able to attend a birthday party for Molly McNearney (wife of one Jimmy Kimmel) while she was in Los Angeles - maybe she was also able to visit with her cousin Noel while she was in town.
Beth's stay in New York with this new foster cat was short-lived, as she was down in the Sterns' mansion in Palm Beach, Florida a week later. Beth was also recently interviewed by some South Florida publication called Modern Luxury -
In response to a question about how they find homes for the foster cats, Beth replied:
"I have a lot of cat followers (laughs) and a 100 percent success rate. I read each and every email that is sent to my foster address, and the ones I think are worthwhile to interview, I explore. Those names are then given to people who work for the NSALA, who decide who among that group should be called. They are given an extensive telephone interview, and then we talk to the vets and get the three references they submit to us who know them as families. By the time we are ready to deliver the cat or kitten, we are sure about their new forever homes, and I personally deliver each animal myself."
I'm not sure what Beth considers a "success", but over the years there appear to have been more than just a few foster placements that didn't work out so well - here are some examples:
1. September 2014 - one of the bad stories about Beth's foster kittens. Howard discussed this on the air, and told his listeners that the kittens were declawed and the returned to the Sterns due to a family problem:
"Howard said he has a cat story real quick. He said he and his wife are involved in fostering cats. He said they had a couple of kittens they raised last summer named Ellie and Shirley. He said they were returned to them because of a family problem. Howard said that they had them declawed which bummed them out."
2. February 2018 - foster named Sugar Plum Fairy (?) was returned to Beth. Beth claimed that the woman who adopted the cat was "returning her after realizing she wasn’t the right fit. The adopter feels she would benefit by having a friend." Beth also deleted a prior post which indicated that the reason for returning the cat was that the owner found out the cat wasn't a "lap kitten".
3. December 2017 - "Ten year old foster Felix is back". "Felix is back with us and to no fault of his own or the family who adopted him. We’ve learned that he’s scared of children." Perhaps they could check on this before placing other cats in the future.
4. September 2017 - Maggie and Lyla back after refusing to eat in forever home and are now staying with Beth's "friend".
5. March 2017 - foster cats Tatertot and Woodstock returned because of a family member's allergies.
6. March 2017 - foster Sammy Crinkles only lasted one day in his 'forever' home due to the adopter having some (apparently newly-discovered) personal issues:
7. December 2016 - adult fosters Sienna and Sugarplum up for adoption again as Virginia forever family can't keep them because "the family's 2 other resident kitties were never able to welcome them with open arms".
8. May 2016- foster Strawberry back to the Sterns' Hamptons mansion - she "was placed with a family who only wanted a single pet. The family called me after having her for a few months and said Strawberry seemed unhappy and cried all night."
9. November 2015 - Florida foster cats Banjo and Mathilda have returned "due to unforeseen circumstances".
10. July 2015 - foster cat returned after other cat in house doesn't get along with it.
11. April 2015 - another case of an allergic forever family, as fosters Lollipop and Pumpernickel returned due to their forever mom being allergic to them.
While Beth may not have the 100% success rate described in that Florida magazine article, hopefully she and the North Shore Animal League will continue to improve the screening process so that less cats end up getting returned to Beth's Hamptons mansion.
The timing was also perfect for Beth, as she was able to attend a birthday party for Molly McNearney (wife of one Jimmy Kimmel) while she was in Los Angeles - maybe she was also able to visit with her cousin Noel while she was in town.
Beth's stay in New York with this new foster cat was short-lived, as she was down in the Sterns' mansion in Palm Beach, Florida a week later. Beth was also recently interviewed by some South Florida publication called Modern Luxury -
In response to a question about how they find homes for the foster cats, Beth replied:
"I have a lot of cat followers (laughs) and a 100 percent success rate. I read each and every email that is sent to my foster address, and the ones I think are worthwhile to interview, I explore. Those names are then given to people who work for the NSALA, who decide who among that group should be called. They are given an extensive telephone interview, and then we talk to the vets and get the three references they submit to us who know them as families. By the time we are ready to deliver the cat or kitten, we are sure about their new forever homes, and I personally deliver each animal myself."
I'm not sure what Beth considers a "success", but over the years there appear to have been more than just a few foster placements that didn't work out so well - here are some examples:
1. September 2014 - one of the bad stories about Beth's foster kittens. Howard discussed this on the air, and told his listeners that the kittens were declawed and the returned to the Sterns due to a family problem:
"Howard said he has a cat story real quick. He said he and his wife are involved in fostering cats. He said they had a couple of kittens they raised last summer named Ellie and Shirley. He said they were returned to them because of a family problem. Howard said that they had them declawed which bummed them out."
2. February 2018 - foster named Sugar Plum Fairy (?) was returned to Beth. Beth claimed that the woman who adopted the cat was "returning her after realizing she wasn’t the right fit. The adopter feels she would benefit by having a friend." Beth also deleted a prior post which indicated that the reason for returning the cat was that the owner found out the cat wasn't a "lap kitten".
3. December 2017 - "Ten year old foster Felix is back". "Felix is back with us and to no fault of his own or the family who adopted him. We’ve learned that he’s scared of children." Perhaps they could check on this before placing other cats in the future.
4. September 2017 - Maggie and Lyla back after refusing to eat in forever home and are now staying with Beth's "friend".
5. March 2017 - foster cats Tatertot and Woodstock returned because of a family member's allergies.
6. March 2017 - foster Sammy Crinkles only lasted one day in his 'forever' home due to the adopter having some (apparently newly-discovered) personal issues:
7. December 2016 - adult fosters Sienna and Sugarplum up for adoption again as Virginia forever family can't keep them because "the family's 2 other resident kitties were never able to welcome them with open arms".
8. May 2016- foster Strawberry back to the Sterns' Hamptons mansion - she "was placed with a family who only wanted a single pet. The family called me after having her for a few months and said Strawberry seemed unhappy and cried all night."
9. November 2015 - Florida foster cats Banjo and Mathilda have returned "due to unforeseen circumstances".
10. July 2015 - foster cat returned after other cat in house doesn't get along with it.
11. April 2015 - another case of an allergic forever family, as fosters Lollipop and Pumpernickel returned due to their forever mom being allergic to them.
While Beth may not have the 100% success rate described in that Florida magazine article, hopefully she and the North Shore Animal League will continue to improve the screening process so that less cats end up getting returned to Beth's Hamptons mansion.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Bianca's Furry Friends Foundation - 2015 Annual Report
In addition to asking fans to contribute to the North Shore Animal League to fund the Bianca's Furry Friends project, NSAL spokesperson Beth Stern has her own separate charity called the Bianca's Furry Friends Foundation (the "BFF Foundation"). This somewhat mysterious charity has been mentioned in this blog, but there is not a whole lot of information available about the BFF Foundation - it does not seem to have a public website and I don't recall either of the Sterns mentioning this great cause to their millions of fans and social media followers. However, the BFF Foundation's 2015 annual report is now available on the New York state charity website and although there wasn't any earth shattering information, here are a few nuggets from the filing.
Over $576,000 of Contributions in 2015
For a foundation that has no website and no readily apparent way for the public to make donations, the BFF Foundation was able to raise over $576,000 of contributions in 2015. One can only wonder if Howard and/or Beth Stern contributed money to the foundation or if the money came from other donors. Regardless, the donor(s) were likely to have been able to reap a tax deduction for a contribution to this charitable organization.
Minimal Expenses in 2015
With such large amounts of contributions, one may have expected the BFF Foundation to put the money to good use in order to save lives (of animals, not people). However, it surprisingly reported only $2,648 of expenses in 2015, including $989 of legal fees and a generous grant of $1,659 to a Harlem animal hospital. I wonder how the cost of the shoes that Beth posted in a recent picture compares to the amount of the grant to the animal hospital.
The BFF Foundation does not seem to have any employees and each of the named officers and directors puts in an average of 0.0 hours per week.
Investments in Publicly-Traded Securities
The BFF Foundation's annual report reveals what the foundation did with the hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions - rather than funding animal-related charities, the money is mainly in cash accounts and invested in publicly-traded securities.
Certainly an interesting use of funds, although maybe the BFF Foundation will use some of that cash to pay for the NSAL kitten wing once construction finally starts.
Bianca's Furry Friends - Update
Nearly 4 years after the project was first announced, a Newsday story indicated that the North Shore Animal League finally received preliminary approval to build Bianca's Furry Friends.
The Newsday article mentioned that "the league did not receive full approval because the staff has to submit paperwork proving that they would abide by six special construction requests from the town." It's unclear whether the NSAL submitted said paperwork, when the project will actually get started or when it is expected to be completed.
In the meantime, there are still fund raisers for Bianca's Furry Friends, and Beth proudly announced that a middle school kid donated his allowance and it will be used to build this gaudy addition - the lucky youngster received a wonderful prize in his school's contest, as he got to name one of Beth's foster cats.
As usual, commenters in Beth's Instagram post praise the young kid instead of asking why Beth and Howard don't just pay for the kitty wing themselves rather than spending a fortune on their lavish homes. Too bad they couldn't have also thrown in some additional prizes, such as one of Howard's great drawings or a gift bag similar to the generous swag that the Stern show gives to guests.
Over $576,000 of Contributions in 2015
For a foundation that has no website and no readily apparent way for the public to make donations, the BFF Foundation was able to raise over $576,000 of contributions in 2015. One can only wonder if Howard and/or Beth Stern contributed money to the foundation or if the money came from other donors. Regardless, the donor(s) were likely to have been able to reap a tax deduction for a contribution to this charitable organization.
Minimal Expenses in 2015
With such large amounts of contributions, one may have expected the BFF Foundation to put the money to good use in order to save lives (of animals, not people). However, it surprisingly reported only $2,648 of expenses in 2015, including $989 of legal fees and a generous grant of $1,659 to a Harlem animal hospital. I wonder how the cost of the shoes that Beth posted in a recent picture compares to the amount of the grant to the animal hospital.
The BFF Foundation does not seem to have any employees and each of the named officers and directors puts in an average of 0.0 hours per week.
Investments in Publicly-Traded Securities
The BFF Foundation's annual report reveals what the foundation did with the hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions - rather than funding animal-related charities, the money is mainly in cash accounts and invested in publicly-traded securities.
Certainly an interesting use of funds, although maybe the BFF Foundation will use some of that cash to pay for the NSAL kitten wing once construction finally starts.
Bianca's Furry Friends - Update
Nearly 4 years after the project was first announced, a Newsday story indicated that the North Shore Animal League finally received preliminary approval to build Bianca's Furry Friends.
The Newsday article mentioned that "the league did not receive full approval because the staff has to submit paperwork proving that they would abide by six special construction requests from the town." It's unclear whether the NSAL submitted said paperwork, when the project will actually get started or when it is expected to be completed.
In the meantime, there are still fund raisers for Bianca's Furry Friends, and Beth proudly announced that a middle school kid donated his allowance and it will be used to build this gaudy addition - the lucky youngster received a wonderful prize in his school's contest, as he got to name one of Beth's foster cats.
As usual, commenters in Beth's Instagram post praise the young kid instead of asking why Beth and Howard don't just pay for the kitty wing themselves rather than spending a fortune on their lavish homes. Too bad they couldn't have also thrown in some additional prizes, such as one of Howard's great drawings or a gift bag similar to the generous swag that the Stern show gives to guests.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Festival of Cock
By the title of the post, one may be expecting to see a recap of some recent Howard Stern shows, as its aging host continues to be very interested in male genitals.
This hard-working man once spent hours of his ample time off searching the interwebs to find uncensored pictures of a naked Orlando Bloom and staffers continue to come up with ways to show him their junk in order to get air time, including:
Richard Christy measures Benjy Bronk's junk
Another 'original' bit in which comic genius Sal drops his pants
Brent Hatley, the show's resident expert on politics and all things radio, delivers a forgettable segment in which he got waxed on air:
Japanese Festival
Actually, today marks the day on which one city in Japan has an annual penis festival. Although Howard has said on many occasions that he doesn't like parades, maybe he could make an exception for this type of festival.
Feel free to watch this video to get some background on the festival:
PSA - Check out the Solo Travel Blog You Tube Channel
Unlike listening to the Stern channels, which are filled with stale, censored replays, hacks doing bad impressions of President Trump, and tortured interviews of celebrities, check out the SoloTravelBlog You Tube channel and your life may be changed in an inexplicable way.
My man Dustin is an American dude who films his buckwild adventures while cruising and perusing in Japan (now India) and has a nice freaking channel filled with all kinds of entertaining videos (all different kinds).
Video quality has improved since the penis festival video from a few years ago, and even ones about mundane topics are worth viewing:
For example, a video about Japanese convenience store grub is more entertaining than hearing Grandma Stern complain about vocal fry:
There's also a Jon Hein inspired "diabetes quest" series of videos - the Destination America channel probably would have gotten better results if it had Dustin host the Fast Food Mania show instead of the lifeless Mr. Hein - then again, they may have been counting on the Stern show's "millions" of listeners to tune in (side note: Jon may be hitting a milestone with his awesome fast food book, as one site reports that its sales are approaching nearly 500 copies sold on Amazon as of today).
Dude is more witty than the untalented millenial "producers" of the Stern show, and an unboxing of plastic dogs (I mean "dawgs" as they say on the STB channel) beats a call from "Lee King Snatch"
There are also some animal videos on the channel, which may be to the liking of Stern show fans who enjoy seeing Howard's wife post a slew of kitten pictures to her Instagram account each day:
This hard-working man once spent hours of his ample time off searching the interwebs to find uncensored pictures of a naked Orlando Bloom and staffers continue to come up with ways to show him their junk in order to get air time, including:
Richard Christy measures Benjy Bronk's junk
Another 'original' bit in which comic genius Sal drops his pants
Brent Hatley, the show's resident expert on politics and all things radio, delivers a forgettable segment in which he got waxed on air:
Japanese Festival
Actually, today marks the day on which one city in Japan has an annual penis festival. Although Howard has said on many occasions that he doesn't like parades, maybe he could make an exception for this type of festival.
Feel free to watch this video to get some background on the festival:
PSA - Check out the Solo Travel Blog You Tube Channel
Unlike listening to the Stern channels, which are filled with stale, censored replays, hacks doing bad impressions of President Trump, and tortured interviews of celebrities, check out the SoloTravelBlog You Tube channel and your life may be changed in an inexplicable way.
My man Dustin is an American dude who films his buckwild adventures while cruising and perusing in Japan (now India) and has a nice freaking channel filled with all kinds of entertaining videos (all different kinds).
Video quality has improved since the penis festival video from a few years ago, and even ones about mundane topics are worth viewing:
For example, a video about Japanese convenience store grub is more entertaining than hearing Grandma Stern complain about vocal fry:
There's also a Jon Hein inspired "diabetes quest" series of videos - the Destination America channel probably would have gotten better results if it had Dustin host the Fast Food Mania show instead of the lifeless Mr. Hein - then again, they may have been counting on the Stern show's "millions" of listeners to tune in (side note: Jon may be hitting a milestone with his awesome fast food book, as one site reports that its sales are approaching nearly 500 copies sold on Amazon as of today).
Dude is more witty than the untalented millenial "producers" of the Stern show, and an unboxing of plastic dogs (I mean "dawgs" as they say on the STB channel) beats a call from "Lee King Snatch"
There are also some animal videos on the channel, which may be to the liking of Stern show fans who enjoy seeing Howard's wife post a slew of kitten pictures to her Instagram account each day:
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Dog Days of Summer - Still No Bianca's Furry Friends
As the summer winds down, it's time to recap the highlights of an eventful summer for satellite radio host Howard Stern and his wife Beth Stern.
The Howard Stern Show
During the last few years, the Stern show has had a very light schedule in August, but this year, it broke from that recent practice and treated fans to nine live shows during August.
The content wasn't exactly hitting it out of the park though, as guests included several people who had done the show multiple times in the past, such as:
Sirius/XM subscribers may have thought they tuned into the old OutQ channel, as there also seemed to be plenty of discussion of male genitalia - Howard spent lots of time discussing his search for uncensored pictures of a naked Orlando Bloom, as well as disturbing bits called "Boner Bongo" (which involved male staffers dropping their pants to play the bongos with their dicks), "Prostate Karaoke" (staffers drop their pants and sing karaoke during a prostate exam - "that's gold Jerry, gold"), as well as Richard Christy embarrassing himself by dropping his pants to try on electric cock ring. While the Stern show is now evolved and does not have segments involving naked women (which segments seemed to taper off once Howard TV "went dark"), Howard seems to feature more than a fair share of talk and segments involving naked dudes.
America's Got Talent
For the first time in 4 years, Howard is not serving as a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent. As we have seen before, the "Stern effect" on AGT ratings wasn't exactly stellar while he served as the self-glossed America's judge, although some Stern fans thought that his mere presence would cause ratings to skyrocket.
Simon Cowell replaced Howard as a judge this year and ratings are up - earlier this week ratings in the key 18-49 demo for the semi-final performance show were also nearly 20% higher than comparable ratings during 2015, with a 2.5 rating compared to last year's dismal 2.1 rating.
I do not believe that Howard has had much discussion about the AGT ratings increase this year on the Howard Stern radio show as the show is too jam packed with great bits - see the item above for some of the killer content that has filled the show's airtime during the summer.
Annual Magazine Cover and Lots of Kittens
Beth Stern has also had a busy summer - in case fans didn't know, Beth was again featured on the cover of a magazine called "Social Life".
This magazine isn't well-known outside of the Hamptons, but the Sterns managed to get an article written about the photo shoot and cover in the Daily Mail.
The 44 year old animal activist also posted many of the Social Life pictures to Instagram, and floods her account with many pictures of cats (and herself) each day -
In honor of the Olympics, the Hallmark Channel rolled out its kitten sports special over the summer and they were lucky to find that Beth was available to host the event, which was called the Kitten Summer Games.
Unfortunately, the ratings for said Kitten Summer Games did not draw the 'millions' of people who listen to the Stern show, as it finished with a 0.07 rating and was the #115 show on cable for the night).
Beth will be back on the Hallmark Channel with another animal-related show this fall, as she is hosting the Hero Dog Awards again.
Bianca's Furry Friends - September 2016 Update
Fans again may have been excited for a possible summer ground breaking of the Bianca's Furry Friends addition at the North Shore Animal League. While promoting a North Shore Animal League event in June, Beth gave fans some hope that Bianca's Furry Friends may get started this summer, as she said:
"...the opening of Bianca's Furry Friends is probably still a few years away, they will hopefully be breaking ground at the end of the summer."
Now that September has started, it doesn't look too promising for a summer ground breaking for Bianca's Furry Friends - as we have seen before, this is not a new pattern with respect to the promised start date of Bianca's Furry Friends, but this is the first time I recall seeing that the opening of the kitty wing will be "a few years" after it gets started. Looks like it will be 2018 at the earliest for the NSAL addition to finally open up after first being announced in 2013.
Needless to say, the NSAL is still trying to raise money for Bianca's Furry Friends - proceeds from two more events later this year will be donated to BFF: (1) the Gold Coast Affair on September 14 (unfortunately, tickets appear to be sold out) and (2) the 2016 annual gala on November 18.
Even if the summer ends without Bianca's Furry Friends breaking ground, maybe the additional cash from these events will be enough to allow for a 2017 ground breaking.
The Howard Stern Show
During the last few years, the Stern show has had a very light schedule in August, but this year, it broke from that recent practice and treated fans to nine live shows during August.
The content wasn't exactly hitting it out of the park though, as guests included several people who had done the show multiple times in the past, such as:
- Seth Rogen (I think Seth may have tried marijuana once or twice in his life - did expert interviewer Howard get to this?)
- Jonah Hill
- Tracy Morgan, and
- Amy Schumer (the hard-hitting interview unfortunately didn't have any questions about her alleged theft of material from other comics).
Sirius/XM subscribers may have thought they tuned into the old OutQ channel, as there also seemed to be plenty of discussion of male genitalia - Howard spent lots of time discussing his search for uncensored pictures of a naked Orlando Bloom, as well as disturbing bits called "Boner Bongo" (which involved male staffers dropping their pants to play the bongos with their dicks), "Prostate Karaoke" (staffers drop their pants and sing karaoke during a prostate exam - "that's gold Jerry, gold"), as well as Richard Christy embarrassing himself by dropping his pants to try on electric cock ring. While the Stern show is now evolved and does not have segments involving naked women (which segments seemed to taper off once Howard TV "went dark"), Howard seems to feature more than a fair share of talk and segments involving naked dudes.
America's Got Talent
For the first time in 4 years, Howard is not serving as a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent. As we have seen before, the "Stern effect" on AGT ratings wasn't exactly stellar while he served as the self-glossed America's judge, although some Stern fans thought that his mere presence would cause ratings to skyrocket.
Simon Cowell replaced Howard as a judge this year and ratings are up - earlier this week ratings in the key 18-49 demo for the semi-final performance show were also nearly 20% higher than comparable ratings during 2015, with a 2.5 rating compared to last year's dismal 2.1 rating.
I do not believe that Howard has had much discussion about the AGT ratings increase this year on the Howard Stern radio show as the show is too jam packed with great bits - see the item above for some of the killer content that has filled the show's airtime during the summer.
Annual Magazine Cover and Lots of Kittens
Beth Stern has also had a busy summer - in case fans didn't know, Beth was again featured on the cover of a magazine called "Social Life".
This magazine isn't well-known outside of the Hamptons, but the Sterns managed to get an article written about the photo shoot and cover in the Daily Mail.
The 44 year old animal activist also posted many of the Social Life pictures to Instagram, and floods her account with many pictures of cats (and herself) each day -
In honor of the Olympics, the Hallmark Channel rolled out its kitten sports special over the summer and they were lucky to find that Beth was available to host the event, which was called the Kitten Summer Games.
Unfortunately, the ratings for said Kitten Summer Games did not draw the 'millions' of people who listen to the Stern show, as it finished with a 0.07 rating and was the #115 show on cable for the night).
Beth will be back on the Hallmark Channel with another animal-related show this fall, as she is hosting the Hero Dog Awards again.
Bianca's Furry Friends - September 2016 Update
Fans again may have been excited for a possible summer ground breaking of the Bianca's Furry Friends addition at the North Shore Animal League. While promoting a North Shore Animal League event in June, Beth gave fans some hope that Bianca's Furry Friends may get started this summer, as she said:
"...the opening of Bianca's Furry Friends is probably still a few years away, they will hopefully be breaking ground at the end of the summer."
Now that September has started, it doesn't look too promising for a summer ground breaking for Bianca's Furry Friends - as we have seen before, this is not a new pattern with respect to the promised start date of Bianca's Furry Friends, but this is the first time I recall seeing that the opening of the kitty wing will be "a few years" after it gets started. Looks like it will be 2018 at the earliest for the NSAL addition to finally open up after first being announced in 2013.
Needless to say, the NSAL is still trying to raise money for Bianca's Furry Friends - proceeds from two more events later this year will be donated to BFF: (1) the Gold Coast Affair on September 14 (unfortunately, tickets appear to be sold out) and (2) the 2016 annual gala on November 18.
Even if the summer ends without Bianca's Furry Friends breaking ground, maybe the additional cash from these events will be enough to allow for a 2017 ground breaking.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Instagram Recycling and Video of a PETA Visit to the NSAL
Howard Stern's large backroom staff must have a hard time coming up with new material for the 12 hours of radio they do each week. Although the creative meetings have led to comedy gold such as "Flat Ronnie" and "Ronnie the Robot", the show is still filled with stale, recycled bits, including impersonators of Presidential candidates, dreadful phony calls, parody songs about a 'hot' 60 year old overweight newswoman and Howard's fake Viet Nam war stories.
Howard's wife Beth has also done her share of recycling - on Instagram, where she has posted thousands of pictures over the years.
As we have seen before, some recurring themes of Beth Stern's Instagram account involved posting pictures of herself in revealing attire in order to please some "kittenposthaters" and also showing the foster kittens when they just happen to be near her fancy shoes and purses.
Here are a few more ideas which have been recycled over the years in the many thousands of her Instagram pictures:
Beth Has to Pee (aka Too Much Information)
For some reason, fostering kittens interferes with Beth's ability to use one of the many bathrooms in the Sterns' mansion in Southampton, although it's a good thing that Beth has her phone close by to capture the amazing moment for her followers.
Beth's followers lap this up as if it's original almost every time, even though she's posted a number of these pictures, complete with unusual hashtags, over the years:
January 2016 - #ihavetopee
October 2015 - #havetopee
September 2015
August 2015 - Foster cat Peter Parker causing trouble
June 2015 - Has to pee
March 2015 - Yoda won't let Beth pee in peace
March 2015 - Picture with the late Apple the cat
January 2015 - Bella jumps on Beth's lap #yesmyphonewaswithme
October 2014 - I have to pee
Meditating Beth
Howard Stern has been a big fan (big fan) of Transcendental Meditation for years, and Beth has taken up this practice as well. Unfortunately, some of her meditation sessions are interrupted by the darn cats and kittens, but luckily she is able to get a picture for her followers. Beth is also providing some handy tips on TM with these informative posts, as it's not common knowledge that one is supposed to keep a phone handy while lying down to meditate and an untrained observer may have mistaken her meditation for a nap.
May 2016 - Meditating with "bellaboo"
April 2016 - Wakes up from TM with a 'cat bum' in her face
April 2016 - A 'kitty toot' wakes Beth from her meditation
November 2015 - Trying to meditate. #nothappening #TM https://www.instagram.com/p/-Chb93IfIx/
October 2015 - Yoda interrupts a meditation session
NSAL Mentioned in a PETA Video
Beth is the spokesperson for the North Shore Animal League and it is the source of many of the foster kittens that have been featured in her social media pictures.
The NSAL is not shy about describing its 'no kill' status but as shown in this PETA video below, the no kill shelter concept may not be as great as the name sounds and PETA is in favor of open admission shelters.
A PETA article from a few years ago (which contains a long list of disturbing stories about mistreatment of animals) explains the issue that PETA has with no kill shelters, and the basic concept seems to be:
(1) there are only so many animals that are going to get adopted from shelters,
(2) the no kill shelters fill up and they essentially leave others with the dirty work of having to put down animals that don't get adopted, and
(3) because people are turned away from these no kill shelters, they often are left with no choice but to abandon their pets or end up giving them to places which mistreat them.
In the video below, the caption is "(s)lamming the door in the faces of needy homeless animals makes intake and euthanasia statistics sound favorable but lets animals down."
The video features people being turned away at various shelters, and the crew visits the NSAL headquarters in Port Washington, NY at the 8:18 mark. The NSAL person says that they only will accept animals that were originally adopted from the NSAL (?) and that 'a lot' of the animals that the NSAL places get returned to the shelter - the video closes with the line "no kill can mean no help for the neediest of animals."
There doesn't appear to be any easy way to fix to this, but in the meantime, another problem is still in search of a solution - after three years, the Stern show is still asking fans for money to help build Bianca's Furry Friends in this tweet from last week, this time in the form of an auction to sit in on the Stern show and the latest bid as of this date is $25,000.
Howard's wife Beth has also done her share of recycling - on Instagram, where she has posted thousands of pictures over the years.
As we have seen before, some recurring themes of Beth Stern's Instagram account involved posting pictures of herself in revealing attire in order to please some "kittenposthaters" and also showing the foster kittens when they just happen to be near her fancy shoes and purses.
Here are a few more ideas which have been recycled over the years in the many thousands of her Instagram pictures:
Beth Has to Pee (aka Too Much Information)
For some reason, fostering kittens interferes with Beth's ability to use one of the many bathrooms in the Sterns' mansion in Southampton, although it's a good thing that Beth has her phone close by to capture the amazing moment for her followers.
Beth's followers lap this up as if it's original almost every time, even though she's posted a number of these pictures, complete with unusual hashtags, over the years:
January 2016 - #ihavetopee
October 2015 - #havetopee
September 2015
August 2015 - Foster cat Peter Parker causing trouble
June 2015 - Has to pee
March 2015 - Yoda won't let Beth pee in peace
March 2015 - Picture with the late Apple the cat
January 2015 - Bella jumps on Beth's lap #yesmyphonewaswithme
October 2014 - I have to pee
Meditating Beth
Howard Stern has been a big fan (big fan) of Transcendental Meditation for years, and Beth has taken up this practice as well. Unfortunately, some of her meditation sessions are interrupted by the darn cats and kittens, but luckily she is able to get a picture for her followers. Beth is also providing some handy tips on TM with these informative posts, as it's not common knowledge that one is supposed to keep a phone handy while lying down to meditate and an untrained observer may have mistaken her meditation for a nap.
May 2016 - Meditating with "bellaboo"
April 2016 - Wakes up from TM with a 'cat bum' in her face
April 2016 - A 'kitty toot' wakes Beth from her meditation
November 2015 - Trying to meditate. #nothappening #TM https://www.instagram.com/p/-Chb93IfIx/
October 2015 - Yoda interrupts a meditation session
NSAL Mentioned in a PETA Video
Beth is the spokesperson for the North Shore Animal League and it is the source of many of the foster kittens that have been featured in her social media pictures.
The NSAL is not shy about describing its 'no kill' status but as shown in this PETA video below, the no kill shelter concept may not be as great as the name sounds and PETA is in favor of open admission shelters.
A PETA article from a few years ago (which contains a long list of disturbing stories about mistreatment of animals) explains the issue that PETA has with no kill shelters, and the basic concept seems to be:
(1) there are only so many animals that are going to get adopted from shelters,
(2) the no kill shelters fill up and they essentially leave others with the dirty work of having to put down animals that don't get adopted, and
(3) because people are turned away from these no kill shelters, they often are left with no choice but to abandon their pets or end up giving them to places which mistreat them.
In the video below, the caption is "(s)lamming the door in the faces of needy homeless animals makes intake and euthanasia statistics sound favorable but lets animals down."
The video features people being turned away at various shelters, and the crew visits the NSAL headquarters in Port Washington, NY at the 8:18 mark. The NSAL person says that they only will accept animals that were originally adopted from the NSAL (?) and that 'a lot' of the animals that the NSAL places get returned to the shelter - the video closes with the line "no kill can mean no help for the neediest of animals."
There doesn't appear to be any easy way to fix to this, but in the meantime, another problem is still in search of a solution - after three years, the Stern show is still asking fans for money to help build Bianca's Furry Friends in this tweet from last week, this time in the form of an auction to sit in on the Stern show and the latest bid as of this date is $25,000.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Bianca's Furry Friends - 2016 Update
Unlike the former Howard 101 show Back Office Radio, the blog is back from a hiatus with an update on the favorite charity project of Howard Stern and Beth Stern - the Bianca's Furry Friends addition to the North Shore Animal League ("NSAL") headquarters in Port Washington, New York, as well as information about the somewhat clandestine Bianca's Furry Friends Foundation, which appears to be separate from the NSAL.
History
Animal lovers have been waiting for years for this project to get started - it resembles the plot of an early Seinfeld episode in which Jerry, Elaine and George were waiting for a table in a Chinese Restaurant - each time they would ask the maitre d' about the status of their table, he would tell them that it would be ready in five or ten minutes.
Similarly, it seems like the NSAL and its spokesperson, Beth Stern, continue to tell folks that the 14,000 square foot addition (with an estimated cost of $7 million) will be breaking ground "next spring" or at some other time in the near future, but it never seems to get started.
Timeline Recap
For those who don't recall the exact timeline, here is a quick overview (see last year's post for more details):
May 2013 - initial announcement of the master plan for Bianca's Furry Friends
May 2014 - Beth and an NSAL executive state that Bianca's Furry Friends is expected to break ground "next spring" (i.e. spring 2015)
January 2015 - Beth announces that they are "3/4 of the way there", with no estimate of when it will get started (the NSAL financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2014 show that there were about $4.25 million of assets restricted for use to fund BFF):
Spring 2015 - estimated start date mentioned in 2014 passes without anything happening
Subsequent Developments
Since the blog post in March 2015, there have been a few more developments regarding Bianca's Furry Friends, none of which involve the commencement of any actual construction:
November 2015 - another year, another NSAL gala with proceeds going to Bianca's Furry Friends. Beth dropped a couple of nuggets about BFF while promoting the gala, and told Newsday that they were trying to raise the "final $1 million" to get the project funded and said in another interview with HNGN that:
""Bianca's Furry Friends, yes, that's going to break ground right after the new year," Ostrosky Stern told HNGN."
As the gala was only a few months ago, no one knows how much money it raised. However, the NSAL's Form 990 for 2014 indicated that the amount of 2014 gala proceeds (gross, not net of expenses) was around $356K - this was down, way down, from the $610K of proceeds from the 2013 gala (see last year's blog post for details); hopefully this trend, unlike the ratings slide during Howard's tenure on America's Got Talent, didn't continue for 2015.
December 2015 - Another Yoda Book
For the second straight year, Beth, along with illustrator Devin Crane and "contributor" K.A. Alistir, released another children's book about her purebred Persian cat and her share of the proceeds would again benefit Bianca's Furry Friends. This year's installment was titled Yoda Gets a Buddy and as of this date, one website estimates its Amazon sales at less than 1,000 copies. Beth's share of the proceeds from the Amazon sales may not even cover the cost of one of the animal activist's fancy leather purses let alone the somewhat expensive NSAL kitten play palace.
February 2016 - Kitten Bowl
For the third straight year Beth appeared on the Hallmark Channel's Kitten Bowl and she was trotting around to promote the event (unfortunately, ratings were a dismal 0.2, less than a third of the 0.7 rating of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl and the Kitten Bowl finished well out of the top 100 cable shows of the day).
She also discussed the status of Bianca's Furry Friends in some interviews.
In a WebMD interview, Beth once again broke out her statement that she has no "human children" and said that they will break ground early this year:
""I don't have human children," she says, "so this is my purpose. .... Howard and I are working on a 14,000-square-foot expansion of North Shore's existing shelter, called Bianca's Furry Friends. The space will allow the cats to live cage-free until they're adopted. Friends have been so supportive -- Billy Joel donated over a million dollars, and Rachael Ray presented me with a $500,000 check on her show. We'll break ground early this year."
In a Newsday article, Beth said:
"We are over $7 million, and that means we are ready to break ground,” she said. “We are waiting, I believe, on one more permit and as soon as we get that permit we are ready to go. So I’m thinking that within the next couple of months we are breaking ground, and my dream will finally come true."
Based on that claim, it sounds like the NSAL must have received that "final $1 million" that Beth mentioned in the November 2015 interview with Newsday, although it sounds like the ground breaking date may now be pushed back to April 2016.
Beth also mentioned in another article that Bianca's Furry Friends is "15,000 square feet" (up from the original 14,000 square feet?) and that they're "just waiting on permits".
Separate Foundation
As mentioned before on this blog, Beth is affiliated with a separate charity called the Bianca's Furry Friends Foundation.
Information about this foundation is fairly scarce, as the foundation does not appear to have a website and has not filed its initial Form 990 with the IRS, but a number of documents are available for the public to view online on a database of charities maintained by the New York attorney general.
These filings reveal that:
(1) the President of the foundation is one Beth Ostrosky Stern,
(2) the foundation was formed in January 2014 and first began maintaining assets in New York in May 2014 (interesting that this was near the time of the Billy Joel concert when he donated proceeds from a show to Bianca's Furry Friends), and
(3) the foundation received over $270,000 of contributions through December 31, 2014 and it received its first donation in May 2014 - a check for $250K; this is a nice chunk of change for a foundation which hasn't received much (if any) public discussion.
It is a bit odd that Beth Stern has never specifically mentioned this separate foundation, which has now been in existence for over 2 years. Many of the devoted followers of her Instagram account who enjoy the many pictures of cats she posts each day might pony up some money to fund this foundation.
Hopefully the assets held by the foundation may be used to help fund the NSAL addition (maybe to help with the filing costs for the permits that Beth mentioned in her recent interviews). In the meantime, it is just one more unknown regarding Bianca's Furry Friends, in addition to the moving target date of when the NSAL addition will finally break ground.
History
Animal lovers have been waiting for years for this project to get started - it resembles the plot of an early Seinfeld episode in which Jerry, Elaine and George were waiting for a table in a Chinese Restaurant - each time they would ask the maitre d' about the status of their table, he would tell them that it would be ready in five or ten minutes.
Similarly, it seems like the NSAL and its spokesperson, Beth Stern, continue to tell folks that the 14,000 square foot addition (with an estimated cost of $7 million) will be breaking ground "next spring" or at some other time in the near future, but it never seems to get started.
Timeline Recap
For those who don't recall the exact timeline, here is a quick overview (see last year's post for more details):
May 2013 - initial announcement of the master plan for Bianca's Furry Friends
May 2014 - Beth and an NSAL executive state that Bianca's Furry Friends is expected to break ground "next spring" (i.e. spring 2015)
January 2015 - Beth announces that they are "3/4 of the way there", with no estimate of when it will get started (the NSAL financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2014 show that there were about $4.25 million of assets restricted for use to fund BFF):
Spring 2015 - estimated start date mentioned in 2014 passes without anything happening
Subsequent Developments
Since the blog post in March 2015, there have been a few more developments regarding Bianca's Furry Friends, none of which involve the commencement of any actual construction:
November 2015 - another year, another NSAL gala with proceeds going to Bianca's Furry Friends. Beth dropped a couple of nuggets about BFF while promoting the gala, and told Newsday that they were trying to raise the "final $1 million" to get the project funded and said in another interview with HNGN that:
""Bianca's Furry Friends, yes, that's going to break ground right after the new year," Ostrosky Stern told HNGN."
As the gala was only a few months ago, no one knows how much money it raised. However, the NSAL's Form 990 for 2014 indicated that the amount of 2014 gala proceeds (gross, not net of expenses) was around $356K - this was down, way down, from the $610K of proceeds from the 2013 gala (see last year's blog post for details); hopefully this trend, unlike the ratings slide during Howard's tenure on America's Got Talent, didn't continue for 2015.
December 2015 - Another Yoda Book
For the second straight year, Beth, along with illustrator Devin Crane and "contributor" K.A. Alistir, released another children's book about her purebred Persian cat and her share of the proceeds would again benefit Bianca's Furry Friends. This year's installment was titled Yoda Gets a Buddy and as of this date, one website estimates its Amazon sales at less than 1,000 copies. Beth's share of the proceeds from the Amazon sales may not even cover the cost of one of the animal activist's fancy leather purses let alone the somewhat expensive NSAL kitten play palace.
February 2016 - Kitten Bowl
For the third straight year Beth appeared on the Hallmark Channel's Kitten Bowl and she was trotting around to promote the event (unfortunately, ratings were a dismal 0.2, less than a third of the 0.7 rating of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl and the Kitten Bowl finished well out of the top 100 cable shows of the day).
She also discussed the status of Bianca's Furry Friends in some interviews.
In a WebMD interview, Beth once again broke out her statement that she has no "human children" and said that they will break ground early this year:
""I don't have human children," she says, "so this is my purpose. .... Howard and I are working on a 14,000-square-foot expansion of North Shore's existing shelter, called Bianca's Furry Friends. The space will allow the cats to live cage-free until they're adopted. Friends have been so supportive -- Billy Joel donated over a million dollars, and Rachael Ray presented me with a $500,000 check on her show. We'll break ground early this year."
In a Newsday article, Beth said:
"We are over $7 million, and that means we are ready to break ground,” she said. “We are waiting, I believe, on one more permit and as soon as we get that permit we are ready to go. So I’m thinking that within the next couple of months we are breaking ground, and my dream will finally come true."
Based on that claim, it sounds like the NSAL must have received that "final $1 million" that Beth mentioned in the November 2015 interview with Newsday, although it sounds like the ground breaking date may now be pushed back to April 2016.
Beth also mentioned in another article that Bianca's Furry Friends is "15,000 square feet" (up from the original 14,000 square feet?) and that they're "just waiting on permits".
Separate Foundation
As mentioned before on this blog, Beth is affiliated with a separate charity called the Bianca's Furry Friends Foundation.
Information about this foundation is fairly scarce, as the foundation does not appear to have a website and has not filed its initial Form 990 with the IRS, but a number of documents are available for the public to view online on a database of charities maintained by the New York attorney general.
These filings reveal that:
(1) the President of the foundation is one Beth Ostrosky Stern,
(2) the foundation was formed in January 2014 and first began maintaining assets in New York in May 2014 (interesting that this was near the time of the Billy Joel concert when he donated proceeds from a show to Bianca's Furry Friends), and
(3) the foundation received over $270,000 of contributions through December 31, 2014 and it received its first donation in May 2014 - a check for $250K; this is a nice chunk of change for a foundation which hasn't received much (if any) public discussion.
It is a bit odd that Beth Stern has never specifically mentioned this separate foundation, which has now been in existence for over 2 years. Many of the devoted followers of her Instagram account who enjoy the many pictures of cats she posts each day might pony up some money to fund this foundation.
Hopefully the assets held by the foundation may be used to help fund the NSAL addition (maybe to help with the filing costs for the permits that Beth mentioned in her recent interviews). In the meantime, it is just one more unknown regarding Bianca's Furry Friends, in addition to the moving target date of when the NSAL addition will finally break ground.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
September to Remember for Howard Stern
Many conspiracy theorists were worried about ominous events happening in September and although none of these led to the demise of the Western world (shocker), it was not a good month for 61 year old radio host Howard Stern. Some of the Stern-related highlights/lowlights of the month included:
Hitting It Out of the Park on Sirius/XM
Rebel radio was back on Sirius/XM for a whopping nine shows during the month of September. The show had 12 guests during the month, including one who was over 80 years old (Carol Burnett). Guest demographics looked like this:
One straight man - Adam Carolla
Two gay men - Neil Patrick Harris and Andy Cohen
Nine women - Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Burnett, Jewel, Pamela Anderson, Beverly Johnson, Cindy Crawford and Emily Blunt
It is a joke to see out of touch media types describe Stern as a "shock jock" in 2015 when he trots out a lineup of guests like this, which makes the Stern channels look like the satellite radio love child of the View and Sirius/XM's OutQ channel.
End of the Line for America's Judge
Howard ended his 4 year run as a judge on America's Got Talent last month, but he didn't exactly leave on a high note.
The rating in the key demo for the finale was the lowest in AGT history and overall, the season had its worst ratings ever. The show will be moving back to Los Angeles next year and it will be interesting to see whether ratings improve without the power of Stern.
At least AGT made Howard a a tribute video and fans also learned of another of Howard's long list of inventions in his crazy skit with a bunch of kids:
Radar Online, Artie and Marci Turk
In August, a Page Six article in the New York Post mentioned how Stern channels' COO Marci Turk was behind the now-PC image of Howard and the show (although some are more inclined to believe Stern is the reason for his own "evolution" and Marci is just a minion who helps him get things done on the channels).
Artie Lange and John Melendez spoke about this on Artie's podcast and Artie joked about only being able to see Howard if he was tending bar at Jennifer Aniston's next wedding or if he went to a meeting of the Ellen DeGeneres fan club. This got Stern to discuss their takes on his radio show, subsequent podcast discussions by Artie and a series of stories by Adam Levy on Radar Online, including articles on September 16, September 29, and September 30.
This exchange fueled lots of discussion on social media about Howard's treatment of Artie after his stint on the show ended and more talk about Marci Turk. Although Howard acknowledged Marci Turk for her work on the amazing birthday bash in 2014, he has not wanted to discuss her too much on his radio show and dropped regular caller Hanzi after he mentioned the life coach turned COO of the Stern channels.
Eventually, Artie tried to downplay any tension with Howard and went so far as to say that Stern is still doing great radio in 2015
Earlier this year Whalerock Industries announced that it was going to be developing digital media hubs for Howard Stern as well as other celebrities.
The Kardashian sisters rolled out their Whalerock apps earlier this month, and while they were initially making all kinds of subscriber gains during the initial free seven day trial period, that buzz died down pretty quickly.
According to the Tech Crunch article mentioned above, "unfortunately for the celeb sisters, when the media buzz wore off, so did their App Store downloads. And that means revenue projections have been dropping as well.
Kim and Khloé’s apps were tanking by Tuesday, September 23rd as the paid service kicked off. Kylie’s app hung onto a spot in the top 50 for a time, however.
But by Sunday, September 27th, the decline continued. Kylie’s app is now on its way out of the top 200 Overall, at No. 172.
Apparently many subscribers downloaded the Kardashian apps during the initial free trial, but very few were converted into paying subscribers and downloads were down."
Although the Kardashians are annoying, they are more popular than Stern, so this initial report isn't a good sign for Howard's Whalerock app - HowardTV failed in 2013 and one can't imagine many people signing up to pay for a few long, painful interviews by Stern each month and stale replays of bits that have been repeated on satellite many times.
Kittens, Kittens and More Kittens
As refugees flood across the borders of European countries, Howard has a continuing crisis of his own - another month of cats from the North Shore Animal League invading his mansion in the Hamptons.
Last month, Beth Stern, with plenty of free time on her hands, posted pictures of 10 new cats that the Sterns are fostering in their Southampton crib and 3 of them are vision-impaired (which seems to be Beth's new thing as she readies her social media fans for the new book about a blind cat):
Yogi
Cucumber
Raisin
Potato
Maggie
Rainbow one-eyed 7 year old cat
Milly needs to see eye specialist
Donut
Otter
Wilson (blind)
Fans are still waiting to see if Howard will re-sign with Sirius/XM after his contract expires this year or move on to some other unknown venture - the only things people know for sure is that there are less than 30 live Stern shows for the rest of 2015 and that Beth Stern will go on a media blitz once her new cat book is released in December. Good times!
Hitting It Out of the Park on Sirius/XM
Rebel radio was back on Sirius/XM for a whopping nine shows during the month of September. The show had 12 guests during the month, including one who was over 80 years old (Carol Burnett). Guest demographics looked like this:
One straight man - Adam Carolla
Two gay men - Neil Patrick Harris and Andy Cohen
Nine women - Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Burnett, Jewel, Pamela Anderson, Beverly Johnson, Cindy Crawford and Emily Blunt
It is a joke to see out of touch media types describe Stern as a "shock jock" in 2015 when he trots out a lineup of guests like this, which makes the Stern channels look like the satellite radio love child of the View and Sirius/XM's OutQ channel.
End of the Line for America's Judge
Howard ended his 4 year run as a judge on America's Got Talent last month, but he didn't exactly leave on a high note.
The rating in the key demo for the finale was the lowest in AGT history and overall, the season had its worst ratings ever. The show will be moving back to Los Angeles next year and it will be interesting to see whether ratings improve without the power of Stern.
At least AGT made Howard a a tribute video and fans also learned of another of Howard's long list of inventions in his crazy skit with a bunch of kids:
Radar Online, Artie and Marci Turk
In August, a Page Six article in the New York Post mentioned how Stern channels' COO Marci Turk was behind the now-PC image of Howard and the show (although some are more inclined to believe Stern is the reason for his own "evolution" and Marci is just a minion who helps him get things done on the channels).
Artie Lange and John Melendez spoke about this on Artie's podcast and Artie joked about only being able to see Howard if he was tending bar at Jennifer Aniston's next wedding or if he went to a meeting of the Ellen DeGeneres fan club. This got Stern to discuss their takes on his radio show, subsequent podcast discussions by Artie and a series of stories by Adam Levy on Radar Online, including articles on September 16, September 29, and September 30.
This exchange fueled lots of discussion on social media about Howard's treatment of Artie after his stint on the show ended and more talk about Marci Turk. Although Howard acknowledged Marci Turk for her work on the amazing birthday bash in 2014, he has not wanted to discuss her too much on his radio show and dropped regular caller Hanzi after he mentioned the life coach turned COO of the Stern channels.
Eventually, Artie tried to downplay any tension with Howard and went so far as to say that Stern is still doing great radio in 2015
Guys I will talk about Howard's Show today on podcast. It's simple if u hear Howard's voice ur hearing the best radio there is always.
— Artie Lange (@artiequitter) September 28, 2015
Whalerock Industries - Kardashian App Downloads DroppingEarlier this year Whalerock Industries announced that it was going to be developing digital media hubs for Howard Stern as well as other celebrities.
The Kardashian sisters rolled out their Whalerock apps earlier this month, and while they were initially making all kinds of subscriber gains during the initial free seven day trial period, that buzz died down pretty quickly.
According to the Tech Crunch article mentioned above, "unfortunately for the celeb sisters, when the media buzz wore off, so did their App Store downloads. And that means revenue projections have been dropping as well.
Kim and Khloé’s apps were tanking by Tuesday, September 23rd as the paid service kicked off. Kylie’s app hung onto a spot in the top 50 for a time, however.
But by Sunday, September 27th, the decline continued. Kylie’s app is now on its way out of the top 200 Overall, at No. 172.
Apparently many subscribers downloaded the Kardashian apps during the initial free trial, but very few were converted into paying subscribers and downloads were down."
Although the Kardashians are annoying, they are more popular than Stern, so this initial report isn't a good sign for Howard's Whalerock app - HowardTV failed in 2013 and one can't imagine many people signing up to pay for a few long, painful interviews by Stern each month and stale replays of bits that have been repeated on satellite many times.
Kittens, Kittens and More Kittens
As refugees flood across the borders of European countries, Howard has a continuing crisis of his own - another month of cats from the North Shore Animal League invading his mansion in the Hamptons.
Last month, Beth Stern, with plenty of free time on her hands, posted pictures of 10 new cats that the Sterns are fostering in their Southampton crib and 3 of them are vision-impaired (which seems to be Beth's new thing as she readies her social media fans for the new book about a blind cat):
Yogi
Cucumber
Raisin
Potato
Maggie
Rainbow one-eyed 7 year old cat
Milly needs to see eye specialist
Donut
Otter
Wilson (blind)
Fans are still waiting to see if Howard will re-sign with Sirius/XM after his contract expires this year or move on to some other unknown venture - the only things people know for sure is that there are less than 30 live Stern shows for the rest of 2015 and that Beth Stern will go on a media blitz once her new cat book is released in December. Good times!
Saturday, August 1, 2015
New Book for Beth Stern - Who's Your Buddy
Mayday, mayday - calling illustrator Devin Crane and contributor K.A. Alistir, your services may again be required for another book from New York Times best-selling author Beth Stern. Five star reviewers better get ready for this book as well.
Fans of Ms. Stern were probably rejoicing yesterday as she announced that she has another book deal from Simon & Schuster:
This book will feature Buddy, a blind cat that Beth is fostering and it apparently came to fruition in a matter of weeks, as Beth first mentioned Buddy on June 6, 2015.
Seeing an author like Beth get a book deal so quickly must be frustrating for some other children's book authors who spend time working on their craft, waiting forever to hear back from publishers and attending conferences to improve their skills.
Perhaps these people should post tasteful pictures of themselves on Twitter to help establish credibility as a children's book author, as Beth did on the same day that she announced the new Buddy book:
As noted above, Beth indicated that her share of the proceeds from this new book will be going to the NSAL and Bianca's Furry Friends, which of course still hasn't been fully funded as of this date.
It is interesting that Beth has not mentioned that there is now a charity called Biancas Furry Friends Foundation. This new Biancas Furry Friends Foundation received its tax-exempt status in 2015 - it has a different tax identification number than the NSAL but it is unclear whether there is some relationship between the two charities.
One can only imagine how this upcoming masterpiece will read - here's one guess of the storyline:
Scene 1 - Yoda is sad as Beth, rocking a stylish hat, leaves to deliver a foster kitten to its new home (and pose for an Instagram picture with the "forever family" adopting said kitten)
Scene 2 - Yoda is happy as Beth comes home and steps out of the limo with a fresh batch of foster kittens
Scene 3 - foster kittens cause trouble in the Sterns' mansion and Yoda springs into action, getting the kittens out of the animal activist's closet which is filled with expensive leather goods
Scene 4 - Yoda is confused as to why Buddy isn't behaving - "foster mom, what's the deal with Buddy?" Beth tells Yoda that Buddy has "sad eyes" and cannot see.
Scene 5 - Buddy has to go to the hospital and Yoda thinks "foster kittens cured my sad heart, why can't they fix Buddy's eyes?"
Scene 6 - Buddy comes home and Yoda is confused as to why Beth has a bunch of balloons for a blind cat
Scene 7 - even though Buddy cannot see, he becomes Yoda's sidekick - together forever!!
This book should provide Beth Stern fans with more chances to see her on TV, as well as a few choice book signings - perhaps an encore at the Costco in Riverhead, NY. If they're lucky, maybe Robin Quivers will again record an audio version of this book. With all the money that this book will raise, maybe Bianca's Furry Friends may get started before the next Presidential election in 2016.
Fans of Ms. Stern were probably rejoicing yesterday as she announced that she has another book deal from Simon & Schuster:
This book will feature Buddy, a blind cat that Beth is fostering and it apparently came to fruition in a matter of weeks, as Beth first mentioned Buddy on June 6, 2015.
Seeing an author like Beth get a book deal so quickly must be frustrating for some other children's book authors who spend time working on their craft, waiting forever to hear back from publishers and attending conferences to improve their skills.
Perhaps these people should post tasteful pictures of themselves on Twitter to help establish credibility as a children's book author, as Beth did on the same day that she announced the new Buddy book:
Proof I can palm a basketball. (Photo by Howard) pic.twitter.com/s7qrHyjDhq
— Beth Ostrosky (@BethStern) July 31, 2015
As noted above, Beth indicated that her share of the proceeds from this new book will be going to the NSAL and Bianca's Furry Friends, which of course still hasn't been fully funded as of this date.
It is interesting that Beth has not mentioned that there is now a charity called Biancas Furry Friends Foundation. This new Biancas Furry Friends Foundation received its tax-exempt status in 2015 - it has a different tax identification number than the NSAL but it is unclear whether there is some relationship between the two charities.
One can only imagine how this upcoming masterpiece will read - here's one guess of the storyline:
Scene 1 - Yoda is sad as Beth, rocking a stylish hat, leaves to deliver a foster kitten to its new home (and pose for an Instagram picture with the "forever family" adopting said kitten)
Scene 2 - Yoda is happy as Beth comes home and steps out of the limo with a fresh batch of foster kittens
Scene 3 - foster kittens cause trouble in the Sterns' mansion and Yoda springs into action, getting the kittens out of the animal activist's closet which is filled with expensive leather goods
Scene 4 - Yoda is confused as to why Buddy isn't behaving - "foster mom, what's the deal with Buddy?" Beth tells Yoda that Buddy has "sad eyes" and cannot see.
Scene 5 - Buddy has to go to the hospital and Yoda thinks "foster kittens cured my sad heart, why can't they fix Buddy's eyes?"
Scene 6 - Buddy comes home and Yoda is confused as to why Beth has a bunch of balloons for a blind cat
Scene 7 - even though Buddy cannot see, he becomes Yoda's sidekick - together forever!!
This book should provide Beth Stern fans with more chances to see her on TV, as well as a few choice book signings - perhaps an encore at the Costco in Riverhead, NY. If they're lucky, maybe Robin Quivers will again record an audio version of this book. With all the money that this book will raise, maybe Bianca's Furry Friends may get started before the next Presidential election in 2016.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Sick Cousin of Howard Stern Had to Set Up a Crowdfunding Website
On his June 1, 2015 satellite radio program, an exhausted Howard Stern spoke about how he attended a memorial service for his cousin Stacy, who died late last year and who Howard described as a fun guy. Howard managed to attend even though his week of judging on America's Got Talent was very grueling and he claimed that "they work him really hard".
To be fair, if the judging involved horrid acts such as the one below, perhaps Howard has a valid point about being tired of watching such nonsense:
There is another side note to the story that Stern did not get to during his jam-packed show, which featured another riveting interview of Melissa McCarthy - Howard's cousin Stacy Gerber had to ask for money on a Gofundme website, as he had to close down his catering business after getting sick.
On the web page, Stacy's spouse said "[w]e have had to close our catering business that Stacy started over thirty years ago, creating closing costs and lessening our income significantly. We also will be incurring hospital bills and rehab fees."
This appears to be the same cousin that Howard has spoken about on his radio show over the years, and an article about Stacy's 2009 marriage mentioned that Howard was his cousin. In addition, a woman who looks like Beth Stern appears in one of the wedding pictures and a scroll down the list of donors to Stacy's Gofundme website showed the names of Howard's daughter and sister. They were able to raise about $13,000, which is short of the $100,000 target (and is also less than the cost of some of the expensive leather purses that animal advocate Beth Stern often carries).
A story from last year indicated that medical bankruptcy accounts for a majority of the personal bankruptcies in the United States, and apparently even those with very rich relatives feel the effects of medical costs and the resulting loss of income after becoming sick.
In the meantime, fans of the Stern show should not forget that Bianca's Furry Friends still needs their money to help save lives (of cats).
To be fair, if the judging involved horrid acts such as the one below, perhaps Howard has a valid point about being tired of watching such nonsense:
There is another side note to the story that Stern did not get to during his jam-packed show, which featured another riveting interview of Melissa McCarthy - Howard's cousin Stacy Gerber had to ask for money on a Gofundme website, as he had to close down his catering business after getting sick.
On the web page, Stacy's spouse said "[w]e have had to close our catering business that Stacy started over thirty years ago, creating closing costs and lessening our income significantly. We also will be incurring hospital bills and rehab fees."
This appears to be the same cousin that Howard has spoken about on his radio show over the years, and an article about Stacy's 2009 marriage mentioned that Howard was his cousin. In addition, a woman who looks like Beth Stern appears in one of the wedding pictures and a scroll down the list of donors to Stacy's Gofundme website showed the names of Howard's daughter and sister. They were able to raise about $13,000, which is short of the $100,000 target (and is also less than the cost of some of the expensive leather purses that animal advocate Beth Stern often carries).
A story from last year indicated that medical bankruptcy accounts for a majority of the personal bankruptcies in the United States, and apparently even those with very rich relatives feel the effects of medical costs and the resulting loss of income after becoming sick.
In the meantime, fans of the Stern show should not forget that Bianca's Furry Friends still needs their money to help save lives (of cats).
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Favorite Howard Stern AGT Moments
Howard Stern is back to further tarnish his legacy by returning to serve as a judge on NBC's summer filler show, America's Got Talent. Season 10 of AGT got off to a shaky start, as for some reason, the millions of Stern fans failed to tune in and the show had its lowest-rated premiere ever, scoring a weak 2.6 in the key 18-49 demo.
In an attempt to generate some buzz earlier this year, the NBC creative geniuses made a video of the top 10 moments from Howard's three prior seasons on the amazing show.
At least Howard was showcased in this top 10 video, as he was left out of David Letterman's final top 10 list earlier this month.
The AGT video had some odd clips of Howard dancing with other men, kissing Howie Mandel and pulling a card out of some magician's ass - what a wild man!
It's a shame that the clip couldn't have shown more of Judge Stern's antics on the show, as well as promoting it - here are a few other classic moments from Howard's time on AGT:
Samba Audition
In addition to dancing with the shirtless men in the AGT promotional clip, Howard nearly lowered himself onto the face of a young contestant during a samba sequence in the Chicago auditions a few years ago - Howie Mandel had to offer himself up as bait to get Stern away from the young kid (starts around 1:50)
Robin, Everyone Loves it When I Pretend to Like Men
Howard kissed Howie Mandel in the AGT promo video, laid down on top of Nick Cannon in an AGT teaser video and recently broke out the lame schtick again when he tried to kiss David Letterman in his final appearance.
He also danced the salsa with Howie (around the 3:40 mark) in the video below:
However, the show better make sure to keep women from getting too close to Howard - in 2013 he was scrambling to get away when that yucky girl Heidi Klum tried to kiss him, both on the Today show (at around the 2:50 mark), as well as on Extra.
More Great Acts
Howard claimed that he was on AGT to help find great acts and talent. Apparently this included the Olate Dogs (which won the first season with America's judge).
Howard also got a chance to judge "talent" like a gentleman whose skill was getting kicked in the groin as well as a squirrel on water skis:
Family-Friendly Howard
In 2015, there are still some articles which describe Howard as outrageous, apparently written by folks who no longer listen to the show and think that Howard is the same guy who wished cancer on people and thought that gay people could be "cured" by reading his buddy Dr. John Sarno's book.
These days, the former shock jock is instead drawing pretty paintings of flowers:
Howard also uses AGT to attempt to create an evolved public image and just a few days ago, Mr. Outrageous was seen on the kids channel Sprout with some chicken puppet character (at around the 2:48 mark):
Hopefully for Howard the AGT ratings will improve for the next show, as the NBA finals don't start until later in the week. At least with the AGT ratings bar set so low from last season, the PR team at NBC will have an easier time spinning any bad AGT ratings in 2015 and Howard can create more classic moments for next year's AGT promo video.
In an attempt to generate some buzz earlier this year, the NBC creative geniuses made a video of the top 10 moments from Howard's three prior seasons on the amazing show.
At least Howard was showcased in this top 10 video, as he was left out of David Letterman's final top 10 list earlier this month.
The AGT video had some odd clips of Howard dancing with other men, kissing Howie Mandel and pulling a card out of some magician's ass - what a wild man!
It's a shame that the clip couldn't have shown more of Judge Stern's antics on the show, as well as promoting it - here are a few other classic moments from Howard's time on AGT:
Samba Audition
In addition to dancing with the shirtless men in the AGT promotional clip, Howard nearly lowered himself onto the face of a young contestant during a samba sequence in the Chicago auditions a few years ago - Howie Mandel had to offer himself up as bait to get Stern away from the young kid (starts around 1:50)
Robin, Everyone Loves it When I Pretend to Like Men
Howard kissed Howie Mandel in the AGT promo video, laid down on top of Nick Cannon in an AGT teaser video and recently broke out the lame schtick again when he tried to kiss David Letterman in his final appearance.
He also danced the salsa with Howie (around the 3:40 mark) in the video below:
However, the show better make sure to keep women from getting too close to Howard - in 2013 he was scrambling to get away when that yucky girl Heidi Klum tried to kiss him, both on the Today show (at around the 2:50 mark), as well as on Extra.
More Great Acts
Howard claimed that he was on AGT to help find great acts and talent. Apparently this included the Olate Dogs (which won the first season with America's judge).
Howard also got a chance to judge "talent" like a gentleman whose skill was getting kicked in the groin as well as a squirrel on water skis:
Family-Friendly Howard
In 2015, there are still some articles which describe Howard as outrageous, apparently written by folks who no longer listen to the show and think that Howard is the same guy who wished cancer on people and thought that gay people could be "cured" by reading his buddy Dr. John Sarno's book.
These days, the former shock jock is instead drawing pretty paintings of flowers:
Howard's painting of the day. pic.twitter.com/YXuOWjw7DT
— Beth Ostrosky (@BethStern) March 15, 2015
Some people who are suspicious may think that Howard is merely tracing these wonderful drawings, as the masterpiece shown above looks very similar to a stock picture found online.Howard also uses AGT to attempt to create an evolved public image and just a few days ago, Mr. Outrageous was seen on the kids channel Sprout with some chicken puppet character (at around the 2:48 mark):
Hopefully for Howard the AGT ratings will improve for the next show, as the NBA finals don't start until later in the week. At least with the AGT ratings bar set so low from last season, the PR team at NBC will have an easier time spinning any bad AGT ratings in 2015 and Howard can create more classic moments for next year's AGT promo video.
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