Behind the Scenes Shuffle - News Team Shrinkage and Meet Some New Staffers

Over the years, Howard Stern has put his backroom staff and interns on the air so the fans could get to know them.  This is another one of Howard's "inventions", even though others like Steve Dahl had done it in the past.  This practice has also allowed Howard to fill the airtime with contrived fights and bits involving said staffers.

New Trend - People Clandestinely Disappear

Over the past few years, Howard has cut back on the practice of talking about staffers too much and has also kept his mouth shut when people leave the show.  In 2013, when executive producer Gary Dell'Abate was asked if Tim Sabean, former SVP of the Stern channels, had left the show, he infamously proclaimed that Tim was "around".

Back in the day (February 2010), Howard grilled Sussy the lighting guy for leaving his great job with HowardTV.  However, he made no mention that it was the last day of work for many of the other HowardTV guys in October 2013 even though he had put them on the air many times over the years.  They got the ax when HowardTV was cut from InDemand and many of them did not have new jobs lined up when they were canned.

One may think that the reason for not providing any airtime for the HTV guys was that Howard had a jam packed show that day, but the here is the summary of the radio gold that the Stern show delivered:

Howard could have easily had the HTV guys on the air for a final good bye, but it would have drawn attention to the failure of HowardTV.  He also claimed that 'other plans' were in the works and that he had "a different approach on how to do TV for the show", but as of this date, there has been no replacement for HowardTV.

Howard also didn't mention that former intern wrangler Tracey Millman left the show in early 2014 - some have speculated that this was another cost cutting move, but Tracey claims that she did not get fired and that she left to pursue other options in a different state.  However, there has been no mention of her replacement and there is a gap of several months between when she left the Stern show in February 2014 and when she started her new job at a local station in North Carolina in the fall of 2014.

Breaking News - Howard 100 News Team is Shrinking

File this under 'stories not likely to be discussed' when Howard returns for his next live show next week after a week of vacation at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.

Folks online have found that former (?) news person Lisa G may be the latest person who has clandestinely disappeared - her profile is no longer visible on the howardstern.com website, although the cached version is still available.

Mike Hambrick is yet another former Howard 100 news guy who is "around".  Like Lisa G, his  profile on the Stern website is also gone (see cache of old profile) but his LinkedIn profile confirms that his time with the Stern channels ended in February 2015.

New Faces

While some familiar people are now former Stern channel employees, others are joining the ranks as Howard is "all in" to deliver quality content to his audience, with bits such as fake Bruce Jenner and Casey Kasem's corpse.  In case fans are still in the dark about some newer additions to the cast of characters behind the scenes who help bring the funny to the 2015 Howard Stern show, let's meet a few of them:

1.  Marci Turk.  Marci is the Chief Operating Officer of the Stern channels and has been working for the channels for a while.  The howardstern.com website used to include her profile; however, for some strange reason, someone must have told Jason Kaplan to remove it from the site.  Of course, one can still see an archived version of her profile on the Stern website.  While some disgruntled fans who aren't amused by the recent content on the Stern channels blame Marci, it is likely that she's just following Howard's instructions lest she also disappear and end up as the former COO of the Stern channels.

2.  Brent Hatley.   Brent was formerly with the Bubba the Love Sponge show and he has been a producer on the Stern channels since August 2014.  I don't think Howard has ever mentioned on air that Brent is now working with the channels.

3.  Steve Nowicki.   - Steve Nowicki is an Assistant Writer/Producer on the Stern show - Mr. Nowicki graduated from college in 2014, and he claims that while he was an intern, he wrote/produced 17 bits that aired on the show:

Apparently he had more substantive duties than the former Stern show intern who's part of class action suing Sirius/XM over labor law issues who claimed that her tasks as an intern included "running errands, reviewing news clips and fetching food for on-air personalities and guests."

4.  Nik Ruckert.  Nik is a writer on the Stern show and unlike the other new employees in this post, Fred Norris slipped up and mentioned his name on the Stern show on October 8, 2014.

Audio clip:  https://soundcloud.com/howardstern/stern-staffer-shocked-that-robin-doesnt-recognize-him

Unfortunately for Nik, Howard said he couldn't pick Nik out of a lineup and Robin said she doesn't know him (not surprising, as Robin does many Stern shows from her home via ISDN line).

5.  Kyle Simon.  Kyle is another Assistant Writer/Producer on the Stern show - although Mr. Simon's Twitter account has "LOL" at the end of it, a quick review of the tweets he sends out would lead one to believe that he must be saving his humorous material for the Stern show.

One interesting item of note - last month he sent a tweet to a bi-sexual guy with two dicks telling him that the show was interested in his book.  Not surprising, as Howard seems to have a very unusual interest in the length and girth of male genitals, so this "Diphallic Dude" would be extra interesting to him.

This isn't the first time that the Stern show has reached out to this gentleman - in 2014, super producer Will Murray asked the dude to email him:

Even with the quiet disappearance of some familiar faces and additions of new 'talent', Howard is still looking for more help - there is a job listing on the Sirius/XM site for the  "Head Writer" position on the channel:

Who knows what is next with the behind the scenes changes at the Stern channels - unfortunately for what's left of Stern's listeners, it is unlikely that Howard will mention these changes on his radio show.

Five Star Reviews on Amazon for Beth Stern's Yoda Book

Beth's book Yoda: The Story of a Cat and His Kittens was released in November 2014 - as of this date, it has 395 reviews on Amazon.

In contrast, her prior best seller Oh My Dog! was released in May 2010 but as of this date it has only 169 reviews on Amazon.

Curiously, almost every recent Amazon review of Beth's Yoda book gives it five stars and there have been enough of them to get the overall rating above 4 stars.

Over the years, some unscrupulous persons have paid others to write phony product reviews on websites, including Amazon.  For example, there are sites where people offer to write 5 star Amazon reviews for a small fee, such as $5.

Even a review with a "verified purchase" tag may not be legitimate, as these people are savvy and can transfer purchase credits to the reviewer to make the review look more credible.

Although Howard and Beth Stern consider themselves to be honest (notwithstanding the fact that no one can locate any pictures from Beth's career as a former European top model), there was an infamous screen grab of a group of Beth's followers with very similar foreign names which mysteriously showed up on her Twitter account.

Here are a few interesting five star Amazon reviews that have recently been posted for the Yoda book:

Linda M gave the Yoda book a 5 star review on January 29, 2015 - it was one of over fifteen 5 star reviews that she gave on the same day. 

Dianne Walker wrote a 5 star review for the Yoda book on January 3, 2015.  This was one of over twenty five star reviews that she wrote on the same day, including one for a 'horse beaded bookmark'.

Linda and Dianne are lightweights compared to a reviewer who goes by the name of Grandma.  Grandma was a busy old bee on January 3, 2015 when she gave the Yoda book a 5 star review - she gave out over fifty other 5 star reviews on that day (most of which just said "great").

Christine Maslowski is another reviewer who thought Beth knocked it out of the park with the Yoda book.  This reviewer appears to be using her real name and gave her 5 star review for the Yoda book on January 31, 2015, stating that "my grandkids love them".  Not sure what "them" means, as there is only one book and it's a fantasy about Beth's purebred Persian cat whose sad heart was magically cured by foster kittens.

This older woman has reviewed an eclectic bunch of items on Amazon, including many erotic romance books, such as Entwined 1: The Billionaire's Arrangement: A Menage Erotic Romance,   Last Kiss 1 - Ashley's Wet Dreams and the old family classic The Sheikh's Virgin Mistress 4 (Jatar Sheikh Series Book 4) (Christine's review of the sheikh book said "just loved it, read all 5 of them").

With this slow build of positive reviews from 'satisfied customers', perhaps the overall rating of the Yoda book on Amazon will get even closer to 5 stars.

15 Foundation - Final Hurrah for the Late Vanity Project of Robin Quivers

In early 2010, Robin Quivers and her boy toy Brendan Murphy had big plans to save the world with the formation of their charity called the 15 Foundation.

The foundation would work as follows:

  (1) naive fans of Howard Stern donate money to the foundation,

  (2) the foundation uses the money to incur expenses and hire employees, and

  (3) Robin presents some lucky groups with a check (funded by money from other people) and takes credit for being a charitable person.

This mission could easily (and more efficiently) have been accomplished by just having people donate directly to the ultimate recipient groups, but this would not have permitted Ms. Quivers to draw attention to herself, a trait that she's mastered over the years by working with one Howard Stern.

For example, the foundation gave $45,000 to three charities in 2013, all of which were 501(c)(3) organizations which could easily have accepted donations directly from the public without the involvement of the large middlewoman:

Alas, all great things must come to an end - Robin's "relationship" with Mr. Murphy did not last very long and he was summarily removed as a director of the foundation and his bio was no longer listed on the foundation's website:

Brendan no longer listed under the "Founders"

Finally, in mid-2013, the foundation had to pull the plug on itself and the foundation recently filed its final public report for 2013.

NOTE:  although the foundation was formed in March 2010, Robin's farewell announcement in mid-2013 mentions its "four years" of inspiring work.

Time for a quick review of some of the highlights and lowlights of the three years of the foundation's operations:

In 2010, grand events like the Night at Caroline's and Robin's infamous marathon (aka the "Run for the Bagels") had big expenses associated with them (nearly $150K), so the actual amount raised for charitable purposes was a lot less than the gross amount taken in by the foundation.

Note that $8,400 worth of food/beverages was purchased in connection with the marathon fundraiser - that's a lot of bagels and cream cheese!

Back when Brendan was still in good graces with Robin, the foundation 'wisely' used donor money to purchase $7,500 of t-shirts from him:

As shown in the image above, it turned out that Robin was not very successful in getting the public to fork over dough to fund her pet project - in fact, she had to make a $50,000 personal loan to the foundation and a significant percentage of the contributions to the foundation were from one person - Robin!

In each of 2011 and 2012, the amount spent on salaries, etc. for foundation employees ($88K in each year) was more than the amount of grants which the foundation made in each year ($75K and $78K, respectively) - great use of donors' money:

In 2013, the foundation was lucky and was able to file a short version of the annual tax form with the IRS.  Therefore, it didn't have to disclose any details on how much of its 2013 contributions came from Robin.  The foundation used at least $50K to pay off the loan that it owed to its bloated founder:

Now with the foundation work complete, the svelte Robin has been giving back to the public by sharing healthy eating tips - better listen up so one can look as slim and fit as Ms. Quivers.

Howard Stern to Return for Another Season of America's Got Talent

It's that time of the year again - not just the upcoming holiday season, but the time when Howard Stern, in an attempt to create filler for his radio show, keeps dozens of fans in limbo as he ponders whether he will return for another season as a judge on America's Got Talent.  Today was the special day when he continued his sellout and announced, to the surprise of no one, that he would return to judge another season of AGT.

Last month, a caller other than Bobo, Mariann from Brooklyn or the usual cast of characters somehow made it on the air and asked Howard how much the AGT ratings had gone up since he had joined the show.  Howard claimed to not know any specifics about the ratings, but recited the usual mantra that AGT was the #1 show of the summer (without mentioning that it competes against junk summer filler) and that because AGT wanted him back, things must be good.  This is a stark contrast to the days when Stern would gloat about his appearances on late night TV shows and along with his self-glossed "TV expert" Jon Hein, would recite specific details about how the 'power of Stern' affected ratings.

Here's a little help for the aging Mr. Stern regarding the change in AGT ratings since he joined:

 
Back in December 2011, the air was thick (beer can thick?) with excitement after NBC signed Howard to judge AGT. 

Executives must have had dreams of amazing levels of success which would occur once Howard's millions of fans tuned in to boost the show's ratings.  The network crowed about signing the "King of All Media" to judge the awesome acts competing for a grand prize of $1 million (paid over a period of 40 years); by the way, lest anyone more relevant than Stern try to use the KOAM nickname, a lawsuit would likely ensue, as Howard has trademarked the term King of All Media.

In 2012, NBC moved the final tapings of the show to the New York area (to accommodate Howard's grueling satellite radio schedule) and even made the bold move to premiere AGT in May, a ratings sweeps month, to go up against first-run TV shows instead of AGT's usual competition of reruns and other summer drivel.

Jon Leiberman, one of Howard's shill employees on his news/propaganda team, confidently predicted that Howard's debut would generate over 16 million viewers:

Needless to say, Mr. Leiberman's prediction fell short, as the actual number of viewers was 10.48 million.

Reality quickly sunk in, as the "Stern effect" did not generate an increase in ratings and AGT failed against real competition.  In 2013, AGT moved back to its usual summer premiere date, and ratings continued to lag well below what they were before Howard joined the show, even as AGT brought in new judges Heidi Klum and Mel B.  Now, in 2014, the show plunged to new lows, and episodes which have ratings below 2.0 are not unusual, including a series low 1.8 for a non-recap episode.

Here's another graph of the 18-49 ratings over the years (for the fourth live performance show) from 2008 through the Stern era of AGT:




Apparently Howard has moved the needle for AGT ratings, but not in the direction that NBC wanted when it signed him back in 2011.  AGT seems like the kind of show that kids and older folks (i.e. not the target 18-49 demo that advertisers want) will watch - one could probably replace the current judges with a collection of has-beens from 1980's sitcoms and the ratings would not change very much.

One person who benefits from Howard continuing to embarrass himself on AGT is his wife Beth - one has to wonder whether her appearances on Extra (an NBC Universal show) are possibly due to Howard's service as an AGT judge, plus she will get her mug on screen as much as possible during any live tapings near the end of the AGT season.

At least Howard has that going for him, plus all the fun he'll have filming AGT:

D-Day Arrives

We knew it was coming and the day of reckoning finally arrived last week - the release of Beth Stern's new book Yoda: The Story of a Cat and His Kittens.  Beth unleashed a relentless assault on the public's eyes and ears with a barrage of book signings, TV appearances and interviews designed to get her mug in the spotlight spread the word to raise money to save animals.

First up was a book signing at a New York City area bookstore called Bookends:

It wasn't exactly a packed house, as Beth made her grand entrance to meet a handful of Howard Stern sycophants.

Beth posed with wackpacker Awesome Angelo (great guy to have at a children's book signing) and the nutty Mariann from Brooklyn.

  Karma part 1:  the title of the book over Beth's left shoulder is "The Fortune Hunter"

Beth implied in a tweet that the crowd was so huge that they ran out of books (with a hashtag #ranoutofbooks):

Apparently Bookends didn't get that message, as it later tweeted out that extra books were still available:

Tuesday was a big day as Beth appeared on Howard's radio show to be interviewed by his hack writer Benjy Bronk.  In the interview, Beth disclosed that she had cheated on every boyfriend that she had in the past (is that a surprise given her father's background?).  They were also about to talk about Beth's nemesis Amanda Peet, but before Beth could tee off on Amanda, Rachael Ray was ushered in to announce her charity's large donation to Bianca's Furry Friends - great timing by Rachael!

Beth also appeared with her old pal Whitney Cummings at something called an AOL Build.

Later in the day it was time for another book signing at Book of Wonders - Karma part 2 - Beth posed next to a painting with a horse's head over her left shoulder.

On Wednesday, Beth appeared on Access Hollywood - she claimed in the interview that Howard's parents, sister and his daughters (along with their significant others) would be coming over to the Sterns' place for Thanksgiving and that they'll be serving up some eggplant parmesan.  I don't expect to see any selfies or pics from this event, and some cynics may think that none of Howard's relatives will be anywhere near his Southampton estate on that day.

Beth also appeared on the Today Show with Kathie Lee Gifford, who the unevolved Howard used to rip on all the time.  Beth's huge ring was blinding the other ladies and she gave Kathie Lee and Hoda a close up of the monstrosity:

On Thursday, Beth was on Fox and Friends with Elizabeth Hasselbeck - Howard has made fun of Ms. Hasselbeck in the past but she must now be OK as long as Beth gets a TV appearance on her program.

Later in the day, she was on the Covino and Rich show on Sirius/XM.

On Friday, Beth appeared on a New York radio show with Scott Shannon - the website also lists another upcoming book signing that Beth has lined up - at the Costco in Riverhead, Long Island on December 6.  Fans should be camping out early to make sure not to miss out in case Costco runs out of books like Bookends.

Beth's PR team has also scored some press about her amazing Yoda book.  As usual, Marianne Garvey mentioned Beth in her New York Daily News column although Marianne probably pitched ideas to include Beth every day of the week.

It's a good thing for Beth that she and her husband decided to spend $8-10 million to remodel their home in Palm Beach instead of putting up the money to fund Bianca's Furry Friends - imagine all of the PR opportunities that Beth would have missed out on if she didn't have to write this book.  I wouldn't be surprised if shy Beth 'has to' make even more appearances next year under the guise of having to raise more cash for the new kitten wing - meanwhile she and Howard will spend big dollars on more fancy clothes and shoes, private jet trips and expensive furnishings for all 3 of their residences.

Recycling

Earlier this year Howard Stern's oldest daughter Emily used her blog to post articles about an environmental issue - water conservation.  This is a change from the bizarre ramblings that usually fill her blog space but thankfully she is using her abundant free time to think about this issue and has not released any more of her 'music'.

Meanwhile, due to their gas-guzzling limos, private jet trips and ownership of giant mansions in the Hamptons and Palm Beach, Howard and Beth Stern have a huge carbon footprint (kitten post haters - insert snarky comment about Beth's shoe size here).

Don't be fooled though - in addition to being a self-glossed animal activist, as well as a New York Times best-selling author, Beth Stern is very concerned about the environment and in August, wisely passed on a message to her Twitter followers about the evils of releasing balloons with a hashtag #harmfultowildlife. 

While a cynic may think that Beth the social media model was only concerned about the balloon because it interfered with the photos that Howard was going to take of her on their peasant-free private beach, Howard and Beth have also been doing their part by recycling.  

Although his radio show only airs 3 times a week, Howard recycles many tired and unfunny bits, like the phony calls which stopped being funny years ago.  His interviews usually consist of reciting the same script of inane questions as he grills the guest about his or her finances, does an amateur therapy session or fishes for compliments about his portrayal of himself in a movie that was released over 15 years ago.  Unfortunately this week was too jam packed with relevant guests like Jerry Springer and Martin Short so Howard wasn't able to work in another hilarious call from "Fake Mitt Romney" to weigh in on the mid-term elections.

Beth also does her part by recycling - usually by re-posting pictures of herself, although for some strange reason, she has never posted any photos from her European modeling days.

Beth's sycophant followers usually do not notice or care and are too busy trying to be quick on the draw to get in their comments about her breathtaking beauty.  Earlier this week Beth broke out a picture of herself in a bikini holding her cat and encouraging people to adopt pets, similar to what real models have done with PETA.

Beth posted a November 2014 Instagram picture of herself in a bikini holding her black cat with the caption "you are never fully dressed without a black cat.  Adopt today."  This is the same picture that she posted on Twitter in May 2012.

A picture of Beth and Apple Stern was posted in July 2014 on Instagram is the same photo that she posted on Twitter in May 2013.

Beth seems to spend a lot of her husband's money on expensive clothing and accessories.  While it would be gauche to boast about her lifestyle on social media, Beth has found a way to do it clandestinely - by posting pictures of her photo prop cats in boxes from high-end stores.

Her first one of these was released on the day of the Newtown shooting - while many folks were expressing sadness over the tragic event that claimed many lives, childless Beth thought it would be nice to post a picture of Leon Bear in a Saks box.

She posted another one in October of her cat Bella in a Net-a-Porter box and in September she also posted one of Leon Bear in a Net-a-Porter box.

With all of her recycling efforts, perhaps Beth should have added 'environmental activist' to her bio for the upcoming promotion of her book "Yoda:  The Story of a Cat and His Kittens".

Primate Evolution

In 2014, many former Howard Stern fans get more laughs from making fun of the show than they do from listening to the program on the rare days that Stern delivers a live broadcast to Sirius/XM subscribers. 

Many of those same people have also grown to dislike Gary Dell'Abate, the executive producer of the show.  For years Gary was known as the dim-witted loser 'boy Gary', who was the frequent target of Stern's barbs, but he has evolved into a dim-witted pompous fool who seems to think of himself as superior to the peasants who faithfully listened to the show for years.

It is sickening to hear Gary respond to a caller who dares to question whether Howard 'hit it out of the park' with another interview of [fill in the blank:  Mike Tyson, Whitney Cummings, Seth Rogen, Matt Lauer, etc.] by condescendingly asking the person "what do you do for a living?"

Gary certainly has a lofty opinion about himself now that he is an esteemed member of the Greenwich CT community.   It's a good thing embarrassing moments like his live read for The Erotic Review weren't presented in connection with his appointment to the Greenwich Parks and Recreation Board.

Gary has provided many memorable moments over the years (many of them unintentional) - here are some things to remember about Gary, who may get knocked off of his high horse once grandpa Stern officially retires from radio to spend all of his time doodling and taking pictures of kittens while wearing a John Varvatos scarf.

Don't Be Fooled by the Title

Although his lofty title of "Executive Producer" sounds impressive, Gary isn't very bright, and the key to staying in good graces at the Stern show seems to be the ability to suck up to the boss (and hire Don Buchwald as your agent, as Fred, Gary and Robin have all done).

One time genius Gary argued with fellow Mensa member Yucko the Clown after Yucko pointed out that Gary had misspelled "vicious" as "viscous".

The technical aspects of Gary's job don't seem too difficult.  He waits for guests to call and book themselves, shoots the breeze with his buddy Ross Zapin, plays trivia games on the Sporcle website and talks to Howard for a few minutes when they take a commercial break to promote the Squatty Potty or other fourth tier sponsor.

Gary has been busted falling asleep on the job and although he sometimes rocks a sport jacket in order to pretend that he's important, he was stuck with the menial task of cleaning up cat litter after Beth Stern's kitten hour segment on her shock jock husband's radio show.

Uncoordinated Oaf

Gary and Jon Hein (his bloated co-host of the Wrap-Up Show) seem to think of themselves as sports experts because they spend a lot of time watching sports on television.  Gary also fancies himself an athlete and once busted the balls of a backroom staffer who didn't know how to throw a ball properly in Gary's expert opinion.

Of course Gary later embarrassed himself by throwing an infamous first pitch at a Met game after spending lots of time preparing for the special moment.

Gary tried to play it off as a fluke but his utter lack of athletic ability was revealed when he made an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show while promoting his horrid book "They Call Me Baba Booey".  Jimmy gave Gary a chance to redeem himself by throwing a proper first pitch but nonathletic Gary nearly injured audience members with more wild throws.  Robin Quivers was able to easily throw the ball better than Gary when she appeared on Kimmel's show.

Gadget Gary

Some genius at the Don Buchwald Agency must have decided that it would be a good idea to try to promote Gary as a tech expert a few years back.  Do you know a teenager who has used a smartphone and/or set up a home stereo?  This person has as much (or more) tech expertise as Gary.

Someone should have known there was a problem when Gary went on a TV show in 2010 to give his opinion on Apple's release of the iPad and the fool predicted that it would be a "bit of a stumble" for Apple.

In 2012, old Gadget Gary was back showing off his tech ignorance at the San Diego Comic Con during an appearance on a panel with Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Fun parts of the video below are at 7:30 (Gary doesn't know what the term "vaporware" means) and at 11:30, in which he shares his insights on "thumbnail" drives made by Kingston.



Starstruck

Gary seems to relish the chance to meet and interact with celebrities of any sort, and is always available to work on the celebrity super fan round table show whenever this great content airs on the Stern channels.  He also drops show biz terms like "go dark" or "on hiatus" to show the few remaining Stern show listeners that he's a regular Hollywood insider.

Gary also managed to finagle a trip to the White House correspondents dinner in 2014 which gave him more chances to meet famous people like Diane Sawyer.

Gary claimed that it was necessary to go there to "network" with people for the show, but as of this date, it doesn't seem like the trip has generated any results for the Stern show, which continues to trot out tired guests like Whitney Cummings, Mike Tyson and William Shatner after Gary's alleged DC networking.

Gary better enjoy the big bucks he's making from the Stern show now, as I don't think he'll be able to earn the same amount of money once Howard calls it a day.  Terrestrial radio stations don't pay that kind of dough and having Tan Mom and David Arquette on speed dial won't be opening doors for him on TV shows.  In 2014, any name guests that come on the Stern show are making the rounds to pretty much every other show in NYC, so Gary doesn't have any special connections due to the rare appearance of a relevant guest.

Lest anyone forget that Gary's "star power" led to his ill-fated For What It's Worth TV show pulling an infamous 0.0 viewer number in 2013 and he and the gang didn't exactly pack the house at the San Diego Comic Con earlier this year.