Love him or hate him, you’ve gotta give it to him. American radio personality and media celebrity Howard Stern certainly gets tongues wagging and makes a mint out of his various enterprises, be it as talk show host or America’s Got Talent judge and, he also has the dubious honour of being the most fined radio host.
Stern started working at the radio station WXRK back in 1985, beginning a 20-year run - the morning show was syndicated the following year and aired in 60 markets, attracting 20million listeners at its peak.
As long as 15 years ago, he became one of the highest paid radio figures after signing a five-year deal with the Sirius company in 2004 - his net worth a whopping $500 million (R7 billion).
Nothing less than controversial, the US Federal Communications Commission issued fines over the years to the tune of $2.5 million (R35 million) to station owners for content it deemed indecent.
So what is Howard Allan Stern all about?
This hefty book reveals the man behind the voice, filled with the verbatim interviews he’s conducted in his colourful if not maverick career.
It’s good to read the introduction and it’s the kind of book you can simply dip in and out of. There are several interviews with Donald Trump and Stern makes no bones about the fact that as far as talking politics is concerned, “positions are constantly changing, and that’s the single most important rule of being successful in radio, ahead of ‘nothing is casual’ - have a definite opinion.”
Stern tells us his conversations with Trump demonstrate his transformation as an interviewer - his shifting interest from the president’s sexual exploits to his political ambitions. He also makes the claim that his interviews with the often reviled president “have become an important part of American history...”
There are a host of fascinating conversations where there are no holds barred chats from Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney to Ed Sheeran, Madonna, David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres and Joan Rivers.
As Stern says in the intro, his selection also shows the evolution of popular culture over the last century and for that reason alone it’s a fascinating insight.
It’s all handily presented - the content list divided into categories from some of the top personalities to sex and relationships, money and fame, drugs and sobriety and religion and spirituality.
Each interview opens with a short introduction.
This is simply one fabulous reference book of a completely different kind.
The voices of some of our most famous contemporary men and women are all packaged in one volume - to be dipped into and indulged in time again.
Buy online from www.loot.co.za