Forty years ago, Stern’s every move was the pulse of terrestrial radio’s future. In the early 1980s, New York’s FM stations like Z-100 (WHTZ/100.3), launched in 1983 with Scott Shannon’s “Morning Zoo,” and LITE-FM (WLTW/106.7) in 1984, were crushing the competition.
Long Island's Newsday reports AM radio was fading fast, and WNBC, a 1922 relic, was struggling. Former GM Randy Bongarten, later president of NBC’s radio stations, recalled in a recent interview that Stern was hired in 1983 as a safeguard against morning host Don Imus’s substance abuse issues.
This sparked instant tension between WNBC’s two biggest stars.
Stern, defying AM’s decline, propelled WNBC to No. 1 in New York. In his 1993 memoir Private Parts, he credited Bongarten for “getting” his provocative style, unlike the “morons” who tried to rein him in from day one. Management issued rules banning sketches about personal tragedies, slander, sexual content, or religious mockery.
Stern ignored them. Program director Kevin Metheny, nicknamed “Pig Virus” by Stern, enforced these rules but couldn’t tame him. (Metheny died in 2014.)
Stern described their restrictions as “water torture” but believed he’d outlast them, like he did his parents.
He didn’t. Suspensions piled up—first for a Virgin Mary skit, then for “Das Love Boot,” a parody featuring Dr. Josef Mengele on The Love Boat. The breaking point came in 1985 with “Bestiality Dial-a-Date” and a scatological riff on a Statue of Liberty fundraiser.
Who pulled the trigger? Stern’s unsure, but Bongarten points to NBC chairman Grant Tinker, who died in 2016. “Grant and the PR people weren’t comfortable with Howard,” Bongarten said, citing concerns about NBC’s image and its news division. (RCA sold NBC to GE for $6.4 billion in 1986, a year after Stern’s exit.)
Bongarten noted radio was an “afterthought” for NBC, a TV giant clinging to its legacy stations.
Stern rebounded on November 18, 1985, joining WXRK/92.3 (K-ROCK), where he became a radio legend. In 1987, GE sold NBC’s radio network, and by 1988, WNBC morphed into WFAN, now a sports radio powerhouse. Bongarten revealed Tinker never listened to Stern’s show before the firing.
After Stern joined K-ROCK, Tinker requested a tape, later writing to Bongarten, “Who would ever listen to this!”