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Wikipedia:WikiProject Songs

WikiProject Songs is a project intended to improve articles on songs. The goal is to make the song articles provide basic information in a quick and easy-to-read fashion. This project is based on WikiProject Albums, and uses similar templates. Both are part of WikiProject Music.

Notability
Most songs do not merit an article and should redirect to another relevant article, such as for a prominent album or for the artist who wrote or prominently performed the song. Songs that have been ranked on national or significant music charts, that have won significant awards or honors or that have been performed independently by several notable artists, bands or groups are probably notable. A separate article is only appropriate when there is enough verifiable material to warrant a reasonably detailed article; permanent stubs should be merged to articles about an artist or album.

Albums and songs that have been nominated for deletion are listed at WikiProject Deletion sorting/Albums and songs.

Article titles
The title of an article about a song should be the song's title itself without quotation marks, for example, Paranoid Android. If there is another article with that title, use the format ' (song)', for example, "Wonderwall (song)". If there is more than one song article with a title then disambiguate by putting the artist name in the title to make ' ( song)', for example "Because (Beatles song)". The possessive case is not to be used either: thus, "Beatles song," and not, "Beatles' song".

If the song is in a foreign language and titled using the Latin alphabet, then, unless the song is commonly known by a translated name in the English-speaking world, the original foreign title should be used. This may require using accented letters which are not used in English. Examples: "Ein bißchen Frieden", "Je n'ai que mon âme", "Fångad av en stormvind".

If the single title does not use the Latin alphabet, the article name should be the transliterated form of the title using Latin characters. Examples: "Kaihōku" instead of 解放区 or "Liberated District", "Ya Soshla S Uma" not "Я сошла с ума" or "I've Lost My Mind", "Sanso Gateun Neo (Love Like Oxygen)" instead of "산소 같은 너 (Love Like Oxygen)" or "You're Like Oxygen (Love Like Oxygen)".

Formatting
When creating any music articles remember that song and single titles go in quotation marks "like this" and album titles are italicised like this. The song title should be in boldface in the first sentence and in infobox chronologies, but the surrounding quotation marks should not be in boldface.

When linking to song articles, use piping to conceal the disambiguation terms, for example use the syntax " Because ", to make the link simply appear as "Because".

Also, although piping is normally discouraged on disambiguation pages, song and album titles are an exception:
 * For a song, use double quotes with the syntax: "Because" (The Beatles song), to format the title as: "Because" (The Beatles song).
 * For an album, use pairs of single quotes with the syntax: Abbey Road (album), to format the title as: Abbey Road (album).
 * See Manual of Style (disambiguation pages) for details.

Infoboxes
Several infoboxes are available for song articles. The most frequently used is Template:Infobox song. Other more specialized infoboxes are available, such as Template:Infobox musical composition (also used for hymns), Template:Infobox anthem, and Template:Infobox song contest entry (for Eurovision Song Contest entries). Please see those template description/documentation pages for their proper use.

Main body
Write a description of the song. Write the basics first (this is often the information contained in the infobox). Then write about the music and lyrics, its influences and its effect on culture (with citations, of course). Because the entire article is about the song, it is recommended that there be no section headers with titles such as "Song information" or "About the song".

Stick to factual material. Do not include "original research" such as opinions about a song, or interpretations of the lyrics or even statements about what the song is "about", unless they can be provided in the form of quotes that can be cited from sources with some authoritative insight (such as the songwriter or a notable performer). Other websites are available for people who want to give subjective interpretations of songs.

Single track listings
A separate section for listing the tracks of various single releases should not be added to articles as a standard practice. Instead, they should only be added when they are the subject of extensive commentary in the article. For example, a separate track listing section is unnecessary to list a B-side that is only briefly mentioned in the article. However, in more complex situations, such as when multiple formats/tracks/remixes are discussed in the article, they may be justified.

Lyrics and music videos
Do not include the song's entire lyrics or embed the song's music video in the article unless you are certain they are in the public domain. Quotations of the work within the analytical framework can fall into the fair use provisions within US copyright law (and to a lesser extent fair dealing and related concepts within other jurisdictions). However, how much of a song you can quote is open to interpretation, but you should avoid copyright paranoia. Examples of works still under copyright can be found at Category:FA-Class song articles and should be used as guidelines. Lyrics and music videos that are in the public domain may be entered at Wikisource. Links to external websites that provide lyrics belong in the "External links" section.

Per Wikipedia policy, please do not link to websites that are in violation of the artist's own copyright. See Copyrights. If there is a question regarding the licensing or accuracy of the information, including songwriter credits, please do not add a link. See External links.

When linking to a music video on YouTube use only the videos that have been uploaded by the musician(s), the record companies, or Vevo. The official Billboard.com YouTube channel can also be used. Links can be incorporated into the infobox (via misc using External music video) or the external links of the article using YouTube. Though the list of musician channels varies, a list of the acceptable record labels and distributors is presented below:

 * Billboard Magazine
 * Interscope Records
 * Island Records
 * Mercury Records
 * Ministry of Sound (UK, Germany, Club)
 * Parlophone Records
 * Reprise Records
 * Universal Music Group
 * Vevo
 * Warner Bros. Records

Chart performance and charts
Songs that are popular enough to appear on prominent record charts should have a "Chart performance" section. This section describes the song's history on the record charts and usually includes a table showing the song's peak chart positions. For help researching a song's chart history see the chart listings section below. For more information about displaying chart information in table format, see the Music Project's guidelines for chart tables.

Additional information to include
Articles about songs should contain information on important musical characteristics such as:
 * structure (chorus/verse/bridge)
 * key. For traditional tunes if there is a reliable source indicating that there is a settled key or keys include this information.
 * time signature or signatures for tunes which have alternative versions in this respect, particularly those which may be in 3/4 vs 6/8 and those which have cut time variants which are verifiable.
 * Of lesser importance but possibly notable are recording techniques used, if there is a major recording or an original release for non-traditional songs.

Cover versions/multiple renditions
Only cover versions/renditions important enough to have gained attention in their own right should be added to song articles. When a song has been recorded or performed by more than one artist, a particular artist's rendition should be included in the song's article (or perhaps in a separate article; see below), but only if at least one of the following applies:
 * the rendition is discussed by a reliable source, showing that it is noteworthy in its own right. Merely appearing in an album track listing, a discography, etc., is not sufficient to show that a cover version is noteworthy; cover songs with only these types of sources should not be added to song articles, either as prose or in a list.
 * the rendition itself meets the notability requirement at WP:NSONGS.

Per WP:NSONG, cover songs can be addressed in separate articles, provided that the article on the cover can be reasonably detailed based on facts independent of the original. However, cover versions/renditions that are important enough to have gained attention in their own right should also be addressed in the article about the original, even if it is not significant enough for a standalone article. For lists of recordings by date, use an instance of Timeline-event for each entry; see WP:DATELIST.

Popular culture, trivia and use in other media
Songs are heard and referenced in movies, TV shows, commercials, during political campaigns and at sporting events; songs are widely adopted in popular culture but not every instance is noteworthy. The use of a song is only worthy of noting in its respective article when it: Taking care to not synthesize or infer that sources are discussing the use of the song ; if the above criteria are met, next consider the value of the information for the readers' knowledge and understanding of the subject, and if the article about a song could be considered incomplete without the addition. If the use of the song is noteworthy and informative: In any event, the uses of the song should not be given undue weight, and verifiability and notability do not dictate that the details should be included.
 * has gained its own critical attention; e.g. a movie reviewer may critique a director's use of a song, or a newspaper may report on the reentry of an old song into the charts after its use in a TV commercial (similar to advice in WP:NSONG and WP:SONGCOVER)
 * is discussed by a reliable source; i.e. the critical attention is featured prominently in meritorious publications
 * is not merely listed or mentioned in passing; e.g. a movie review in a quality source simply lists the songs in the movie, without discussing the importance or merits of the songs' use
 * its use should be integrated in the article, preferably with some context as described by reliable sources, rather than e.g. "It was in Episode 15 of The Example TV Show"
 * a separate section or embedded list is rarely justified, but for lists of uses by date, use an instance of Timeline-event for each entry; see WP:DATELIST

A fair example of the noteworthy use of a song in other media is of Lou Reed's song "Perfect Day" being used in an episode of Fear the Walking Dead. A tragic example of what happens when these guidelines are not respected can be seen in the "In popular culture" section of the article about "Happy Together" by the Turtles.
 * Matthew Chernov for Variety discusses the qualities and content of the song and its use in relation to the tone of the episode.

Categories
Per WP:CATEGORY, a song may be categorized by a characteristic (such as producer, composer, record-label, etc.) only if it is a defining characteristic of the song (i.e. reliable, secondary sources commonly and consistently define the song as having the characteristic—not just mention it in passing or for completeness).
 * Year of publication or release is normally a defining characteristic for every song. For other characteristics, if a song is defined by a particular characteristic, then it is likely that the object of the characteristic (e.g. the conductor, producer, etc.) will be notable in that capacity and qualify (per WP:NOTABLE and WP:MUSIC) for its own Wikipedia article: if such an article does not exist, then the characteristic is probably not defining.
 * Where a team of people is credited for a characteristic (excluding songwriter credits which should be split to the individuals), the official credit must not be split into multiple categories for individual team members. So, for example, if Y is a member of a song's production team X, categorization may not be as 'songs produced by Y'; 'songs produced by X' might however, be included as a related category of 'songs produced by Y', or the song might be categorized directly as 'Y' (perhaps in addition to 'songs produced by X').
 * For an example of where a characteristic might warrant split-categorization, consider a song that is defined as being "a world-wide commercial success"; in this case, as there is no worldwide sales certification body, several categorizations may be made per appropriate national or regional sales certification bodies.
 * Characteristics that commonly define one class of song might not define another class of song. E.g. 'conducted-by' commonly defines classical-music works but rarely, if ever, defines rock-music songs. 'Produced-by' sometimes defines pop- and rock-music songs, but rarely defines classical-music works. Large record-label companies don't often qualify as a defining characteristic of a song; small, specialized record-labels however, may do.
 * If the above seems to disallow grouping articles as you think they should be, consider using an alternative mechanism such as a list-article (see WP:CLN).

Song articles should be placed into the following categories whenever applicable:
 * 1) a subcategory of Category:Songs by artist ("Category: songs"), and
 * 2) a subcategory of Category:Songs by year, using only the earliest year identified by a reliable source as being written, performed, published, recorded, or released, and
 * 3) a subcategory of Category:Singles by year for singles.
 * 4) The songwriters should be placed in either Category:Songs by songwriter ("Category:Songs written by "), Category:Songs by lyricist ("Category:Songs with lyrics by ") or Category:Songs by composer ("Category:Songs with music by "). Only one category should be created for each songwriter, so if a songwriter contributes words and/or music then the category should be in songs by songwriter only.
 * 5) Other than Category:Songs by artist, "Category: songs" should be placed into at least two other subcategories, a subcategory of Category:Songs by country and one or more subcategories of Category:Songs by genre, but only if the genre describes a majority of their songs.

For example, "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" by the Temptations was written in 1969 and released in 1971 as a single, so it is in Category:The Temptations songs, Category:1969 songs and Category:1971 singles, Category:Gordy Records singles, Category:Songs written by Barrett Strong, Category:Songs written by Norman Whitfield while Category:The Temptations songs is in Category:Songs by artist, Category:American soul songs, Category:American funk songs and Category:American rhythm and blues songs. "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" is also in the category Category:The Rolling Stones songs because the the Rolling Stones recorded a notable version which is referred to in the article.

Notes:
 * 1) For consistency, the artist name in "Category: songs" should usually be the same as the name in the title of the article.
 * 2) Please do not place song articles directly in Category:Songs or Category:Singles (music).
 * 3) A song should only be categorised once in Category:Songs by year either by the year it was written or recorded, or by first publication or release (whichever is earliest). Obviously if it is released as a single more than once it should be listed accordingly.
 * 4) If the song is in a genre in which the artist has very few songs, the song article may be added to a specific Category:Songs by genre when the artist's overall "Category: songs" has not been added to this genre category.

Stubs
If the article is a stub, please use one of the following stub templates at the bottom of the page:

 * song-stub
 * 1900s-song-stub
 * 1910s-song-stub
 * 1920s-song-stub
 * 1930s-song-stub
 * 1940s-song-stub
 * 1950s-song-stub
 * 1960s-song-stub
 * 1970s-song-stub
 * 1980s-song-stub
 * 1990s-song-stub
 * 2000s-song-stub
 * 2010s-song-stub
 * 2020s-song-stub
 * single-stub
 * 1950s-single-stub
 * 1960s-single-stub
 * 1970s-single-stub
 * 1980s-single-stub
 * 1990s-single-stub
 * 2000s-single-stub
 * 2010s-single-stub
 * 2020s-single-stub
 * Japan-single-stub
 * 2000s-Japan-single-stub
 * 2010s-Japan-single-stub
 * anthem-stub
 * beatles-song-stub
 * blues-song-stub
 * Christian-song-stub
 * classical-composition-stub
 * opera-stub
 * country-song-stub
 * 1920s-country-song-stub
 * 1930s-country-song-stub
 * 1940s-country-song-stub
 * 1950s-country-song-stub
 * 1960s-country-song-stub
 * 1970s-country-song-stub
 * 1980s-country-song-stub
 * 1990s-country-song-stub
 * 2000s-country-song-stub
 * 2010s-country-song-stub
 * electronic-song-stub
 * 1990s-electronic-song-stub
 * 2000s-electronic-song-stub
 * 2010s-electronic-song-stub
 * dance-song-stub
 * 1990s-dance-song-stub
 * folk-song-stub
 * hiphop-song-stub
 * 1990s-hiphop-song-stub
 * 2000s-hiphop-song-stub
 * 2010s-hiphop-song-stub
 * jazz-composition-stub
 * 1930s-jazz-composition-stub
 * 1940s-jazz-composition-stub
 * pop-song-stub
 * pop-standard-stub
 * 1950s-pop-song-stub
 * 1960s-pop-song-stub
 * 1970s-pop-song-stub
 * 1980s-pop-song-stub
 * 1990s-pop-song-stub
 * 2000s-pop-song-stub
 * 2010s-pop-song-stub
 * R&B-song-stub
 * 1950s-R&B-song-stub
 * 1960s-R&B-song-stub
 * 1970s-R&B-song-stub
 * 1980s-R&B-song-stub
 * 1990s-R&B-song-stub
 * 2000s-R&B-song-stub
 * 2010s-R&B-song-stub
 * rock-song-stub
 * 1960s-rock-song-stub
 * 1970s-rock-song-stub
 * 1980s-rock-song-stub
 * 1990s-rock-song-stub
 * 2000s-rock-song-stub
 * 2010s-rock-song-stub
 * metal-song-stub
 * punk-song-stub
 * show-tune-stub
 * worldmusic-song-stub

Models
The following is a list of featured articles on songs and singles. These are articles that the community as a whole have judged as being some of the best articles on Wikipedia. They can serve as excellent examples for articles on singles and songs.

• "4 Minutes"

• "Angel of Death"

• "Blank Space"

• "City of Blinding Lights"

• "Eyes of the Insane"

• "Fuck the Millennium"

• "Hey Baby"

• "Hey Jude"

• "Jihad"

• "Push the Button"

• "Rehab"

• "S&M"

• "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"

• "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

• "Something"

• "Today"

• "What You Waiting For?"

The full list can be seen at Category:FA-Class song articles

Assessment
Please add Template:WikiProject Songs to the song article's talk page. An assessment of the article's quality may be included by specifying one of the following codes:, where   (for a stub),  ,  ,  ,  ,   or   (see Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment for explanation of terms). Note that the parameter and values are case sensitive.

The rating by importance is not currently implemented, as the project is currently rating articles based on their class for use by the Version 1.0 team and others, including this project itself. Importance is a parameter of potential use to the project itself, possibly in determining which articles are top contenders for future collaboration. However, as the specific importance of articles varies between projects, it is less of a priority right now than determining the quality of the articles which fall within the scope of this project.

Members
To add yourself as a member, put the userbox labeled User WikiProject Songs on your user page.

To see who has joined the project, see Category:WikiProject Songs participants.

Chart listings
Check the reliability of the chart for a specific country through WP:CHARTS. Some sources include:
 * For a reliable source on Billboard charts of all genres dating back to 1944, refer to Joel Whitburn's books published by Billboard Publications.
 * top40-charts.com has been listed in WP:BADCHARTS and should not be used as a source.
 * ARIA has end-of-year Australian charts from 1989 onwards and a list of certifications at the end of each year for singles and albums (platinum and gold).

 * Oz Music Charts has a list of number-one hits in the U.S., UK, and Australia dating back to the 1950s.
 * everyhit.com has top-forty positions for UK singles from 1952.
 * the Database of Popular Music has an extensive database of songs and includes hits by year for both UK and U.S.
 * Randy Price has compiled the Cash Box magazine Best Selling Record charts from 1950 on.
 * aCharts.us is an unlicensed archive compiled by an anonymous source, and contains several charts listed on WP:BADCHARTS. WP:GOODCHARTS recommends against its use in featured or good articles. Archive from 2003.

Track listings

 * freedb is a GPL'd database of CD recordings, listing track titles, durations, and more.
 * List of online music databases (some free, some not)

Subpages

 * /Popular pages
 * List of

Watchlist
Watch the 1500 most popular song pages!

title: Wikipedia:WikiProject Songs


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List of national parks of the Republic of Ireland

This is a list of national parks of Ireland.

The chart below shows the national parks in Ireland. The first park established in Ireland was Killarney National Park located in County Kerry in 1932. Since then a further 7 national parks have been opened; the most recent being Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara in County Kerry, the first marine national park and the largest in the state

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Constant folding

Constant folding and constant propagation are related compiler optimizations used by many modern compilers. An advanced form of constant propagation known as sparse conditional constant propagation can more accurately propagate constants and simultaneously remove dead code.

Constant folding
Constant folding is the process of recognizing and evaluating constant expressions at compile time rather than computing them at runtime. Terms in constant expressions are typically simple literals, such as the integer literal, but they may also be variables whose values are known at compile time. Consider the statement:

Most compilers would not actually generate two multiply instructions and a store for this statement. Instead, they identify constructs such as these and substitute the computed values at compile time (in this case, ).

Constant folding can make use of arithmetic identities. If  is numeric, the value of   is zero even if the compiler does not know the value of   (note that this is not valid for IEEE floats since   could be Infinity or NaN. Still, some environments that favor performance such as GLSL shaders allow this for constants, which can occasionally cause bugs).

Constant folding may apply to more than just numbers. Concatenation of string literals and constant strings can be constant folded. Code such as  may be replaced with.

Constant folding and cross compilation
In implementing a cross compiler, care must be taken to ensure that the behaviour of the arithmetic operations on the host architecture matches that on the target architecture, as otherwise enabling constant folding will change the behaviour of the program. This is of particular importance in the case of floating point operations, whose precise implementation may vary widely.

Constant propagation
Constant propagation is the process of substituting the values of known constants in expressions at compile time. Such constants include those defined above, as well as intrinsic functions applied to constant values. Consider the following pseudocode:

Propagating x yields:

Continuing to propagate yields the following (which would likely be further optimized by dead-code elimination of both x and y.)

Constant propagation is implemented in compilers using reaching definition analysis results. If all variable's reaching definitions are the same assignment which assigns a same constant to the variable, then the variable has a constant value and can be replaced with the constant.

Constant propagation can also cause conditional branches to simplify to one or more unconditional statements, when the conditional expression can be evaluated to true or false at compile time to determine the only possible outcome.

The optimizations in action
Constant folding and propagation are typically used together to achieve many simplifications and reductions, and their interleaved, iterative application continues until those effects cease.

Consider this unoptimized pseudocode returning a number unknown pending analysis:

Applying constant propagation once, followed by constant folding, yields:

Repeating both steps twice produces:

Having replaced all uses of variables  and   with constants, the compiler's dead-code elimination applies to those variables, leaving:

(Boolean constructs vary among languages and compilers, but their details—such as the status, origin, and representation of true—do not affect these optimization principles.)

Traditional constant propagation produces no further optimization; it does not restructure programs.

However, a similar optimization, sparse conditional constant propagation, goes further by selecting the appropriate conditional branch, and removing the always-true conditional test. Thus, variable  becomes redundant, and only an operation on a constant remains:

If that pseudocode constitutes a function body, the compiler knows the function evaluates to integer constant, allowing replacement of calls to the function with  , and further increasing program efficiency.

title: Constant folding


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Howard Stern

Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American broadcaster and media personality. He is best known for his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005. He has broadcast on Sirius XM Radio since 2006.

Stern landed his first radio jobs while at Boston University. From 1976 to 1982, he developed his on-air personality through morning positions at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, New York; WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut; WWWW in Detroit, Michigan; and WWDC in Washington, D.C. He worked afternoons at WNBC in New York City from 1982 until his firing in 1985. In 1985, he began a 20-year run at WXRK in New York City; his morning show entered syndication in 1986 and aired in 60 markets and attracted 20 million listeners at its peak. In recent years, Stern's photography has been featured in Hamptons and WHIRL magazines. From 2012 to 2015, he served as a judge on America's Got Talent.

Stern has won numerous industry awards, including Billboard's Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year eight consecutive times, and he is the first to have the number one morning show in New York City and Los Angeles simultaneously. He became the most fined radio host when the Federal Communications Commission issued fines totaling $2.5 million to station owners for content it deemed indecent. Stern became one of the highest-paid radio figures after signing a five-year deal with Sirius in 2004 worth $500 million.

Stern has described himself as the "King of All Media" since 1992 for his successes outside radio. He hosted and produced numerous late-night television shows, pay-per-view events, and home videos. Two of his books, Private Parts (1993) and Miss America (1995), entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number one and sold over one million copies. The former was made into a biographical comedy film in 1997 that had Stern and his radio show staff star as themselves. It topped the US box office in its opening week and grossed $41.2 million domestically. Stern performs on its soundtrack, which charted the Billboard 200 at number one and was certified platinum for one million copies sold. Stern's third book, Howard Stern Comes Again, was released in 2019.

Early life and education
Howard Allan Stern was born on January 12, 1954, the second child of Ben (1923–2022) and Ray (née Schiffman) Stern (b. 1927), in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Stern's parents are Jewish, and their families are from Poland and Austria-Hungary. Ray was an office clerk in New York City before she became a homemaker and later took up work as an inhalation therapist. Ben served in the U.S. Army on Long Island and in California during the war. He later worked as a radio engineer at WHOM in Manhattan and as a co-owner and operator at Aura Recording Inc., a Manhattan recording studio where cartoons and commercials were cut. Stern described his older sister Ellen as the "complete opposite" of himself and "very quiet".

In 1955, the family moved to Roosevelt, New York, on Long Island, where Stern attended Washington-Rose Elementary School followed by Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School. Stern also attended Hebrew school where he was given the name Tzvi. As a youngster Stern took five years of piano lessons and took an interest in marionettes, using them to entertain his friends with explicit shows. He formed a band with two school friends, the Electric Comicbook, on vocals and keyboards. From the age of nine to his second year at university, Stern spent his summers at Camp Wel-Met, a youth camp in Narrowsburg, New York where he worked camper, kitchen, and counselor duties. He recalled his time there as "the greatest experience".

Stern wished to be in radio at the age of five. He was an infrequent listener in his youth, but names talk personalities Bob Grant and Brad Crandall as early influences. His father set up a microphone, tape machine and turntable in the basement of his home which Stern used to record his make-believe radio shows, incorporating different characters and pre-recorded prank calls, sketches, and commercials. He made several visits to his father's recording studio and witnessed "some of the great voice guys" work with him, including Don Adams and Larry Storch voice Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, which began his desire to be on the air and "do a show", rather than play records.

In the late 1960s, Roosevelt became a predominantly black area; Stern remembered just "a handful of white kids" had remained in his school and repeated instances of bullying from black students. In June 1969, the family moved to nearby Rockville Centre, and Stern, at age fifteen, transferred to South Side High School where he became "a total introvert". He graduated from the school in 1972; his yearbook lists Stern's sole student activity, a membership of Key Club.

In 1972, Stern declined a place at Elmira College to instead pursue a communications degree at Boston University, but his average high school grades caused him to spend the first two years in its College of Basic Studies. In his second year, he started work at the campus radio station WTBU, where he played records, read the news, and hosted interview programs. With three fellow students, he later co-hosted a weekly comedy show named The King Schmaltz Bagel Hour, which was initially canceled during its first broadcast for a racial sketch named "Godzilla Goes to Harlem". Stern took cannabis, Quaaludes, and LSD during his studies, but he quit after he experienced a difficult trip on too much LSD.

In 1974, he gained admission to the university's School of Public Communications. He then studied for a diploma at the Radio Engineering Institute of Electronics in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in July 1975, which earned him a first-class radio-telephone operator license, a required certificate for all radio broadcasters at the time, which was issued by the Federal Communications Commission. With the license, Stern landed his first professional radio job at WNTN in Newton, Massachusetts from August to December 1975 doing air shifts, news casting, and production work. For the next five months, he taught students basic electronics in preparation for their own FCC exams.

In May 1976, Stern graduated magna cum laude with a 3.8-grade point average. His major was broadcasting and film and his minor English and speech. In the past, he funded a scholarship at the university.

1976–1981: WRNW, WCCC, and WWWW
In his search for radio work following his graduation, Stern took up an offer to work evenings at WRNW, a progressive rock station in Briarcliff Manor, New York. He was unsure of his talent and questioned his future as a professional in the industry, writing "I freaked out. I got real nervous that I wasn't good enough". Stern accepted a marketing role at Benton & Bowles, a New York advertising agency, which he soon "quit without giving notice" in favor of a position in the creative department. He lasted three hours before he was fired "because their personnel department realized that I was the guy who just quit". Stern then worked in Queens as a radio salesman selling advertising time without considerable success. He wrote, "All of a sudden ... I realized I had turned down a job in radio". With encouragement from his mother and girlfriend, Stern contacted WRNW for work and agreed to take cover shifts surrounding the Christmas holidays in 1976. Impressed with his reliability and professional approach, the station's director hired Stern full-time for a four-hour midday shift for six days a week, for $96 a week. After several months, Stern became the station's production director, which lasted until November 1977 when he became its program director for an increased salary of $250 a week. To save money, Stern rented a room in a monastery in Armonk, New York.

In 1979, Stern spotted an advertisement in Radio & Records for a "wild, fun morning guy" at rock station WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut. He used some morning airtime to assemble an aircheck with more outrageous bits, including Robert Klein and Cheech and Chong records with added flatulence routines and one-liners. Stern was hired for the same salary but worked a more intense schedule. After four hours on the air, he voiced and produced commercials for another four. On Saturdays, following a six-hour show, he did production work for the next three. He also completed duties as the station's public affairs director and hosted a Sunday morning talk show that he favored above playing records, as it "represented what I wanted to do on the radio more than anything. Take the average guy and dissect what he does". In the summer of the 1979 energy crisis, Stern urged listeners to a two-day boycott of Shell Oil Company, a stunt that attracted media attention. It was at WCCC where Stern first met Fred Norris, the overnight disc jockey, who went on to become Stern's writer and producer since 1981. Stern left WCCC in early 1980 after he was denied a "lousy, stinking twenty-five-dollar-a-week raise". At the same time, local rival station WHCN had assembled tapes and press clippings of Stern and forwarded them to Burkhart/Abrams, a radio consulting firm, to get Stern out of the Hartford market as a rise in his ratings increased his threat to the station's numbers. The tapes were received by Dwight Douglas, a consultant at Burkhart/Abrams, who offered Stern work in Columbus, Ohio, but Stern declined.

In his search for new work, Stern found an advertised position in Radio & Records for a morning host at WWWW, a struggling rock station in Detroit, Michigan. His aircheck was well received by management who made an offer, but Douglas advised Stern against the move and suggested he wait for an offer from a better station. Stern went ahead regardless and accepted a deal, starting on April 21, 1980. He thought of new ways to improve his show and to be more open on the air, "to cut down the barriers ... strip down all the ego ... and be totally honest". His efforts paid off with his first industry recognition, winning a Billboard Award for Album-Oriented Rock Personality of the Year For a Major Market and the debut Top Five Talent Search contest in the album-oriented rock category from radio syndication firm Drake-Chenault, which then distributed the winning radio segments to stations across the country. Despite the success, WWWW continued to decline in the ratings and failed to overtake the three more popular rock stations in the area. The quarterly Arbitron ratings released in January 1981 showed no signs of a strong audience, causing the station to change formats overnight from rock to country music, to Stern's surprise and annoyance. He lasted another two weeks before "it was time to hit the road again. Somehow, I couldn't see myself as Hopalong Howie". He declined offers to work at WXRT in Chicago and CHUM in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

1981–1985: WWDC and WNBC
Douglas found Stern's next job, hosting mornings at album-oriented rock station WWDC in Washington, D.C. Stern was cautious about the offer at first as the general manager "was not really aware of what I did," but he accepted the offer and started on March 2, 1981. During his time relocating from Detroit, Stern spent several weeks planning out a new show, determined to become more successful as the station presented a good chance for him to work in New York City, his career goal. He was determined to "kill my competition. I was going to say whatever the fuck I was going to say ... The first step was to put my team together". He sought a co-host with a sense of humor to riff with on news and current events. The station then paired Stern with Robin Quivers, a former nurse in the air force and news reporter at WFBR in Baltimore. Quivers was sent a tape of Stern interviewing a prostitute on the air, and she accepted the job without meeting him. She assumed she "would come in and do the news ... but it wasn't that way". Despite several issues management had over content, which led to the installation of a seven-second delay to censor questionable moments, Stern "kept chipping away at management's archaic approach, and we began to assemble the program I had envisioned", which included the addition of Norris as his writer and producer. In one incident, Stern revealed his wife's miscarriage on the air. In January 1982, Stern had the second highest-rated morning show in the city.

Impressed with his rapid rise in the ratings, WWDC management offered Stern an initial one-year extension to his contract, but Stern wished for a more long-term deal. At the same time, he was offered a five-year deal worth $1 million to work afternoons at WNBC in New York City, then an adult contemporary station, after radio manager Jerry Nachman became a fan of Stern and suggested his name to the station. Stern signed with WNBC in March 1982, four months before his contract with WWDC was to expire. His relationship with station management declined from then on, and he repeatedly criticized them and other deejays on the air, including an incident when he revealed the manager's salary. The situation culminated on June 25, 1982, when Stern was terminated from the station. Towards the end of his stay, Stern had more than tripled his ratings since he began, and The Washingtonian named him the city's best disc jockey. It was often believed that Stern was suspended over a controversial bit regarding the 1982 crash of Air Florida Flight 90 that made people believe he had called the airline and asked for prices to the 14th Street bridge, the site of the crash, and if it would be a "regular stop". But Stern said it was false, claiming "no one ever complained about it". In his last few months, Stern secured a $35,000 advance deal with Wren Records to produce a comedy album of song parodies with Norris, titled 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother. It was reissued in 1994 as Unclean Beaver.

In April 1982, four months before he started at WNBC, NBC Magazine aired a critical news report on shock radio by Douglas Kiker that centered around Stern and the controversial nature of his show. The piece caused NBC executives to discuss the potential withdrawal of Stern's contract, but rather than spend money on buying Stern out of the deal, management agreed to control Stern. To make matters worse, the station did not allow Stern to bring his show partners at first, which caused some friction between Stern and Quivers for several months. Stern began his afternoon show at WNBC on August 30, 1982, and was closely monitored, instructed to avoid discussions of a sexual or religious nature. In his first month, he was suspended for "Virgin Mary Kong", a sketch about a video game where a group of men pursued the Virgin Mary around a singles bar in Jerusalem. The station then hired an attorney to operate a seven-second delay if Stern said something potentially offensive. This soon became the task of program director Kevin Metheny, who Stern infamously feuded with and nicknamed "Pig Virus". While at WNBC, Stern also began his longtime feud with its morning host Don Imus.

In 1984, Stern acquired Don Buchwald as his agent, who supervised Stern's new three-year contract with WNBC in early 1985. His popularity with the audience grew despite management's continual restrictions. On May 21, 1984, he made his debut appearance on Late Night with David Letterman and was featured in People magazine, increasing his national exposure. Around this time Stern appeared in the low budget comedy film Ryder, P.I. (1986) as Ben Wah, an out of control newscaster, for which he was paid $1,000. In May 1985, Stern claimed the highest ratings at WNBC in four years with a 5.7% market share of the afternoon audience. In a sudden turn of events, Stern and Quivers were fired shortly before they were to go on air on September 30, 1985, for what WNBC management termed "conceptual differences" regarding the show. Program director John Hayes explained: "Over the course of time we made a very conscious effort to make Stern aware that certain elements of the program should be changed ... I don't think it's appropriate to say what those specifics were". Stern was not told whose decision it was. In 1992, he believed Thornton Bradshaw, chairman of WNBC owner RCA, heard his "Bestiality Dial-a-Date" segment that aired ten days before his suspension and ordered the show's cancellation.

1985–1993: WXRK and early television and video projects
After his firing from WNBC, Stern kept in touch with his audience by booking dates at clubs with a live stage show. He declined offers to work in Los Angeles, including NBC's offer of $50,000 if he accepted the move, but chose to stay in New York to "kick NBC's ass". In a press conference held in October 1985, Stern announced the signing of a five-year contract with Infinity Broadcasting worth an estimated $500,000 to host afternoons on its rock music station WXRK from November 18. WNBC agreed to let Stern out of his contract. Otherwise, the station was obliged to pay him for the remainder of his deal. Determined to beat Imus and WNBC in the ratings, Stern moved to the prime time morning slot in February 1986. The show entered syndication on August 18 that year when WYSP in Philadelphia began to simulcast the program. In the New York market, Stern had the highest-rated morning radio program between 1994 and 2001. During Stern's twenty years at WXRK, his show was syndicated in 60 markets across North America and gained a peak audience of 20 million listeners.

Stern's first venture into television began when the Fox network sought a replacement for The Late Show, a late-night talk show hosted by Joan Rivers. Following discussions with the network that began in late 1986, Stern agreed to five one-hour pilots that were produced for an estimated $400,000, with guitarist Leslie West as his band leader and comedian Steve Rossi as the show's announcer. The show was subject to screen tests among focus groups in California, after which Fox decided not to pick it up. One Fox executive described the pilots as "poorly produced", "in poor taste", and "boring". Stern went on to host his first pay-per-view event, Howard Stern's Negligeé and Underpants Party, in February 1988. The special was purchased in 60,000 homes and grossed $1.2 million. After Stern joked about drugs being used backstage at the show, Michael Levine of the Drug Enforcement Administration complained to the Daily News which sparked media attention, though no investigation was made. In October 1989, fans sold out Nassau Coliseum in four hours for Howard Stern's U.S. Open Sores, a live event that featured a tennis match between Stern and his producer Gary Dell'Abate following an on-air challenge. Stern released both events for home video.

In its 1990 feature on Stern, Rolling Stone predicted he was "on the fast track to multimedia stardom". He re-signed with Infinity Broadcasting that year to continue his radio show for five years, a deal that New York Magazine estimated was worth over $10 million. In July 1990, Stern became the host of the Saturday night variety television show The Howard Stern Show on WWOR-TV, starring himself and his radio show staff. Initially produced as four, one-hour specials and broadcast during the summer, the show continued to air and entered syndication in 1991 to a peak of 65 markets across the country, including cities where the radio show did not air. In the New York area, the show frequently beat Saturday Night Live in the ratings during the thirty minutes when the two overlapped. Stern ended the program after 69 episodes, in 1992.

By this time, the radio show had been the subject of several fines issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over material it deemed indecent. As part of his rally against the FCC's actions, Stern released a compilation album of censored radio segments titled Crucified by the FCC in early 1991.

Stern's rise as a popular radio and television figure in 1992 led to the first instance of his self-proclaimed title "King of All Media". This was initially a tongue-in-cheek jab at Michael Jackson, who had been dubbed "King of Pop". In October 1992, Stern became the first to have the number one morning radio show in the New York and Los Angeles markets simultaneously. In the same month, Stern released Butt Bongo Fiesta, a home video containing the highlight feature of "butt bongoing", an act Stern described as "frenetic spanking in time to a rock record playing in the background". The video was a commercial success; approximately 260,000 copies were sold for a gross of over $10 million. In November 1992, Stern returned to Saturday night television as the host of The Howard Stern "Interview", a weekly one-on-one celebrity interview series on the E! network which ended in 1993. Stern appeared at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards as Fartman, a fictional superhero originating from the humor magazine National Lampoon. Presenting an award with Luke Perry, Stern appeared on stage in the Fartman costume with his buttocks exposed. According to the trademark Stern filed for the character in October 1992, he first used Fartman at WWDC in July 1981. Development for The Adventures of Fartman, a feature film based around the character, began in late 1992 with Stern reaching a verbal agreement with New Line Cinema to release it. Screenwriter J. F. Lawton was hired to prepare an outline to a script and to direct the film with producer David Permut, and it received a budget of $8–11 million. Lawton described the film as "a real comedy with a beginning, middle and an end with a strong story". In 1993, the project was abandoned due to disagreements between Stern and New Line regarding the film's content, rating, and merchandising rights.

In November 1993, Stern was again in talks with Fox to host a late-night talk show, this time replacing Chevy Chase, whose show had been cancelled in October of that year.

1993–1994: Private Parts and run for Governor of New York
After The Adventures of Fartman was shelved, Buchwald started to pitch deals with book publishers as "there was a perception that [Stern] had taken a hit ... we thought of the book as something that would both produce income and suggest to people that Howard had economic clout". In early 1993, Stern signed a deal with Simon & Schuster worth around $1 million to write his first book, Private Parts. He spent the summer writing it with collaborator Larry "Ratso" Sloman and editor Judith Regan, calling the experience "the most challenging thing I have ever done in my career". Upon its release on October 7, 1993, Private Parts was an immediate commercial success. The entire first print of 225,000 copies sold within hours. In five days, it became the fastest selling title in the history of Simon & Schuster. Over one million copies were distributed after two weeks. Private Parts entered The New York Times Best-Seller list at number one and stayed on the list for 20 weeks. Stern held book signings across the country, with sessions lasting as long as seven hours. The first, held in New York City, was attended by an estimated ten thousand people.

In its twentieth anniversary issue in 1993, Radio & Records named Stern "the most influential air personality of the past two decades". In February 1994, Stern was featured in Rolling Stone magazine for his first of three cover stories. That year, Billboard magazine added the Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year category to its annual awards, based on "entertainment value, creativity, and ratings success"; Stern was awarded the title each year from 1994 to 2002. In late 1993, Stern urged his listeners to elect Christine Todd Whitman as Governor of New Jersey after Stern promised to support the first candidate to phone in his radio show. In March 1995, following her election success, Whitman named a highway rest stop after Stern in exchange for his endorsement on Interstate 295, south of Trenton, New Jersey. A $1,000 plaque was installed at the stop, which was stolen days later and mailed to Stern. The rest area closed in 2003 as part of budget cuts by Governor Jim McGreevey.

Stern held his second pay-per-view special, The Miss Howard Stern New Year's Eve Pageant, on December 31, 1993. The show centered around a mock beauty pageant with celebrity judges to crown the first "Miss Howard Stern". An estimated 400,000 households purchased the show for a gross of $16 million, breaking the subscriber record for a non-sports event held by a New Kids on the Block concert in 1990. The New York Post called it "The most disgusting two hours in the history of television". The show was released for home video in early 1994, entitled Howard Stern's New Year's Rotten Eve 1994. It cost Stern a second television deal with Fox after network executives had disliked the content of the event and ceased discussions.

During his radio show on March 22, 1994, Stern announced his candidacy for Governor of New York under the Libertarian Party ticket, challenging Mario Cuomo for re-election. Stern planned to reinstate the death penalty, remove highway tolls to improve traffic flow and limit road work to graveyard shifts hours. Stern announced that once those three goals were accomplished, he would resign and pass the governorship to his lieutenant. At the party's nomination convention on April 23, Stern won the required two-thirds majority on the first ballot, receiving 287 of the 381 votes cast; James Ostrowski finished second with 34 votes. To place his name on the final ballot, Stern was obliged to state his home address and complete a financial disclosure form under the Ethics in Government Act. Stern applied for an injunction as he wished to avoid stating his income; the request was denied by a judge on August 2. Stern withdrew his candidacy in an on-air press conference two days later, saying: "I spend 25 hours a week telling you all the most intimate details of my life ... One fact I've never revealed is how much I make and how much money I have ... it's none of your business". In the gubernatorial election on November 8, Cuomo was defeated by George Pataki, whom Stern backed. In August 1995, Pataki signed a bill that limited construction on state roads to night hours in New York City and Long Island, which was named the "Howard Stern Bill" in honor of Stern originally proposing the plan. Stern has since felt "firmly opposed" to the death penalty.

In June 1994, Stern founded the Howard Stern Production Company for "original film and television production enterprises as well as joint production and development ventures". He intended to assist in a feature film adaptation of Brother Sam, the biography of comedian Sam Kinison written by his brother. In the same month, the E! network began to air weekday highlights from Stern's radio show using cameras installed in the studio. Howard Stern ran for eleven years; the last original episode aired on July 8, 2005.

1995–1997: Miss America and Private Parts film
On April 3, 1995, three days after the shooting of singer Selena, Stern's comments regarding her death and Mexican Americans caused controversy among his listeners in Texas and some Mexican American communities. Among his criticisms of her music, sound effects of gunfire were played: "This music does absolutely nothing for me. Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul ... Spanish people have the worst taste in music. They have no depth". After three days of widespread media reaction and boycott threats, Stern responded with a statement in Spanish, stressing his comments were made in satire and were not intended to hurt those who loved her. The next day, Eloy Cano, a Justice of the Peace of Harlingen, Texas, issued an arrest warrant on Stern for disorderly conduct that carried a potential maximum fine of $500 if he entered the state. Stern was never arrested on the warrant.

In 1995, Stern signed an advance deal with ReganBooks worth around $3 million to write his second book, Miss America. Stern wrote about various topics, including his cybersex experiences on the Internet service Prodigy, a private meeting with Michael Jackson, his suffering with back pain and obsessive–compulsive disorder, and his run for Governor of New York. Following its release on November 7, 1995, Miss America sold 33,000 copies at Barnes & Noble stores which set a new one-day record for the chain, and 120,000 in its first week. It entered The New York Times Best-Seller list at number one and stayed on the list for 16 weeks. According to Publishers Weekly, 1.39 million copies were sold in 1995 alone which ranked it the year's third best-selling book. As with Private Parts, Stern's book signings attracted thousands. His November 30, 1995, appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno caused controversy after he appeared on the show with two bikini-clad women who kissed each other and received spanks from Stern. Leno, who urged that both acts would be edited out from the final broadcast, walked off the stage after the segment without thanking Stern.

In February 1996, production began on a biographical comedy film adaptation of Private Parts for Paramount Pictures. Development had lasted over two years as Stern, who had final script approval, "rejected every script there was ... they were over the top comedies that I think were dumb, boring and dull". After producer Ivan Reitman got involved with the project, Stern agreed to a script developed by Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko. Filming began in May 1996 with director Betty Thomas and lasted four months with Stern, Quivers, and Norris acting as their younger and current selves. The crew traveled to the film set after each radio show and stayed there to shoot on weekends. Stern embarked on an extensive publicity tour to promote the film which included numerous television appearances and magazine interviews in his attempt to appeal to people who were not listeners of his radio show. Private Parts premiered on February 27, 1997, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden; outside the theatre, Stern and Rob Zombie performed "The Great American Nightmare", a track they recorded for its soundtrack. The film's wide release followed on March 7, 1997. It topped the US box office in its opening weekend with a gross of $14.6 million and earned a domestic total of $41.2 million. In 1998, Stern received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Male Newcomer. The soundtrack, Private Parts: The Album, sold 178,000 copies in its first week of release and entered the Billboard 200 chart in the United States at number one in March 1997, the highest selling debut release for a soundtrack to a feature film. Three months after its release, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping one million copies. Stern also provides vocals on "Tortured Man", a track he recorded with The Dust Brothers.

In October 1997, Stern filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Ministry of Film Inc., claiming the studio recruited him for a film called Jane starring Melanie Griffith while knowing it had insufficient funds. Stern, who remained unpaid when production ceased, accused the studio of breach of contract, fraud, and negligent representation. A settlement was reached in 1999 which resulted in Stern receiving $50,000.

1998–2004: Television and film projects
In April 1998, Stern announced his return to Saturday night television after he signed a deal with CBS to compete with Saturday Night Live on NBC and MADtv on Fox. His show, The Howard Stern Radio Show, an hour-long program that aired on mostly CBS affiliates, was formed of taped highlights from the radio show with additional material unseen from his nightly E! show, including animated segments and exclusive behind the scenes footage. Following its debut on August 22, 1998, on 79 stations nationwide, the show began to lose affiliates after two episodes as local broadcasters became concerned with the risque content. By June 1999, the number of stations carrying the show had decreased to fifty-five. After three seasons, the final show aired on November 17, 2001, to around thirty stations. Stern reflected on the endeavor: "It was a weird thing. When I did the Channel 9 show we used to beat Saturday Night Live in New York ... I didn't think [the CBS show] was a good idea actually because [the radio show] was already running on the E! network. It was a mistake ... they ultimately wanted what the Channel 9 show was doing".

In the first Celebrity 100 list compiled by Forbes magazine in March 1999, Stern ranked at number 27 with an estimated $20 million earned that year. During the time of his CBS television show, Stern ventured into work as an executive producer through his production company for several television and film projects. In September 1999, the UPN network announced the production of Doomsday, an animated science-fiction comedy television series, for an initial thirteen episodes originally set to air in 2000. The series was described as: "Set in a post-apocalyptic America nearly destroyed by a freak radiation burst, [the show] follows the travels of the Bradley family as they cross the country in an RV looking for a new place to call home". Stern was to produce the series and voice Orinthal, the family's dog, but the show never made it to air. Stern's most successful executive production was Son of the Beach, a television parody sitcom of Baywatch that ran from March 2000 to October 2002 on FX. The show was not renewed for a fourth season. On December 16, 2000, Stern's last live radio show of the year, he announced the signing of his new contract with Infinity Broadcasting to continue his show for five years after four months of negotiations. Forbes estimated his new earnings ranged between $17 million and $20 million a year. Stern spoke at The Concert for New York City in October 2001 in a hazmat suit with his buttocks exposed similarly to his 1992 MTV Music Video Awards appearance. In November 2001, Stern's production company had begun development on a weekly television sitcom titled Kane for CBS, originally intended to replace The Howard Stern Radio Show following its cancellation, with Ron Zimmerman as the writer of its pilot episode. Its premise followed "an oddball southern family and its strong-willed patriarch. The lead character's life is altered when his previously long-lost wife returns home to him and their group of eccentric children". The project was canceled before the filming stage. In late 2002, Stern acquired the rights to the comedy films Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) and Porky's (1982) with Arclight Films. He expressed a wish to use a remake of the former as a launchpad for an unknown band. Under the deal, Stern was served as executive producer and was allowed to place "Howard Stern Presents" in the titles. He reasoned, "If I say to ... my audience, this is 'Howard Stern Presents', it means something to them ... it's going to be crazy. It means that it's going to be different, and they know I'm not going to be giving them any schlock". Development for Porky's came to a halt in 2011 following legal action regarding the ownership of the film's rights.

In March 2003, Stern filed a $100-million lawsuit against ABC, Telepictures and the producers of its reality television series Are You Hot?. He claimed its premise was copied from a radio show segment of his known as The Evaluators, whereby its staff and guests evaluate the bodies of contestants. Before the show aired, Stern was in talks of producing his version of the show. A settlement was reached five months later. In early 2004, Stern spoke of talks with ABC to host an hour television interview special as part of its Primetime series, but the project never came to fruition. In August 2004, cable channel Spike ordered thirteen episodes of Howard Stern: The High School Years, an animated series set during Stern's childhood that he was to executive produce. By late 2005, episode scripts and some test animation had been completed, but the project was soon shelved. Stern explained the series could have been produced "on the cheap" at $300,000 per episode, but the quality he demanded would have cost over $1 million each. Actor Michael Cera was cast as the lead voice. Stern also worked on a pilot with Robert Schimmel for The WB, based around the comedian's real-life experience of falling in love with his daughter's best friend following his battle with cancer, but was not picked up.

2004–2010: Signing with Sirius and terrestrial radio departure
The controversy surrounding the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, aired live on February 1, 2004, led to the government's crackdown on indecency in radio and television following a surge in audience complaints. The situation prompted tighter control over content by station managers which made Stern feel "dead" creatively. After Clear Channel Communications and Viacom were fined for content the FCC deemed indecent, the situation culminated on October 6, 2004, when Stern announced the signing of a five-year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service exempt from the FCC's broadcast regulations, starting in 2006. It was a move that has been regarded as the start of "a new era of radio". Stern's final live show on terrestrial airwaves aired on December 16, 2005.

Stern's first contract with Sirius was worth $500 million; a budget of $100 million a year for production, staff, and programming costs. In 2005, he formed two channels, Howard 100 and Howard 101, which launched in September, and formed Howard 100 News, a team of news reporters hired to report daily stories surrounding the radio show and those associated with it. Stern ended his eleven-year association with E! and secured a deal with the iN DEMAND network to launch Howard Stern On Demand, a digital cable video-on-demand service, to broadcast uncensored tapings of the Sirius radio show. The service was relaunched as HowardTV in March 2006 and lasted until it was discontinued in December 2013. A new, state-of-the-art studio and office space were constructed for the show at Sirius' headquarters in New York City. On January 9, 2006, the day of his first broadcast on Sirius, Stern and Buchwald received a total of 34.3 million shares of Sirius stock worth $218 million for exceeding agreed subscriber number targets set when the contract was signed. A second subscriber bonus was met in January 2007, and Stern received 22 million shares of stock worth $82.9 million. In 2006, Time magazine included Stern in its Time 100 list, and he also ranked seventh on Forbes' Celebrity 100 list in June 2006. When Sirius merged with rival service XM Satellite Radio in 2008 to form SiriusXM, the company paid Stern $25 million as per a clause in his contract. In 2006, Stern filed a trademark for the name "King of All Media".

On February 28, 2006, CBS Radio, formerly Infinity Broadcasting, filed a lawsuit against Stern, Buchwald, and Sirius, claiming that Stern misused CBS broadcast time to promote Sirius for unjust enrichment during his last fourteen months on terrestrial radio. Stern held a press conference hours before the suit was filed; he stressed to the media that the suit was nothing more than a "personal vendetta" against him by CBS president Leslie Moonves, and a distraction to the failure of the company's radio division in the aftermath of his departure from terrestrial radio as it struggled to attain ratings as strong as Stern's. A settlement was reached out of court in May 2006 which involved Sirius paying CBS $2 million for the rights to Stern's radio shows since 1985, which CBS had until then prohibited Stern from playing on Sirius.

2010–present: Sirius contract renewals, America's Got Talent, and third book
In December 2010, Stern renewed his contract with SiriusXM to continue his radio show for a further five years. His new deal allows him to work a reduced schedule from four to three live radio shows each week. On March 22, 2011, Stern and Buchwald filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM for $300 million, claiming further annual bonuses were not paid despite Stern meeting subscriber growth targets. On April 17, 2012, Judge Barbara Kapnick disagreed with their suit and dismissed it "with prejudice", thus preventing Stern and Buchwald from filing other suits over similar allegations against the company. The pair filed an appeal to the decision, but it was rejected by an appeal court.

By mid-2011, Stern had reduced his time playing chess and took up photography. Among his first shoots was taking layouts for Hamptons magazine in July. He continued to shoot throughout the year, including WHIRL magazine and the North Shore Animal League, and established his photography company Conlon Road Photography, a reference to the name of the road he lived on while growing up in Roosevelt.

Later in 2011, Stern announced his return to network television as a replacement for Piers Morgan as a judge on America's Got Talent for its seventh season. He had the show relocate to Radio City Music Hall in New York City to cater to his radio show schedule. Stern subsequently reappeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list at No. 26. He continued as a judge on the show for the eighth, ninth and tenth seasons. Stern left at the end of the show's tenth season in September 2015 to devote more time to his radio show.

Stern was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2012. He has been openly critical of the organization.

In August 2013, Stern and Simon Cowell shared first place on Forbes' list of America's highest-paid television personalities with $95 million earned between June 2012–13. Stern and Cowell tied first place in the following year's poll with the same amount earned from June 2013–14. In 2015, Forbes placed Stern as the world's highest paid media personality and the fifth highest earning celebrity worldwide, at $95 million.

In February 2015, Whalerock Industries announced its partnership with Stern to set up a future direct-to-consumer digital "media hub" service, with a potential mix of free and subscription-based programming. On December 15, Stern announced his new deal with SiriusXM to continue his radio show for an additional five years. The agreement also gives Sirius the rights to his radio and video archives for an upcoming on-demand streaming application until 2027.

In October 2015, Howard Stern gained fame with his rants against Palestinian minorities in the Middle East denouncing them as a people that "do not exist" or "did not live there [Palestine]". His comments, calling Arabs "dogs", were denounced as "racist" by the international press.

In April 2018, Stern inducted Bon Jovi into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In March 2019, Stern announced his third book for Simon and Schuster entitled Howard Stern Comes Again. It was released on May 14, 2019.

In May 2020, Stern admonished Trump supporters that listen to his SiriusXM show, saying President Trump despised his own supporters. In response to Stern's criticisms of Trump, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted video from the Miss Howard Stern New Year's Eve Pageant in which Stern parodied Ted Danson's Friars Club appearance by wearing blackface and repeatedly using the N-word and other racial slurs. Stern admitted, "The shit I did was fucking crazy" and that he has since toned down his show, crediting years in psychotherapy for his evolution.

In December 2020, Stern renewed his contract with SiriusXM, agreeing to produce his show for five more years.

In June 2022, Stern stated his interest in running for President of the United States in 2024, if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee once again. In April 2024, he completed a one-on-one interview with President Joe Biden.

FCC fines
Between 1990 and 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined owners of radio station licensees that carried The Howard Stern Show a total of $2.5 million for content it considered to be indecent.

Stern blamed the Bush administration for increased FCC fines and scrutiny of radio broadcasts in 2004 following the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy that February, and that year began openly promoting John Kerry's presidential campaign and urged listeners to oust Bush.

Family and relationships
Stern met his first wife, Alison Berns, while at Boston University through a mutual friend. He featured Berns in a student film he made about Transcendental Meditation. Stern wrote, "Within a week after our relationship began, I knew I was going to marry her". They married at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts, on June 4, 1978; both were 24 years old. They have three daughters: Emily Beth (b. 1983), Debra Jennifer (b. 1986), and Ashley Jade (b. 1993). In October 1999, they decided to separate. Stern said, "I was totally neurotic and sort of consumed with work. I took work as the most important thing and the only thing". He moved from the home he shared with Berns in Old Westbury, New York into a 4,000-square-foot apartment in Millennium Tower in the Upper West Side of Manhattan which he bought in 1998 for $4.9 million. The marriage ended in 2001 with an amicable divorce and settlement. Stern has since bought a home in Southampton, New York on Long Island. In the several months when Stern was single, he dated Angie Everhart and Robin Givens. He started seeing a psychotherapist. In 2000, he started to date model and television host Beth Ostrosky. He announced their engagement on his radio show on February 14, 2007. They married at Le Cirque restaurant in New York City on October 3, 2008. The ceremony was officiated by Mark Consuelos. In 2017, Stern purchased a home in Palm Beach, Florida, for $52 million.

Other activities
In the early 1970s, Stern's parents began to practice Transcendental Meditation and encouraged him to learn. Stern credits the technique with helping him quit smoking, achieve his goals in radio, beat obsessive–compulsive disorder, and cure his mother of depression. As of 1997, he continued to practice it. Stern has interviewed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the technique, and thanked him for relieving his mother's depression.

Stern revealed his suffering with obsessive–compulsive disorder in Miss America. His condition originated while at university and continued into his radio career. As part of the Staff Revelations Game on his radio show in January 2006, Stern revealed that he had undergone rhinoplasty and had liposuction under his chin in the 1990s. In 2012, Stern said he had adopted a pescetarian diet. In 2019, Stern revealed that he had a cancer scare two years prior, after a growth was found on one of his kidneys. It turned out to be a benign cyst.

Stern is a longtime supporter and fund raiser for North Shore Animal League America. Stern and Ostrosky have been fostering cats in their Long Island home since 2014. Approximately 200 cats come through their home every year.

title: Howard Stern


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Burns and Allen

Burns and Allen were an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years.

The duo met in 1922 and married in 1926. Burns played the straight man and Allen played a silly, addle-headed woman whose convoluted logic Burns was often ill-equipped to challenge. The duo starred in a number of films, including Lambchops (1929), The Big Broadcast (1932) and two sequels in 1935 and 1936, and A Damsel in Distress (1937). Their 30-minute radio show debuted in September 1934 as The Adventures of Gracie, whose title changed to The Burns and Allen Show in 1936; the series ran, moving back and forth between NBC and CBS, until May 1950. After their radio show's cancellation, Burns and Allen reemerged on television with a popular situation comedy, which ran from 1950 to 1958.

Burns and Allen's radio show was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1994. Their TV series received a total of 11 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and produced what TV Guide ranked No. 56 on its 1997 list of the 100 greatest episodes of all time. They were inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1988.

Vaudeville
Burns and Allen met in 1922 and first performed together at the Hill Street Theatre in Newark, New Jersey, continued in small town vaudeville theaters, married in Cleveland on January 7, 1926, and moved up a notch when they signed with the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit in 1927.

Burns wrote most of the material and played the straight man. Allen played a silly, addle-headed woman, a role often attributed to the "Dumb Dora" stereotype common in early 20th-century vaudeville comedy. Early on, the team had played the opposite roles until they noticed that the audience was laughing at Gracie's straight lines, so they made the change. In later years, each attributed their success to the other.

The Burns and Allen team was not an overnight sensation. "We were a good man-and-woman act," Burns said, "but we were not headliners or stars or featured attractions. We were on the bill with them. There would be a star or two stars and a featured attraction, and then we would come—fourth billing in an eight-act show." Their career changed direction when they made their first film.

Motion pictures
In the early days of talking pictures, the studios eagerly hired actors who knew how to deliver dialogue or songs. The most prolific of these studios was Warner Bros., whose Vitaphone Varieties shorts captured vaudeville headliners of the 1920s on film.

Burns and Allen earned a reputation as a reliable "disappointment act" (someone who could fill in for a sick or otherwise absent performer on a moment's notice). So it went with their film debut. They were last-minute replacements for another act (Fred Allen) and ran through their patter-and-song routine in Lambchops (1929). After a restoration, the film was released on DVD in October 2007, on disc three of a three-disc 80th anniversary edition of The Jazz Singer.

Paramount Pictures used its East Coast studio to film New York-based stage and vaudeville stars. Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, Ethel Merman and Smith and Dale were among the top acts seen in Paramount shorts. Burns and Allen joined the Paramount roster in 1930 and made a string of one-reel comedies through 1933, usually written by Burns and featuring future Hollywood character actors such as Barton MacLane and Chester Clute.

In 1932, Paramount produced an all-star musical comedy, The Big Broadcast, featuring the nation's hottest radio personalities. Burns and Allen were recruited, and made such an impression that they continued to make guest appearances in Paramount features through 1937. Most of these used the Big Broadcast formula of an all-star comedy cast. In 1935 the team also starred in a pair of low-budget features, Here Comes Cookie and Love in Bloom.

At RKO, Fred Astaire succeeded in his efforts to make a musical feature without Ginger Rogers, and the studio borrowed Burns and Allen from Paramount for the 1937 film, A Damsel in Distress. Their names appeared with Astaire's before the title. Under contract to RKO, the young Joan Fontaine was assigned as Astaire's romantic interest, but when she proved to be an inadequate dance partner Astaire did most of his dancing with Burns and Allen. The trio's comic dance in the film's "Fun House" sequence earned an Academy Award for choreographer Hermes Pan. Burns suggested a dance number that employs whiskbrooms as props, used in vaudeville by a duo called Evans and Evans. He bought the idea and auditioned the routine for Astaire, with Allen and the surviving member of the vaudeville team.

This movie led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to cast Burns and Allen in its Eleanor Powell musical, Honolulu (1939). This was their last film as a team; Gracie made two subsequent film appearances on her own, but Burns and Allen did not return to the cameras until their television series in 1950.

When Burns was 79, he had a sudden career revival as an amiable, beloved and unusually active comedic elder statesman in the 1975 film The Sunshine Boys, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1977, his starring role in Oh, God!, along with the former film, permanently secured his career resurgence. At the age of 80, Burns was the oldest Oscar winner in the history of the Academy Awards, a record that would remain until Jessica Tandy won an Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. Burns, who became a centenarian in 1996, continued to work until just weeks before his death of cardiac arrest on March 19, 1996, at his home in Beverly Hills.

Radio
In 1929 Burns and Allen made their debut radio performance broadcast in London on the BBC. In the United States, they had failed at a 1930 NBC audition. After a solo appearance by Gracie on Eddie Cantor's radio show, they were heard together on Rudy Vallee's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour and on February 15, 1932, they became regulars on The Guy Lombardo Show on CBS. When Lombardo switched to NBC, Burns and Allen took over his CBS spot with The Adventures of Gracie beginning September 19, 1934.

Along the way, the duo launched the temporary running gag that made them near-irrevocable radio stars: the famous hunt for Gracie's "lost brother," which began on January 4, 1933 and eventually became a cross-network phenomenon. Gracie was also liable to turn up on other shows (especially those produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, which produced the Burns & Allen series) looking for her brother. Bad publicity after a bid by NBC to squelch the stunt—and an accidental mention by Rudy Vallee on his Fleischmann's Hour—helped the stunt continue, according to radio historian John Dunning's On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, which also mentioned that Gracie's real brother, a "publicity-shy accountant" living in San Francisco, went into hiding until the gag ran its course.

Burns and Allen followed this with another stunt: "Gracie Allen for President." During the election year of 1940, Gracie represented the fictitious Surprise Party and advocated nonsense as part of her platform. The "campaign" was successful enough for Gracie to actually receive write-in votes on election day.

The title of their top-rated show changed to The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on September 26, 1936. One successful episode, "Grandpa's 92nd Birthday," aired July 8, 1940. In 1941 they moved from comedy patter into a successful sitcom format, continuing with shows on NBC and CBS until May 17, 1950. As in the early days of radio, the sponsor's name became the show title, such as Maxwell House Coffee Time (1945–49).

The show featured several regulars on radio, including Toby Reed, Gale Gordon, Bea Benaderet, Mel Blanc, Gracie's real-life friend Mary "Bubbles" Kelly, Ray Noble, singers Jimmy Cash and Tony Martin and actor/writer/director Elliott Lewis. The Sportsmen Quartet (appearing as "The Swantet" during the years the show was sponsored by Swan Soap) supplied songs and occasionally backed up Cash. Meredith Willson, Artie Shaw and announcers Bill Goodwin and Harry Von Zell were usually made a part of the evening's doings, often as additional comic foils for the duo.

For a long time they continued their "flirtation act" with Burns as Allen's most persistent suitor. Their real-life marriage was not written into the show until 1941, when Burns noticed that their ratings were slowly but steadily slipping. He realized that he and Gracie "were too old for our jokes," and revised the format to include husband-and-wife characters in a situation-comedy setting. Burns' assessment was correct, and the Burns and Allen program went on to achieve new heights.

Recordings of 176 episodes of the radio shows circulate on the web, CDs and DVDs—including all installments of the "Gracie for President" routine and some of the "lost brother" episodes.

Accolades
The Burns and Allen Show was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.

Television
In 1950, Burns and Allen transitioned to television with The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. An immediate success, the half-hour situation comedy was broadcast October 12, 1950 – September 22, 1958, on CBS. The show was initially staged live in New York and presented every other week. In the fall of 1952 it became a weekly series filmed on the West Coast. With 291 episodes, the show had a long network run through 1958 and continued in syndicated reruns for years.

The sets were designed to look like the couple's real-life residence. An establishing shot of the actual house on Maple Drive in Beverly Hills, California, was often used. Although extensively remodeled, that house still exists today—including the study over the garage where George would "escape" from Gracie's illogical logic. Burns lived in the house until his death in 1996, at the age of 100.

The format had George watching all the action (standing outside the proscenium arch in early live episodes; watching the show on TV in his study towards the end of the series) and breaking the fourth wall by commenting upon it to the viewers.

During the course of the eight-year run, the TV show had remarkable consistency in its cast and crew. The episodes were produced and directed by Ralph Levy (1950–53); Frederick de Cordova, later director of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1953–56); and Rod Amateau (1956–58). The original writing staff consisted of Sid Dorfman, Harvey Helm, Paul Henning and William Burns (George's brother). The TV show was produced under the banner of McCadden Productions, a company run by George Burns which he named after the street on which his brother, William, lived. The McCadden catalog is owned by Sony Pictures Television.

Bea Benaderet carried over from the radio show, portraying neighbor Blanche Morton. Her husband Harry Morton was first portrayed by Hal March (October–December 1950), and then by John Brown (January–June 1951), and after that, Fred Clark, until 1953 when the role was assumed by Larry Keating.

Also appearing in the TV series were Burns and Allen's two adopted children, Ronnie and Sandra. Ronnie became a near-regular on the show, playing himself but cast as a young drama student who tended to look askance at his parents' comedy style. Sandra declined becoming a regular member of the cast, although she appeared in a few episodes, usually as a secretary or the voice of a telephone operator.

In March 1953, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show joined I Love Lucy as part of the CBS Monday night prime-time lineup. As a result, the show entered the top 30 television programs in the Nielsen ratings ranking at No. 20. For the 1954–1955 season, it ranked No. 26, and for both the 1955–56 and 1956–57 seasons it was No. 28. With I Love Lucy ending its six-year run on CBS in the spring of 1957, the television network wanted to renew the Burns and Allen series, but by this time Allen had grown tired of the grind. Nevertheless, Burns committed both of them for another year, which would be their eighth—and last—on television.

Allen announced her retirement on February 17, 1958, effective at the end of the current season.

Burns and Allen filmed their last show June 4, 1958. The filming was an emotional experience, although nothing was said about it being Allen's last performance. At the wrap party, Allen took a token sip of champagne from a paper cup, hugged her friend and co-star Bea Benaderet, and said "Okay, that's it." After one last look around the set, she said, "And thank you very much, everyone."

"She deserved a rest," Burns said when Allen devoted herself to gardening and being a housewife:

"She had been working all her life, and her lines were the toughest in the world to do. They didn't make sense, so she had to memorize every word. It took a real actress. Every spare moment—in bed, under the hair dryer—had to be spent in learning lines. Do you wonder that she's happy to be rid of it?"

Burns attempted to continue the show with the same supporting cast but without Allen. The George Burns Show lasted one season (October 21, 1958 – April 14, 1959) on NBC.

Following a mild heart attack in the 1950s, Gracie Allen suffered a series of angina episodes over a number of years. She had a major heart attack in 1961. She lived a slower but comfortable retirement for another three years, often appearing in public with her husband but never performing. Gracie Allen died August 27, 1964.

Accolades
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show received a total of 11 Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

In 1997, the 1954 episode, "Columbia Pictures Doing Burns and Allen Story", was ranked No. 56 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.

McCadden Productions
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show was produced under the banner of McCadden Productions, a company run by George Burns which he named after the street on which his brother William lived. While the series was in production Burns began producing other television shows and commercials. McCadden Productions employed more than 300 people and produced series including Mister Ed, The Bob Cummings Show, The People's Choice, The Marie Wilson Show and Panic!.

"Television was still so new that nobody really knew what kinds of shows the audience would watch," Burns wrote, "but I figured that people would like the same things on television that they liked in vaudeville, so we did shows with pretty girls and animals."

Legacy
Known for his philanthropy, George Burns made numerous contributions to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The hospital is located at the intersection of George Burns Road, dedicated in 1986, and Gracie Allen Drive, dedicated in 1995. The George Burns–Gracie Allen Chair in Cardiology was established in 1989. The Burns and Allen Research Institute was dedicated in 1996, on Burns' 100th birthday.

title: Burns and Allen