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Howard Stern and his joke writers

Doubt it seriously.
 
Dick Orkin [of Chickenman fame] put out joke sheets for DJs. The Electric Weenie was used by a lot of DJs. I wrote jokes for a couple of morning DJs late 70s/early 80s [but I never got famous, it was just something to do and they thought they were funny enough to use them]. I'm sure there are more.
 
Howard's first "writer" was actually Fred Norris, who he'd met and worked with earlier in his career. Norris began writing for him in 1981 at WWDC - which is also where Stern first began working with Robin Quivers. Though Stern was one of the first "shock jocks" to get wide exposure, when you think about it, 1981 is quite late to believe he was the first radio host ever to have joke writer(s) by that point.
 
I'm not counting the old time radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s. I was thinking of radio hosts before Howard, but the person said some djs used them.
 
Imus also worked with a team of people. The voices, the sound effects, the songs. Not necessarily writers.

Quite a few DJs were creative in terms of writing, but not always in terms of execution in the studio. I know some DJs who were so creative that they were called upon to join writing teams of TV shows. So that's the opposite of what you're asking.

It's not unusual for morning shows to have producers who also get involved in fleshing out the topics and segments, and some might also do some of the writing.
 
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On thing I should add is that once Howard became syndicated in the early 90s, it became a bigger show. Just about every syndicated show you hear has writers. Casey Kasem, Dick Clark, Bob Kingsley, Wolfman Jack, and Rick Dees had writers, and they were before Howard.

I wonder about Soupy Sales at WNBC. He wasn't a traditional DJ, so I imagine he had some help in what he did. But it could have been a producer.
 
TheBigA said:
On thing I should add is that once Howard became syndicated in the early 90s, it became a bigger show. Just about every syndicated show you hear has writers. Casey Kasem, Dick Clark, Bob Kingsley, Wolfman Jack, and Rick Dees had writers, and they were before Howard.

I wonder about Soupy Sales at WNBC. He wasn't a traditional DJ, so I imagine he had some help in what he did. But it could have been a producer.
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Did he write his own stuff for his long-running New York TV show?
 
CTListener said:
Did he write his own stuff for his long-running New York TV show?
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That was a daily one-hour show with characters and puppets. I doubt he was doing it alone.

The NYC TV show was only for two years. Not really long running. Apparently it was syndicated to other cities.

I see where his 1965 song The Mouse was written by Kenny Laguna.
 
The first time Stern had a proper comedy writer acting in the true capacity was around 1986 when he hired Jackie Martling full-time. Martling started out a few years earlier, as early as 1983 making occasional in-studio appearances and then working just a few days per week. 1986 is when he got a full-time gig with Stern - appearing on-air in the studio and adding banter and comedy to the show, while also writing bits and funny segments for the show, but also passing notes to Stern during the in-studio banter with jokes and funny lines for Stern to deliver as his own.
 
TheBigA said:
That was a daily one-hour show with characters and puppets. I doubt he was doing it alone.

The NYC TV show was only for two years. Not really long running. Apparently it was syndicated to other cities.
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It was. I watched it on Boston TV (or maybe Providence, we could get both cities' stations OTA) as a kid, always thought it was a New York TV institution.
 
Mikey Radio said:
The first time Stern had a proper comedy writer acting in the true capacity was around 1986
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By that time he was with Infinity. That same year he started doing TV pilots. Likely he discovered the value of having a real writer around at that point, as he was playing less music and doing more original material. It's really hard filling a four hour show with original talk every day without some help from someone.
 
Besides the top 40 syndicated dj shows with hosts introducing songs after reading a letter, I think Howard was the first regular radio host to use joke writers.
 
In the mid 1970's Gary McKee at Atlanta's WQXI had a "team" that did lots of original bits with him each show. The show had some music and was not a 4 hour "talk-a-thon" like current shows are. They did many hours of show prep daily and the shows were pretty much scripted but sounded "off the cuff". I am not sure anyone could have been called a "writer" because everybody on the team was on air some.

IMHO: If done properly, you would never there was a writer. I would be surprised if there were not writers or at least off air producers who originated a lot of content in LA, Chicago, or New York radio in the 1970's based on the money at stake.
 
Would Howard be considered the grandfather of the "morning zoo" radio show? His show was not really the zoo but did he give others the platform to be outrageous.
 
Don CT said:
Would Howard be considered the grandfather of the "morning zoo" radio show? His show was not really the zoo but did he give others the platform to be outrageous.
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Usually Scott Shannon gets the credit for that. At least as far as NYC is concerned.

But once again, Imus had a cast of regulars too.
 
If Gene Klavan of WNEW had writers (aside from himself) back around 1977, it was news to me. He okayed a visit from me (also a jock) and I must've been there an hour in the studio. I may as well have been part of his sound effects vehicles ; he hardly noticed my presence.
No script, no one around. All off the top of his head. He never got blue, or overtly ethnic, or insulting. I suppose few of his characters (all his alter egos) wouldn't fly too well todAY .... Spanish singers .... Jewish station personnel .... a gay program director .... a stormtrooper chief engineer : complete silliness, though. I believe I also heard him repeat one gag over years of listening.
A genius.
 
Thanks a lot, TTalk !

I still have problems with which commute road that was. Sunrise Highway going west? The L.I.E. going west? There were green signs for Wading River, Patchogue, Syosset, Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, and so forth. In 2021 it could be either road -- but either one is pretty far east of it all. The road looks like our local I-81 here in NE PA, but now they all look like that.
The pavement patches suggest 'Long Island', definitely, :)

Thanks for the download!
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Thanks a lot, TTalk !

I still have problems with which commute road that was. Sunrise Highway going west? The L.I.E. going west? There were green signs for Wading River, Patchogue, Syosset, Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, and so forth. In 2021 it could be either road -- but either one is pretty far east of it all. The road looks like our local I-81 here in NE PA, but now they all look like that.
The pavement patches suggest 'Long Island', definitely, :)

Thanks for the download!
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It is the LIE, starting at the end at exit 73 in Riverhead, and getting off at exit 60 in Ronkonkoma, then winding up local roads to the Kings Park area.
 
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