The History of Howard Stern
# The History of Howard Stern

The History of Howard Stern is a radio documentary series about the life and career of American radio personality Howard Stern, covering the years from his childhood through 2001. It originally aired across 35 episodes in four "acts" on Howard 100 on SiriusXM Radio between December 17, 2007 and December 31, 2010. Each episode includes segments from The Howard Stern Show, interviews with the show's staff, celebrity guests, and his family, and excerpts of news reports. The series is narrated by Jim Forbes.

In 2008, the series won a Communicator Award. Act III was given a Silver World Medal award at the 2010 International Radio Programming and Promotion Awards in the History category. An additional episode covering the show's final two years on terrestrial radio in 2004 and 2005 aired in July 2015.

## Background

On June 7, 2006, Stern announced on his show that the lawsuit settlement with CBS Radio (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) finally gave Sirius exclusive rights to his entire back catalogue of radio shows from his time at terrestrial radio station WXRK, which spanned over twenty years from November 1985 to December 2005, totalling almost 23,000 hours. It was reported that Sirius agreed to pay CBS $2 million for the rights, approximately $87 per-hour of tape. Sirius held the rights to the tapes until the end of Stern's initial 5-year contract with the satellite company on December 31, 2010, when all rights returned to Stern. On December 2, 2009, it was announced that every tape had been digitized on a server taking up multiple terabytes of data. The process took close to five years to complete. This has allowed all specials broadcast on Howard 100 and Howard 101 to be produced.

## Episodes

### Act I

| No. | Title | Year(s) covered | Original air date |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | "The Early Years" | 1954–1977 | December 17, 2007 (2007-12-17) |
| 2 | "Howard's Radio Journey Begins" | 1977–1981 | December 18, 2007 (2007-12-18) |
| 3 | "Mr. Stern Goes to Washington" | 1981–82 | December 19, 2007 (2007-12-19) |
| 4 | "Welcome to the Big Apple" | 1982–84 | December 20, 2007 (2007-12-20) |
| 5 | "End of the WNBC Era" | 1984–85 | December 21, 2007 (2007-12-21) |

### Act II

| No. | Title | Year(s) covered | Original air date |
| - | - | - | - |
| 6 | "K-Rock: A New Beginning" | 1985–86 | December 22, 2008 (2008-12-22) |
| 7 | "Morning Glory" | 1986 | December 23, 2008 (2008-12-23) |
| 8 | "Philadelphia Freedom" | 1986–87 | December 24, 2008 (2008-12-24) |
| 9 | "Video Thrilled the Radio Star" | 1987 | December 25, 2008 (2008-12-25) |
| 10 | "Radio Wars" | 1988 | December 26, 2008 (2008-12-26) |
| 11 | "New Faces, New Places" | 1988 | December 29, 2008 (2008-12-29) |
| 12 | "Fight the Good Fight" | 1989 | December 30, 2008 (2008-12-30) |
| 13 | "Unforced Errors" | 1989 | December 31, 2008 (2008-12-31) |
| 14 | "The Radio King" | 1990 | January 1, 2009 (2009-01-01) |
| 15 | "Television Triumph, Radio Tragedy" | 1990 | January 2, 2009 (2009-01-02) |

### Act III

| No. | Title | Year(s) covered | Original air date |
| - | - | - | - |
| 16 | "West Coast Story" | 1991 | December 21, 2009 (2009-12-21) |
| 17 | "Hello Goodbye" | 1992 | December 22, 2009 (2009-12-22) |
| 18 | "It's a Gas, Gas, Gas" | 1992 | December 23, 2009 (2009-12-23) |
| 19 | "Bury 'Em" | 1992–93 | December 24, 2009 (2009-12-24) |
| 20 | "Howard Stern's Private Parts" | 1993 | December 25, 2009 (2009-12-25) |
| 21 | "A Political Party" | 1993–94 | December 28, 2009 (2009-12-28) |
| 22 | "Radio D-Day" | 1994 | December 29, 2009 (2009-12-29) |
| 23 | "The Kingmaker" | 1994 | December 30, 2009 (2009-12-30) |
| 24 | "It's Not Fun" | 1995 | December 31, 2009 (2009-12-31) |
| 25 | "Author, Author!" | 1995–96 | January 1, 2010 (2010-01-01) |

### Act IV

| No. | Title | Year(s) covered | Original air date |
| - | - | - | - |
| 26 | "A Star Is Born" | 1996 | December 20, 2010 (2010-12-20) |
| 27 | "Cast of Characters" | 1996 | December 21, 2010 (2010-12-21) |
| 28 | "King of All Media Blitz" | 1997 | December 22, 2010 (2010-12-22) |
| 29 | "Private Parts The Movie" | 1997 | December 23, 2010 (2010-12-23) |
| 30 | "Pushin' Limits" | 1997–98 | December 24, 2010 (2010-12-24) |
| 31 | "Here's to The Losers" | 1998 | December 27, 2010 (2010-12-27) |
| 32 | "My Personal Life Is At Like a 2" | 1999 | December 28, 2010 (2010-12-28) |
| 33 | "Life's a Beach" | 2000 | December 29, 2010 (2010-12-29) |
| 34 | "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" | 2000–01 | December 30, 2010 (2010-12-30) |
| 35 | "In Memoriam" | 2001 | December 31, 2010 (2010-12-31) |

## Additional material

An episode covering 2004 and 2005 aired on July 17, 2015 which included the departure of John Melendez, the early period of JD Harmeyer, the show's run-ins with the FCC, and Stern's departure from terrestrial radio for Sirius. The episode was narrated by AJ Allen.

